Bagworms

I know, I've been talking about insects a lot recently, but they've just seemed noteworthy! I spotted the first bagworms of the season the other day, on the blue spruce in the walkway between the Bayard Taylor Library and the Kennett post office.
Bagworms represent "the larval stage of a moth native to Pennsylvania that is reported to feed on over 100 different plants. It is most common in the southern part of the state, where populations can build up rapidly and become serious pests. On pine trees, its cone-shaped bags are often mistaken for cones, which go unnoticed until the infestation is severe," according to an excellent online fact sheet put out by Penn State's Cooperative Extension/College of Agricultural Sciences. Control measures are listed, but whenever I've had to deal with them I just go out with a big garbage bag and a little ladder and pluck them off, one by one. Low-tech and mindless, but it works.