Strike up the bands: City of Regina asks people to protect trees

The City of Regina is encouraging people to resume the battle against cankerworms.

Banding trees such as elms, Manitoba maples and fruit trees in the fall can help reduce the number of cankerworms seen in the trees the following spring.

“By banding trees, you help keep our community green and attractive, and reduce the need to spray for pests,” the city said in a media release Monday. “Left uncontrolled, cankerworms can rapidly harm our urban forest.”

The release noted that banding keeps cankerworms from laying their eggs in a tree’s crown. Each adult cankerworm can lay up to 400 eggs.

So far in 2022, city crews have sprayed about 11,000 trees for cankerworms in Regina. That number has been as high as 30,000 in past years.

More information and instructions on how to band trees are available here.