Itch alert: Attack of the toxic caterpillars
A WOMAN has told how she felt like trying to rip her own arm off after being stung by a toxic caterpillar covered in barbed hairs.
Dozens of residents have been left with chronic skin irritation after their gardens were invaded by thousands of brown tail moth caterpillars.
Cheryl Andrews, 50, thinks the bugs started arriving in their street in Erith, south-east London, three weeks ago.
She said: ‘It started with just one or two and now more and more are coming into the house.
‘My husband killed about 15 of them off the fence in the garden. They’re all nasty little things. The hairs come off the caterpillars and they found its way on to me. I could’ve ripped my arm off because of the itch.’
Pest control experts advise closing windows and incinerating trees containing their winter silken ‘tents’.
Mrs Andrews added: ‘They’re not deadly but they do irritate me.
‘I went outside and put my hand on the fence to open it and squealed when I touched one. We’ve been told two trees are going to be cut down and incinerated. Apparently there are 2,000 in one cocoon.’ The pests become active in spring and are seen on branches of trees or shrubs. They prefer eating hawthorn and blackberry but will devour any type of bush. The bugs are between 7mm and 38mm long and dark brown with a white line down each side.
Their bodies are covered in tufts of brown hairs with two orange or red dots towards their tails.