Gypsy Moth/Tent & Oakworm/Sponge Caterpillar Tree Band Barrier Tape Protection

This tape really does work! I've been using it the past 2 summers and just bought more to tape my Aspens again before this summer. 3 years ago my 15 ft Aspen had all it's leaves eaten by caterpillars (we call them tent caterpillars) so the next spring I bought some of this tape. Haven't had a problem since! But, there's a trick to using the tape since the adhesive leaves a lot to be desired. It barely stays put after you first put it on let alone after it rains, it gets cold, the winds blow, etc. I can't think of any smoother bark trees than Aspens so rough bark isn't the problem. But there's a solution. Just apply more than what they recommend (I apply about a 4 to 6 inch band) and then secure the top and bottom with duct tape. This will hold the caterpillar tape in place and give you a full year of caterpillar control. The duct tape will also stretch as the tree grows (especially important for saplings) so you're not hurting the tree. Even with this extra step I thought the tape was so effective I still gave it a 5 star rating!

Bought this product for the spongy moths wrapped them around every tree with insulation behind it so theres no room in the bark for them to crawl through. Waited and as the little wormy caterpillars came out and started climbing they went right over it with no problem like it wasn’t even there. Total waste of money total waste of time it’s supposed to be slippery. It’s not slippery in the least.

Sure enough, the tent caterpillars are avoiding the tape. We will see how it holds up in rain. I took away 1 star because the tape isn’t as sticky as I had hoped. Also, the sticky side is not completely sticky—just strip down the middle.

I put this tape up yesterday around some of the fruit trees in my young orchard, and here is what it looked like the next morning! Will this tape protect the hardwood forest behind our house? No. But will it help us protect the specimen trees in our front yard. Yes! Even if this doesn't hold up after some hard rain (and I don't know that it won't), its still worth it to keep these creepy caterpillars out of my apple trees! And very gratifying to see them fruitlessly trying to cross the tape. Tape sticks well to itself, but not to the tree. Update: Just added the second picture, which is of our mountain ash. The bark is very rough, so I took the manufacturer's tip and put a cloth strip around the bark under the tape. This gives me the 'uggies' just to look at it! Wish I'd put this tape up sooner, before they'd decimated the leaves. Next year... And by the way, the tape I put up a few days ago just went through a hard rain and still seems fine.

Great fir smooth bark trees. Not the best solution for trees with deep bark crevices.

The tape did not adhere to tree. Needed to secure with nails. Since oak has a very irregular bark the tape was not tight enough to prevent caterpillars from climbing under the tape and up the tree.

I installed the tape around the trunks of my oak trees. The adhesive does not stick well to the bark, and does not stick in the ridges in the bark, although I pressed it firmly into the valleys as instructed. I also observed some of the gypsy moth caterpillars crawling over and past the tape, so it wasn't stopping them.

Make sure you put fabric underneath it like a strip of an old comforter. Just the tape itself does not work. The caterpillars then get caught underneath and have no choice but to walk across the tape and we’re not seeing any caterpillars get above it. They are all below or fall off. It has stayed on using this method with the rain too.