Hey,

As of yesterday, I am absoloutely covered in red, itchy stings from the spines of processionary caterpillars. They last for around 10 days!! I just thought i would warn you about them and give you a bit of info on them:

• NEVER, ever, ever, ever touch/stamp on/kill/move/go near this sort of caterpillar - they can kill
• If you have pine trees in your garden and are getting bitten, get a rentokill!
• In adults these hairs will cause severe skin irritations, and occasionally anaphylactic shock, closure of airways leading to death, and obviously requiring immediate medical treatment. In children, (who are more inquisitive about the processions and may handle the caterpillars then transfer the fingers and hairs to the mouth etc) the effects can be more immediately severe and will almost always require immediate professional medical aid. Similarly, older people with less resistance can also be quickly affected.
• They CAN KILL dogs or cats!!!! My friend's dog had half its tongue rotted away in 1 day by just 1 of these caterpillars!

So, there are my top tips!!!!

Scott

Good idea to make people aware of these at this time of year.
We used to go down to the Algarve and our friends dog was the same as your friends, Luckily the vet knew immediately what was wrong (his tounge had swelled) and was able to work fast to save the dog!
These are a hazard that need to be taken seriously.

Welldone Scott on highlighting it
I hope your itching/rash goes away soon

There have been a couple of previous threads about these. You can do a search.

Sorry, i didn't realise

Just saying.

This morning in the Portuguese TV news: Seixal Council is giving to residents wooden bird "houses" to be put in pine trees to allow a certain bird (pt name: chapim) to nest there. This bird is a natural predator of the caterpilar, and loves them so much: eats them a lot.

The bird "houses" must have a 3 cm hole facing north.

http://www.cm-seixal.pt/CMSEIXAL/AMB...essionaria.htm