I've cut all of the infected branches down and bagged for garbage pickup today. I see what they are. They're no spiders. I need to find an effective insect spray to get rid of any remaining webs.

 

Web worms. Soapy water in hand sprayer cover whole canapy. Couple tablespoons / gallon

 

I believe those are web worms. You can see them on the leaves in the picture above. They love our pecan trees and we have them almost every year. My father in law uses a pest company to treat them every few years and you'll have worms falling out of the trees everywhere for a while. If you cant trim everywhere, just open up the nest and birds will get at them. I'm not sure what the pest company uses.

 

Malathion or Sevin will kill them.

 

I grew up near a ton of pecan trees and they would get infestations of web worms every few years. they aren't all that harmful, other than eating some leaves.

Many ways to get rid of them without using pesticides or chemicals and they are just as, if not more effective. You did one of those methods - removing and discarding. Others include soap and water like described above. Another soap method for shorter plants is to take a bucket of soapy water and dip the webs in the soapy water. Drowns the worms.

The most fun is to tear the webs open with a stick and let the birds at them. Once a few birds know about it, others will arrive.

 

BT Thuracide, doesn't kill good bugs and safe to use on Vegatable. A pump up,sprayer works ok for as far as you can reach. On my oak trees I use a hose end sprayer. Just saying.....cC

 

NEEM oil spray.