EDMONTON - Forest tent caterpillars are not entomologist Ken Fry’s favourite insect but the black-coloured critters with vibrant blue-and-yellow marks do have a soft spot in his heart.

They’re why his dad once let him break the house rule of not climbing the two poplar trees in their backyard, so Fry could clamber to the top of one and grab hundreds of caterpillar eggs before they hatched and destroyed leaves.