Hi Rob,
I have friend requested you & will PM after the new year. We are pretty rural so unlikely to be able to treatment share…
We had a neighbour in the Var who disturbed an underground spring by planting a very large olive tree. Not only was the whole area sodden bringing plagues of moustiques but it ran down the road for a year. Only when it froze & someone had a bad accident did the Mairie act.
And it does not have to eat it.
My youngest (Labrador) was the same. I don't think he ate one, but did start vomiting suddenly. I discovered serveral in the grass. I did ring the vet but they said to look for spots on the tounge (which he didn't have thankfully). So just the hairs can trigger a bad reaction.
Our neighbor (who at the time was a vieux papi) had an old pine that was infested. I called our mairie and was told to whistle. So your mileage may vary with regards to help.
I can understand if this post moderated!
UK diplomas in pest control are not valid in France. I have the French diploma therefore can advise and use authorised professional products. I am not in it to make squillions, if there are several people in the same area with a similar problem, I can reduce charges accordingly.
Have a look at the technical data for Foray 48b. I can treat up to a height of 20m. Wind and temperature conditions apply.
I'm on hols in NZ so I really should pay more attention to my wife. No offence SF!
Frrel free to PM me but I won't reply until the New Year.
Hi Miriam,
I have one tree affected but it's only a smallish tree so easily sorted. A neighbour has/had a very large pine badly affected. He asked experts including someone at the Mairie. The tree was deemed too infested to be successfully treated or remedied so the only choice was to fell it. The tree was ccut down last friday and the owner of the land was advised to clear the tree remnants asap.
Thank you a Rob. Will do.
Cheers,
Miriam
Thanks Helen. Yes, my husband has a rash now. We absolutely will have to fell but they won’t be a great loss. They were left to get out of control. There are 7 great tits on the bird feeder so I’m hoping that they will get eating too.
Yes Brian, we’ve come across that before. Our taxes are huge but that won’t make a difference. We need to act absolutely now. We bought it to enjoy the land, not to keep the dog tied up.
Hello, I'm the chap who postedabout Foray 48b, you can read about the product in french or english online, but it is a purely professional product. Arial appliction is also banned (helicopter or aeroplane) but I have a licence to use it.
Eco Pièges are a last resort, and they are expensive. It is better to treat the caterpillars whilst they are still digesting.
Please feel free to PM me, although I'm out of the country until the NewYear. I will write a post in the New Year.
Rob
My neighbour is a conseiller municipal and he tries to do his own which suggests that not all communes deal with them. I am suffering from the rash at the moment having cleared up a procession for burning, not wearing gloves and not changing my clothes straight afterwards - see the website for the centre antipoison for some salutory information ! I have a few in my trees and am considering felling the lot of them.
Yes Tim. Many dogs have died or been seriously ill. Having registered with a new vet I’m surprised they don’t mention/warn because breeds like mine will forage around under pines. I really had no idea but I have now. They are extremely resilient & withstand low temperatures etc too…
When we lived in the Dordogne briefly years ago our flatcoat started frothing at the mouth.
The vet said he had picked up a caterpillar perhaps on a stick thrown and if not treated promptly the
poor dog could lose parts of his tongue
Whatever you do, make it quick. Next year the number of nests will increase a lot. It is such a mess and exacerbated by stingy communes not acting because they would rather pay for rotten bingo prizes than deal with things like this despite national legislation :-(
Thanks Brian. That would be a price worth paying. I have spoken to a friend of theirs. They knew which is why they kept their cat indoors. This problem is not spoken about enough. Yes, I was told that killing them is cruel. For heaven’s sake. I care about the environment as much as anyone but they did nothing. We have 4 acres & nests in 3 figures. Irresponsible as well as unkind.
I am in the Dordogne, vaguely between Bergerac and Sarlat in a very forested area. Talk to your maire about recommended foresters who know what they are doing. Despite infestation levels there are woodcutters in this area who cut down the trees willy-nilly without any precautions and consequently spread the little pests. It may well have been the people who you bought from were ignorant, surprisingly many people are, because public information is simply not easily available enough. We even had a farmer's wife pleading how pretty the nests are, so such a pity to get rid of them two years ago. If you have 17 trees then you should be able to bulk buy traps for around €600 which is still probably much cheaper than getting somebody in to clear nests then fell the trees.
Thanks Barbara!
Brian thank you so much.
That is by far the most comrehensive report I’ve seen. We came from the Var where we had no pines in our own garden & had vaguely heard of them. My husband walked through a pine grove when we were first living here & had a severe allergic reaction which was never identified as what I now realise was to the caterpillar.
We not only fear for our dog but realise that our 17 trees have not been monitored or treated in any way and that our sellers have just passed the problem to us. We have countless nests & have to do something radical before we can think of chopping any down which was our intention when we moved in a month ago. Our farmer neighbour is coming round to discuss the problem with us which won’t be easy as I only just keep up with his fast French but if necessary we will rehome the dog until we start to sort this out. We will certainly trap the trees to start with but this is going to cost because there is no way we can do the pruning etc ourselves. One tree is 30m plus high and we are knocking on a bit. Any reliable, good and non exploitative tree surgeon recommendation would be welcome. We will report this to the Mairie as I think our level of infestation warrants it. Where do you live Brian?
Thank you for taking a he trouble to pass all this information on.
Kind regards,
Miriam.
Do a web search for ecopiège à chenille processionnaire. They cost between €35 and €45 for slender trunks. When you order one per tree make sure to get a second bag (recharge) for each. They need to be on the tree by the end of January. Then the is the problem of the next year. By one means or another some will be there in your area so there is a high chance of getting them again since the moths go back to where they were hatched to mate, starting the cycle all over again. So there are traps for the moths. They work to a point, at least help. There are various chemical protections, for eradicating them and even a virus that kills them off that does not affect birds, mammals of any kind and so on. Those tend to be expensive.
In this commune we have major problems. Our most recently elected mayor had been actively trying to get his predecessor to have something done but that was slow. After he took over he started on his own land where he has a pine plantation in some of his woodland. That is where various methods were tried out until an economical one could be found. So he started a taskforce. Everybody who had adequate protective clothing or is a forester was asked. I keep bees so joined in, even then I wear a one piece overall under my bee suit. The commune bought a huge amount of large, double walled paper sacks. They are almost a metre long by 60 cm wide. We use the longest possible lightweight and up to four stage ladders. Branches are either covered to include the nests then the bag tied closed before the branch is cut then lowered down, not thrown. Branches that cannot be reached are taken off by cutting the trunk and lowering the crowns down with the nests exposed, but we have no alternative. A tree is systematically cleared then marked with spray paint to show it has been done. The nests not in bags are moved very carefully by entirely protected people, if they have to go any distance bags are put over them and the opening tied securely.
If it is clear and safe the branches are put into the heart of an already sizeable, hot bonfire so that the bags are immediate consumed. If we have to move branches or crowns any distance then there is a risk caterpillars will escape. Also, the bags make it dark, As soon as they have darkness the caterpillars wake up. One way or another some survive and begin to march, even a single one can kill a cat, so we look out for them and try to get rid of them. So, destruction needs to be rapid. We have this method because the extent of infestation is so severe that it would be totally out of budget to buy traps or chemical treatments and the amount of work and maintenance of that work would be prohibitive. Where there are beautiful cedars and other pines the commune does not want cut down the owners are told how to get traps and are helped clearing the trees.
This year the infestations are so bad we have all but given up in desperation because normally four to six people can clear quite a few trees of less than four metres, usually by bending the branches down. Tall trees with many clusters are different, it can take six of us a day to clear two trees, with a badly infested tree sometimes a whole day. So it is slow. The mayor has started cutting down the plantation which is from his father's time for commercial use but has not been felled for a long time. He is replacing the trees with non-coniferous varieties of course.
The point of recalling this is to show just how difficult it is. By all means go to the mairie with a map showing exact positions of trees and perhaps the number, more or less, of nests in each tree. Do not expect it to be dealt with the next day. In some areas infestations are at critical levels. Here we have all but given up in desperation because there were caterpillars on the ground last month. They go into processions to feed on the fresh pine needles but those in heavily infested trees march off to find new trees to live in and feed on. Our local 'expert' says that the early processions are as likely to be indicative of the degree of infestation and need to find new trees and actually being on the ground early. The significant difference is that the processions changing trees are more likely immediately after nightfall than in daylight, but this year there are a lot in the day.
The infestation is spreading, it will probably reach Paris in about 10 years, be all of France in less than 15 years. Although officially it does not exist in the UK, moths have been found in southern and south western counties, presumably blown over in strong winds. If some have been found, then there are most certainly others who will eventually mate or may even have done so already. By the middle of the century most of Europe is likely to be infested. Therefore the conclusion must be that rather than seeing them and not doing anything about them at least trying to do something, if just reporting that, may help. Dogs and cats are very vulnerable. A single spine can cost a large dog a large part of its tongue or nose but kill a small cat. Half a dozen caterpillars will kill goats and sheep, a few more will do for a llama, relatively few will do for a donkey, pony or horse. Our neighbours chickens eat them without coming to any harm but for some reason I just don't fancy their eggs or eating their chickens. The only commonly known predator is a bird, the hoopoe, that is found in parts of France (occasionally on our land, but not often enough) so do not imagine predation will help much. Protect your own animals by at least installing traps. We have one infested pine, I have order a trap but we will fell the tree next summer when it is clear to keep them away and use pheromone traps on the remaining cedar in an attempt to keep that clear by killing the moths, then a collar trap in case.
I must admit I never thought that we could get help from the Marie with this. But we do
have very large local taxes so, yes maybe they could/would help.