Caterpillars unfairly blamed in tree death!

Just LOOK at this thing, the most prolific unwanted garden feature of the year in my area.  Yes, tent caterpillars covered the crotches of every single plant in the Prunus genus, AND some.  And when they finally emerged they rained down on the world, sparing not a single head of hair.  Total yuk!  But at least they don’t actually kill the trees, right?  Coz that’s what all the email groups were saying. So when one of the three ‘Yoshino’ flowering cherries in my curbside garden failed to leaf out after it bloomed, I wasn’t too worried.  Everyone said it still would, eventually. 

So when it DIDN’T leaf out I thought "Ah-ha!  What do THEY know about tent caterpillars never killing trees?"  I pointed this one out to everyone who’d  listen as proof of the lethality of those disgusting insects. 

But then came the annual Labor Day Block Party, centrally located immediately in front of my very own home and the set of three Yoshinos, two looking normal and one looking dead.  I took advantage of the neighborhood naturalist/botanist (not sure of his multiple degrees but am sure that he knows a helluva lot about plants), asking him to confirm the tree’s total demise.  He took one look at the bark and declared the cause of death to be not tent caterpillars but BEETLE INFESTATION, showing me the beetle entry holes.  He said sure, the tent caterpillars contributed some stress to the situation but they didn’t deliver the killing blow.

Instructive, what these actual experts can tell us, and a little humbling. 

Now what do you do when the Three Stooges suddenly become Two?