Thank you, global warming!
By his fault, the processionary caterpillars are no longer confined to the south of France but "go back" more and more to the north!
These critters with (very) irritating hairs are therefore now “present on about three quarters of France”, specifies Marilou Mottet, coordinator of the Observatory of processionary caterpillars.
Watch out for chickadees, cuckoo clocks and… bats!
Problematic, because if these Lepidoptera are fun to observe (they follow one another in single file and can form huge processions several meters long), they can cause great harm to anyone who gets too close: " These caterpillars have stinging hairs that can have an impact on our skin, our eyes, our nose or our respiratory system, warns Marilou Mottet.
Concretely, this can cause several symptoms, from small pimples to large red patches, including rashes.
To fight against this scourge, “chrysalis bags” can be placed around pine trunks.
But the most effective are "the small predators that consume a lot of caterpillars: tits, cuckoos and bats (which eat the caterpillars once they have become butterflies, which contributes to the regulation of the species )”.
Discover the secrets of “petites velues” in this video from our partner Brut.
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