Thanks Roger. The puppy is still poorly but is having an operation to remove part if it’s tounge today. We have 6 trees infected. We have also been here since May this year and the garden was neglected. We had a procession of caterpillars yesterday by the pool. Husband covered up, full face mask and burnt the buggers. It took several times to burn them. We are dealing with the trees this week.
Hi,
Hope the pup is OK.
We bought our house about an hour east of Bordeaux in May with 2500m & lots of trees. We found we had a Portugese Laurel with poisonous almost everything. The trees had been left for years & we used a tree surgeon to prune & fell them including a large pine. To our horror we discovered there were 6 caterpillar nests at the top. The surgeon felled the tree on a cold morning when he said the 'inmates' would be dormant & bagged & burnt the nests on his large bonfire in the garden.
He said he hated them & in getting rid of other nests despite wearing protective stuff had still had skin irritations. My advice to anyone is, if you can, get rid!
Thanks you for this. I will let my friend know. We are paring the puppy survives the night.
Mine survived, and she was nearly gone. Don’t give up hope! We had to pay loads of money for two operations and a week of intensive care, but she made it. Not without side effects, she cannot be sterilised, as all her organs have fused together due to the stomach acid entering her stomach cavity through a whole in her stomach…
Sad news. My friend collected a puppy two days ago which had been neglected. She took him to the vets yesterday to have all its injections. She is besotted with him. Sadly the puppy has been affected by procession caterpillars which have come down from the trees early. The puppy is at the vets, has black tounge, been treated with morphine and a drip but the vet does not hold out much hope. Please be aware. I have 2.5 acres of land and have 5 trees infected. I will be buying the collars to put on the trees. I don’t have any animals but don’t want any pet that may come into to my land to be affected. I will notify my Marie tomorrow.
We had a large pine tree in our garden when we came here 9 years ago...and as my beloved reacted so badly to the chenille that came down...we had it cut down. I don't like killing anything...but these caterpillars are extremely dangerous to animals and children.I think that they're emerging early this year due to the warm weather.
Two days ago I discovered a large chain... about 2 meters long of these chenille/caterpillars in my top paddock. Not only is my beloved highly allergic to them...but we also have cats and ponies. I quickly smothered them in fly and ant killer...my husband donned gloves and coveralls and carefully put them into a bucket...then he poured boiling water over them. In spite of these precautions...as he emptied them straight into our fosse septic...some of their hairs..(which do the damage)...must have got on his arms...and he spent a sleepless night due to the itching.
I did put a band of sticky tape around our only surviving pine tree last year...but I forgot to renew it this year.
Apparently, you should not burn them, as the hairs will be released into the air and can still cause havoc.
Also, do not step on them as you will carry the hair under your shoes everywhere. The safest bet is drowning them and then disposing in a sealed bag.
My dog nearly died, eating one. She swallowed the damn thing and the hairs caused a stomach ulcer close to immediately and a whole in the stomach wall. The rest you can probably imagine. And she loas part of her tongue too...:-(
Around here, Greolieres way - the trees lining the road are completely infested with notes everywhere to keep your dogs with you... no other effort to get rid of them, as it has spread too far and vast...
Update: Our dog will lose a little bit of its tongue. Not too bad, she can eat, drink, play... Tomorrow comes the guy with the solution, I hope. No support from the town on private property. See: http://c.ledauphine.com/isere-nord/2015/12/27/chenilles-processionnaires-la-guerre-est-declaree
Regards
Alas the last statement isn't quite true, "processions" have bén known to be a couple of hundred metres long.
Controlling them is a year long task. Pheromone traps in the Summer to capture the adults before they reproduce, autumn and early winter treating the coccoons and springtime for the eco pièges.
Treating the soil is not an option.
R
Use the content, put it together as you wish but do so without putting my name in it. I am too busy (as of tomorrow anyway) to get into any of the usual FB debates.
Brian,
may I publish this great contribution on FB?
Thanks
Bernie
Hi Brian,
thanks a lot for your contributions on this. Would you have some quotes of the respective legislation. I want to contact our mairie tomorrow. If I understood you right, they have an obligation to act?
Thanks a lot
Bernie
Hi, our Donna got in contact with one of them on Christmas Eve. She survived, thanks to the great reaction of our vet, but might lose parts of her tongue. The same here, our own tree. But they are everywhere. And since its so warm they started their processions early.
Our major published a warning about two weeks ago and asked the technical services to take care of the problem. Obviously only on public places. We have decided to have our tree cut. Just too dangerous for the dogs and the children.
Btw I read that they don't move further than 60 meters from the original next.
Regards and good luck!
Indeed. Oak processionary caterpillars have been found in various locations un the UK.
Drastic measures are taken to treat them there. Comme d'ab!
Rob
The oak processionary caterillars/moths are apparently on Wimbledon Common, in Richmond Park and other open spaces with a lot of oaks.
As for the pine processionary caterpillars, so far a few moths have been found in south and southwest England. The scientists think they were caught by wind, however the ones near Swanage were both males and females. If there are not already some then scientists think it is only time. They can stand very extreme weather so any infestation in North Wales or Scotland that both have a lot of pine forest and plantations would be very serious.
Started wondering about whether they had established themselves in the UK anywhere.....not yet it seems.....
http://www.opalexplorenature.org/pine-processionary-moth#/0
but there is this....Have you come across this similar 'beastie' ?
http://www.opalexplorenature.org/oak-processionary-moth#/0
And this...
http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2014/sep/30/oak-processionar...
THERE'S A BACTERICIDE APPARENTLY...
Even so, complain higher about an infestation and they will get their fingers smacked. The next commune along from us had people going spare about these beasts two years ago. They have several large pine plantations, four of them along one of the roads were cut down entirely last summer and now diggers are having the roots away, the maire told people to do something themselves but those with kin in this commune knew we had our 'taskforce' and money from the department. They complained higher up the food chain, suddenly there was a flurry of action. This year when I take my daughter to her riding classes I see the plantations cleared, trees with traps on them and even warning signs. It works to go over the maire's almighty head, just needs to be done anonymously I think.
Most local authorities are a law unto themselves BM - I've not found two who utilise the same MO s . Even the Mairie in an adjoining village may not share the same working practices.
Although many communes will not help they are actually obliged. If they refuse then each commune comes within a district, upward a department. The commune refusing simply means going one step up the ladder. However, why should people pay out good money for something their local authority should be doing?
Thanks Rob. Can’t believe the level of our infestation. They’re everywhere. Our Christmas has involved gowning up & burning. I got a camera for Christmas so enclose a nice close up of a column at least 2 metres long. Will do as you suggest. It needs the big guns if our dog is ever to get out into the garden again.