What is Lurking Inside These Creepy, Sci-Fi-Looking Cocoon Webs Around New England?

Talk about getting totally creeped out.

I was detoured off a highway in Connecticut due to a major accident. Of course it happened during the morning commute, as myself and everyone else venturing in the same direction inched along on a side road in that annoying stop-and-go fashion until we could get back onto the highway.

While I was stopped, I was startled when my gaze took me to these sci-fi-looking webs attached to various branches on several bushes.

I was thinking, "What could possibly be lurking inside these things?" I was waiting for claws to start poking out like some creature was hatching. Maybe a huge spider or bat. My imagination ran wild. Or maybe thousands of baby spiders or creepy crawlers were going to start pouring out at any minute, like a horror movie.

I've discovered these webbed cocoons are all over New England (and the country for that matter).

According to the BioKIDS website, these silk cocoon structures are how various insects spin webs to shelter themselves. In this case, these belong to caterpillars. They protect the caterpillar larvae that's developing before eventually emerging out of the cocoon home and probably turning into the eastern tent caterpillar and then a moth.

They don't do any damage, according to the This is My Garden website. These webworms, as they're called, may strip some leaves a bit, but it's just nature doing its thing. They appear in the fall and spring.

Of course, a huge infestation could be damaging to your garden or bushes, and in that case, there are various ways to control or kill these larvae, which your horticulturist or Google can help you with.