Has anyone had any experience of dealing with these? As we were driving back from Gerona on Saturday, we saw loads (hundreds of thousands) of what looked like cotton-candy spider webs in the pine trees. I did some research and it turns out they are the nests of the pine processionary caterpillar. Those things look nasty!! Getting the hairs on you (which can be from walking through an area where the caterpillars are, because the hairs can be airborn and are so small they work their way through clothing) will likely give you a rash that will last up to three weeks, or, if you're really unfortunate, anaphylactic shock. Dogs can obviously be affected a lot more easily. We're currently trying to buy a property in Spain, which has pine forest on the land, and I'm now concerned it may be infested with these nasty creatures. On the plus side, it appears their migration is when we'll generally be in Andorra for the ski season, but it's still a worry. They're horrid creatures - don't Google them if you're squeamish about bugs!
We had a small infestation (a couple of trees) of something similar last year - oak processionary caterpillars. The section of the woods they were found in was cordoned off. It seems that avoidance is the best treatment - apart from getting men in hazard suits to come with huge industrial vacuum cleaners to suck the pests and their nests up. Seriously. A couple of dogs near us were affected, one had asthma-like attacks and awful bulgy weeping eyes for weeks. I got a nasty rash on my arm, with blisters. No proof that this came from the caterpillars, but it seems likely.
And people think the animals in Australia are scary..... I hope they don't cause you any troubles. It sounds like their 'active period' might not be that long....?
Apparently, there are oak processionary caterpillars in London and Surrey, but they're trying to eradicate them and are doing pretty well so far, although they've said they don't think it's possible to eradicate the largest outbreak, which touches on your area, JulieT : http://www.forestry.gov.uk/pdf/OPM-Nest-Survey-Status-map.pdf/$FILE/OPM-Nest-Survey-Status-map.pdf http://www.forestry.gov.uk/oakprocessionarymoth The pine processionary caterpillar is active between February and April, which is good for us, because our ski season ends in mid April, so we wouldn't be in Spain until then, anyway. The oak processionary is later in the year. Be careful out there!
Apart from the obvious problems of coming into physical contact with them or the hairs, I think they are fascinating and rather pretty
Knew I shouldn't google it! Both Pine and Oak processionary caterpillars are found in France . Phew, glad we're moving to Lincolnshire
I know they can cause problems (now that I too have googled!) but eradicating them seems a bit unfair and outdated. After all they're just an animal trying to get along in their natural environment....aren't they? Can they not just be avoided?
I'm not so sure I think fairness very important when it comes to large numbers of very unpleasant caterpillars. According to Wikipedia, these caterpillars are from Southern Europe where natural predators keep the numbers down, and they appeared in Richmond (London) in 2006 - and now all imports of Oak tress into the UK require passports. As the caterpillars spread into Northern Europe, they become problematic (I don't know what predators are present in Southern European but not Northern - loads, I imagine).
Ok - I definitely don't think catepillars have a sense of fairness But what I meant was - is it fair that humans seem to want to occupy and modify every square inch of dry land and everything on it to suit us? That's what I meant. But if they are not native to the British Isles and are in fact a feral import then that is different and they should be removed. Sounds like their presence in UK was a human-mediated problem in the first place.
No, that's definitely not fair. These Oak caterpillars seem to have come in on imported oak trees. And from what I read, are starting to be a real problem, I've never seen them though, and live in the middle of the control zone, apparently. We just have loads and loads of imported problems like this, it seems. Every week (it seems) there is a new killer slug/snail/ladybird etc that is going to wipe out all of our own slugs/snails/ladybirds....and don't get me started on Japanese Knot Weed. The Dutch actually sold us that as a garden plant.....
