Toxic caterpillar outbreak risks fatal asthma attacks, officials warn

A plague of toxic caterpillars which could trigger fatal asthma attacks as well as vomiting and skin rashes has broken out, the Forestry Commission has warned.

Officials have told gardeners and people enjoying parks and the countryside to stay away from the furry-looking Oak processionary moth (OPM) caterpillars and their nests after the insects were spotted in London and the South East.

Serious allergic reactions can be caused by protein in the creatures’ hair follicles, which remain active on the ground for up to five years after being shed.

An operation to eradicate the larvae, which were discovered in mid April, is now under way, however authorities are locked in a race to treat the infected trees before the insects grow too big to be killed.

Infestations have been recorded in parts of Greater London, from Brent to Kingston upon Thames, as well as in outlying areas such as Guildford, Slough and Bracknell Forest.

The species is believed to have to have arrived in Britain accidentally in 2005 via Dutch trees imported for a landscaping project at a housing development in Kew, South West London.


https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2018/04/29/toxic-caterpillar-outbreak-risks-fatal-asthma-attacks-officials/

      Over here, we have similar varieties of hairy caterpillars, around NSW it is a species that feeds on certain native trees :

http://lepidoptera.butterflyhouse.com.au/noto/lunifer.html

In common with its distant Dutch cousin, they can cause skin itchiness from the hairs, including off dead grubs and adult moths..     (These allergic reactions have been recognised for decades --  when I was growing up, common local names for these caterpillars were "hairy jimmys" and "itchy grubs"..).

Up in Qld. what looks like another variety (different (ligher brown) colour..) of this species, feeding on different trees again, have caused problems in the past :

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-05-04/itchy-caterpillar-outbreak-leaves-locals-scratching-heads/8496344

http://lepidoptera.butterflyhouse.com.au/faqs/ident.html

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What I do find a bit of a worry with that British outbreak of Dutchy caterpillars is that your 'authorities' are getting ready to spray every tree in the vacinity with some potent insecticide --  effectively using a nuclear bomb to crack a walnut  !

Then again, those British authorities would probably be the same ones that created "Mad Cow Disease", by allowing feedlot farmers to feed dead cows back to the beef cattle they were raising..

AS IF pesticide poisoning of essential insect pollinators such as bees, butterflies and wasps wasn't bad enough already...     Haven't those dumbfucks over there heard of biological controls ?