They're back. You probably saw some forest tent caterpillars throughout Portage la Prairie, and City Parks Manager Dave Green says we just have to bide our time with them.

"Sadly, we don't have the proper equipment to spray for them. In order to get proper control you need a sprayer that has high velocity and can blow the spray high up into the trees to get coverage. With the ultra low volume fogger that we have for mosquitoes you don't have the manoeuvrability or the coverage to reach the trees. So, we can't do anything about them."

Green notes nature's about to step up and change the situation.

Dave Green"They should be getting near the end of their cycle now. We've done some small control areas on some of the smaller ornamental trees just using a hand spray. But past that we haven't been able to do too much . And the other factor is the weather we're having today and what is in the forecast, that should bring them down to the ground. Even if we could spray we wouldn't be able to with the weather conditions."

He explains there's not much you should be concerned about in regard to damage of trees.

"They can defoliate the trees, but they will not harm the trees. The leaves will come back. It would take several years of this process to do actual harm to the trees. It looks bad for a little while but the leaves will come back."

Green notes people have been asking them a lot of questions.

"We've been getting a few inquiries every day, and we've been trying to help people out. There are some things you can do. You can use a bit of aerosol spray yourself, or even a high pressure water hose and knocking them down, this will discourage them from the trees. That helps a little bit."

Many people often try soap and water, and Green outlines how effective that is.

"It is effective. What it does is it discourages them from being in the trees. Actually what you can use is an insecticide soap which is basically very safe to the public. You can use that or even just some dish soap mixed with water. But even just the force of the water will help knock them down. And once you get them on the ground you can do something about them."

He describes the equipment needed for staving off the insects.

"The City of Winnipeg has specialized machines for spraying trees. It's just like a miniature cement mixer that's on the back of a trailer. And it rotates 360 degrees. And the nozzle goes 180 degrees with it. It's like a high pressure fan that blows the chemical up into the trees. And they're actually using a product called BTK which is related to the chemical we use for larviciding, which is a bacteria. But even that takes three for four days for it to work."

With days like today and the cooler weather, Green adds the bugs aren't not going to be moving around. He says they've been dealing with it for close to two weeks now.