Deadly caterpillar found in Falkenberg municipality

The discovery of the caterpillar makes it the northernmost case ever, writes Halland News, which was the first to report on the subject.

The larvae eat up the leaves of the birch and leave the middle strand, which makes them relatively easy to detect. But in August, they look down into the grass and thus pose a danger to terrestrial animals such as dogs, sheep and goats. This is when they contain the poison lophyrotomy which is closely related to the poison in white and insidious fly fungus.

Gunnar Isacsson, ecologist and expert on insects at the Swedish Forest Agency, tells the magazine that consumption of the poison leads to acute damage to the liver. He says that the liver in turn collapses the venom and causes them to die.

He also says that it is difficult as a private person to fight the larvae and that you should remove the birch if you see the eggs, which you can do in June.