forest tent caterpillars<\/a> have invaded the campground, munching on leaves as they go.<\/p>\nThe furry visitors are everywhere \u2014 on picnic tables, in fire pits and on the trees, stripping some branches bare.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019re not bad if there\u2019s a few of them but anything in large amount of numbers is a little eerie,\u201d said camper Meghan Bodker.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve been doing our eating inside the trailer,\u201d added camper Robin King.<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\tAlberta Parks says, while they may be unpleasant to some people, they\u2019re mainly just a nuisance.\t\t\t\t <\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\tGlobal News\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
Alberta Parks told Global News that it\u2019s not an infestation, it\u2019s a seasonal guest experiencing a cyclical boom that happens every 10-12 years.<\/p>\n
Story continues below advertisement<\/p>\n
They have a life cycle of four to six weeks before they build cocoons, or tents, and eventually become moths.<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\tAlberta Parks says the caterpillars are in the midst of a population boom that occurs every 10 to 12 years.\t\t\t\t <\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\tGlobal News\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
The \u201cvery hungry caterpillars\u201d are native to Alberta and provide an abundant food source for birds and other wildlife.<\/p>\n
The campground host at Pigeon Lake said he\u2019s getting complaints about them, but they\u2019re mainly just a nuisance.<\/p>\n
\n\t\t© 2026 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Descrease article font size Increase article font size Campers at Pigeon Lake Provincial Park, located about an hour…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":733303,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194294],"tags":[49,48,23752,295,259991,263798,66],"class_list":["post-733302","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-edmonton","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-edmonton","tag-environment","tag-forest-tent-caterpillars","tag-pigeon-lake-provincial-park","tag-science"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/733302","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=733302"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/733302\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/733303"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=733302"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=733302"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=733302"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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