Caterpillar catastrophe!

Hey all, In the span of 24 hours caterpillars came down from the trees in massive quantities here in our urban forest in the ATL. I'm wondering if anyone else is experiencing anything similar, I've truly never seen anything like it before. They stripped four foot canes off the berry bushes. They're literally raining down from the trees, it sounded like rain and then you would feel 'droplets' - and realized you were covered in the darn things. We're about to step up our game and bring out the BT, but this is like something out of a horror movie. Just wondering if it's a local anomaly. I saw daffodils with at least 10 of these things tearing up each bloom. A single one gallon pot with easily 100. We're used to caterpillars, but not on this scale.