Barklice are GOOD for your garden. Adults vary from smaller than 1/8 inch to about 1/4 inch long. They are soft-bodied and look like aphids.
Adult barklice have shiny black wings, which they keep tent-like over their abdomens. Barklice look like brown lacewings. Nymph barklice are dark gray with light yellow banding between abdomen segments. Adults and nymphs have round heads and very noticeable antennae.
Most barklice live in colonies, as they spin communal webs. If they’re disturbed, barklice move en masse around the tree trunk and then return. Barklice form a silvery web on tree trunks, usually in the summer or fall after a long period of rain or moisture. The web appears seemingly overnight then disappears a few days later. The web protects the barklice while they feed on fungi, lichens, scale, aphids and other dead insects on the hardwood bark of oaks, pecans and other shade trees. Barklice are not harmful to humans or animals, so you might as well leave them be.
Photos courtesy of Galveston County Master Gardeners
