It's that time of the season when the dreaded Tent Caterpillar shows up on your favourite trees.

Although many horror story videos have been seen on social media showing large quantities of the creatures, you won't really see that here.

"Compared to other cities in Canada," says Crystal Bazar with Airdrie Urban Forestry, "Cities that are situated inside of forests, they tend to see a lot more than we do. The prairies around us sort of protect us from these forest insects."

If you find that the pesky critters have shown up on your property, as some already have in Airdrie, Bazar says there are a few things you can do.

"I guess the easiest one is if you can physically remove them, which sounds kind of gross. If you just take a hose and blast them off your tree, that can work if it's a smaller tree and essentially squishing them on the ground."

Bazar also recommends an insecticide known as BTK which can help remove the caterpillars without you touching them.

Of course, Bazar says one of the best ways to stop the spread of the caterpillars is trying to prevent it..

"It is important to control them, just sort of keep populations in check so that maybe next year there are fewer of them. That's definitely what we're trying to do...you can't eliminate them but definitely trying to reduce the populations."

The City of Airdrie does have more information and tips for the caterpillar season which you can find on their website.

Questions, comments or story ideas? Email us at news@discoverairdrie.com