Lately I\u2019ve noticed, as I\u2019m sure many of you have, that the children are very interested in caterpillars. I\u2019ve also been told we had a few tents in Arbutus that needed to be dealt with. Or did they? I didn\u2019t know much about tent caterpillars, so I decided to do a little research. I was curious to see how much damage they could do, and what their tents look like. I learned that they can either do a lot of damage, or no damage, and that they are an important part of our ecosystem.<\/p>\n
There is currently a tent caterpillar \u201coutbreak\u201d on the island, so I wanted to find out what that means, and what we can do about it. According to zoologist Judy Myers we usually don\u2019t have to do anything (Dickson, 2023). Fruit trees might not grow much fruit after tent caterpillar activity, so if you\u2019re on a fruit farm you probably want to remove them, but otherwise, they typically don\u2019t do much long-term damage at all (Dickson, 2023). Although in large enough groups they can take the leaves off an entire tree, healthy trees that lose half their leaves will typically survive and grow new leaves by the end of the summer (Sadof, 2018). Tent caterpillars only have one generation per year, so a few weeks after making themselves known, they go into their cocoons, and the tents fall off the trees (Lofgren, 2021).<\/p>\n
When we find a tent, we should assess the health of the tree and the developmental stages of the nearby children before we decide if we need to remove the tent. We need to be aware of the environment around us, and how everything is connected. Leaving the caterpillars where they are encourages greater biodiversity in our yard, as the caterpillars will attract small birds, lizards, and other small natural predators. Their excrement is also a good fertilizer for our plants, some of which grow food. That being said, if children eat the caterpillars the hairs could injure their intestinal tract (Lofgren, 2021).<\/p>\n
BC\u2019s Early Learning Framework (ELF) (2019) outlines nine principles of learning, one of which includes building a (re)connection to the land (p. 21). The First Peoples Principles of Learning outlined in the ELF also states that learning should support \u201cthe well-being of the self, the family, the community, the land, the spirits, and the ancestors\u201d (p. 14). We, as humans, are interdependent on our more-that-human relations with whom we share this land (Styres, 2011), so it is important to consider what will happen if we remove something unnecessarily.<\/p>\n
The ELF also discusses the early learning philosophy of the environment as the third teacher, referring to the classroom and yard (p. 22). In Indigenous philosophy, we often refer to land as the first teacher (Styres, 2011). Sandra Styres uses Bowlby\u2019s attachment theory as an analogy to explain how the land is thought of as the first teacher. The land can be thought of as the primary caregiver, which the learner enters \u201cto explore and gain knowledge and understanding of how to be in relation to land\u201d (p. 722). As the learner strengthens their connection to land through lived experiences, the land becomes the primary teacher\/relationship (Styres, 2011).<\/p>\n
While the tents made by tent caterpillars can become unsightly, and caterpillar activity can be concerning, they aren\u2019t as destructive as I though they would be. Next year, the tent caterpillar activity should be much lower, so perhaps if we find a tent in a healthy tree, we should consider leaving it up.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
References<\/strong><\/p>\n British Columbia Ministry of Education, Ministry of Children and Family Development, and Ministry of Health. (2019). British Columbia Early Learning Framework. <\/em>https:\/\/www2.gov.bc.ca\/assets\/gov\/education\/early-learning\/teach\/earlylearning\/early_learning_framework.pdf<\/a><\/p>\n Dickson, C, (2023, May 24). There\u2019s a tent caterpillar outbreak on Vancouver Island \u2013 but no need to panic, zoologist says. <\/em>CBC news. https:\/\/www.cbc.ca\/news\/canada\/british-columbia\/tent-caterpillar-outbreak-vancouver-island-1.6852018<\/a><\/p>\n Lofgren, K. (2021, June 30). How to eradicate tent caterpillars (and whether you should). <\/em>Garderner\u2019s path. https:\/\/gardenerspath.com\/how-to\/disease-and-pests\/tent-caterpillars\/<\/a><\/p>\n Sadof, C. (2018, July 17). Will my trees recover after losing their leaves? <\/em>Purdue University landscape report. https:\/\/www.purduelandscapereport.org\/article\/will-my-trees-recover-after-losing-their-leaves\/<\/a><\/p>\n Styres, S. D. (2011). Land as first teacher: A philosophical journeying. Reflective Practice, 12<\/em>(6), 717-731. https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1080\/14623943.2011.601083<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Lately I\u2019ve noticed, as I\u2019m sure many of you have, that the children are very interested in caterpillars. I\u2019ve also been told we had a few tents in Arbutus that needed to be dealt with. Or did they? I didn\u2019t know much about tent caterpillars, so I decided to do a little research. I was … Continue reading “Caterpillars and land-based learning – Hannah Wilkinson”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14822,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1757","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/onlineacademiccommunity.uvic.ca\/pedagogicalexplorations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1757","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/onlineacademiccommunity.uvic.ca\/pedagogicalexplorations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/onlineacademiccommunity.uvic.ca\/pedagogicalexplorations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/onlineacademiccommunity.uvic.ca\/pedagogicalexplorations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/14822"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/onlineacademiccommunity.uvic.ca\/pedagogicalexplorations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1757"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/onlineacademiccommunity.uvic.ca\/pedagogicalexplorations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1757\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1758,"href":"https:\/\/onlineacademiccommunity.uvic.ca\/pedagogicalexplorations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1757\/revisions\/1758"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/onlineacademiccommunity.uvic.ca\/pedagogicalexplorations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1757"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/onlineacademiccommunity.uvic.ca\/pedagogicalexplorations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1757"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/onlineacademiccommunity.uvic.ca\/pedagogicalexplorations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1757"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}