I still canNOT believe a country girl like me had never heard of Catalpa worms --- until my dad clued me in on the phenomenon today.
He off-handedly mentioned that the Catalpa tree just behind the funeral home was stripped of all foliage and the worms were "coming down". He had already "harvested" enough Catalpa Worms for at least eight fishing trips. And Catalpa worms are the very best natural fishing bait, especially for catfish...and they're the most expensive bait if you have to go out and buy them.
Honestly, when Daddy started telling me all this I immediately thought he was pulling my leg. I thought he was taking me on the proverbial "snipe hunt".
But when we got back from our trip to Louisville, I wanted to know more about all this Catalpa stuff. So Daddy took me to the tree, and sure enough - he was telling me the truth.
As you can see, the usually heavily folliaged tree (that tree has large lavish green leaves and very long bean pods, normally) is barren, having been totally stripped - in almost no time at all...
Here, Daddy is pointing to one of the Catalpa worms, on his way down after a hearty feast.
And the picture above shows a number of the worms on their way down the tree. They were everywhere! There was nothing left to eat there, so they were moving on!
Daddy harvested his worms by simply picking them off the tree as they were on their way down. He preserves them for future fishing trips by putting them in a syrup solution and freezing them. Totally fascinated, I read more about Catalpa Worms this evening and think an even better way that is used by some is to put the worms in corn meal in an air-tight container and then freeze; amazingly, the worms come back to life when thawed when this method is used! I guess it puts them into some sort of temporary dormant state. Forget the Karo syrup, Daddy - corn meal's where it's at!!!
Now this is interesting...see the "eggs" on the back of that worm on the left? I assumed they were Catalpa worm eggs, but NOOOO! They are actually coccoons of a certain predator wasp that uses the special worms to further its own species. The wasp inserts into the Catalpa worm's skin and deposits larvae, which stay inside the worm and grow and take all the nutrition that should be going to the worm. Soon, the larvae seek light and burrow their way through the worm's skin (ouch!). They piggy-back on the unfortunate host as a little white coccoon. Catalpa worms infected with this interloper never live to adulthood. Mr. Worm, RIP.
I can't tell you how fascinating it was for me today to learn about the Catalpa Worm.
Mother Nature never dissapoints.