Eichen processionary spinners – where the dangerous insects are active

Touching forbidden! Inhalation prohibited! If you see a small procession of about 20 to 30 caterpillars on an oak, you should search for the width as quickly as possible. Because the thin, thin larvae of the oak processionary spinner (EPS) only carry an extremely dangerous freight with them. From the third of a total of five or six stages of development, long spines form on your body that can easily break off. The Thaumetopoein nettle poison is located in this, which is supposed to deter predators, but is also dangerous for humans. When the small caterpillars go on searching for food, they form a well -prepared phalanx.

The spines have small barbens that are stuck in the skin or mucous membrane. There the nettle poison can cause allergic reactions. These not only cause itchy wheels to arise, but – like a wasp sting – can cause an allergic shock. If the spines are inhaled, breathing difficulties often occur, up to asthma attacks. To do this, those affected do not even have to touch one of the caterpillars, even if you just sit under an affected tree, you can inhale so many burn hair that has fallen on the floor that it is bad.

Even months after the caterpillars have long since turned into dolls and inconspicuous butterflies, their burning hair is still “active”. If you want to settle under oak, you should always take a look up beforehand. If the leaves are dilated or if they still hang the sprinkled of the processionary grooms, there is a risk of danger. Sometimes whole trees are covered by the spider threads. Dogs (and other) animals also react to the nettle poison, with some serious consequences for their health.

The oak processionary spinner originally comes from southern Europe, with climate change the moth spreads further and further north. In this country, its season actually only begins in May, but mild winter and high temperatures have been published at the end of March/early April. According to a (DWD) in the Rhein-Main area, the first larvae on the trees are currently already available. The early warning system is updated daily and shows the likely distribution areas of the oak processionary spinner and the calculated larval stage of the caterpillars on a color scale from light green (1. stage) to dark red (6th stage).

The basis for this is the current values ​​of the measured air temperature, because it largely controls the development of the moth caterpillars. In some federal states, experts also observe how the oak buds and thus also the caterpillar populations that feed on the leaves develop to compensate for the calculated data with the real activity of the insect larvae.

The DWD’s distribution card is to warn on -site authorities on site of the problem larvae in good time, says Paula Halbig from the specialist agency renewable raw materials that the warning system has developed. The aim is to inform the population in good time and, if necessary, to fight the butterfly larvae.

So far, Germany has been the only country in which such a larval distribution card exists. However, it is desirable that such early warning systems also exist in other countries, says Halbig. Technically, it is fundamentally possible to expand the German warning system to adjacent regions. Austria is still testing the procedure. After all, there is a similar card in France for the pine processionary spinner, which was also domestic there. There, the cases are also registered centrally, in which people are injured by contacting the brain hair of the butterfly larvae. So far there is no such file in Germany.