'They just keep coming': Tent caterpillar invasion coats Sask. home in insects and feces

Hordes of tent caterpillars have covered Tammi Hanowski's home south of Saskatoon and have crawled up the walls andmade their way into her pool.

"No matter what you do you'll sweep them, you'll vacuum them and in 10 secondsit's like they're just there again," Hanowski said.

"Every time I come home from work, there's just more piles of them everywhere."

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Hanowski first noticed the problem over the weekend. Though she had heard there was an abundance of caterpillars in Saskatoon, she didn't think much of it since the tree line seemed far enough from her house.

"We used up all of the spray we that had but it was just pointless because they just keep coming," she said."You're just going to spend all this money and all this time doing this."

TylerWist, field crop entomologist with Agriculture andAgri-FoodCanada, said the tent caterpillars plaguingHanowskiare likely looking for a new food source or are looking to pupate. If they pupate on her house, moths will emergein a couple of weeks.

"It's definitely the worst I've seen it," he said.

"We're in a boom period for the tent caterpillar," Wist said. They last about four to seven yearsand the area is probably in the middle of its boom.

Wist added in particularly large infestations, such as in northern Saskatchewan, people are able to hear the fecal matter of the insects raining down on homes.

Hanowski said fecal matter is visible on her home and cleaning efforts will be her biggest concern.

"At the moment, theway they're moving around and they're on her house, there's no way to chemically control them because they're not on their host trees anymore," Wist said.

Hanowski said she has contacted a company about using an industrial strength pesticide but she doesn't know if that will work.

"At this point, I don't mind waiting out the whole 'until they die thing,'but it's just the clean up after," Hanowski said.

"They're starting to smell."