Environment officers donned protective clothing and used breathing apparatus, a cherrypicker and a vacuum to remove the oak processionary moth caterpillars from a tree in St Catherine’s Woods and another near a residential area in Grouville.
Scott Meadows, head of plant health for the Growth, Housing and Environment Department, is urging Islanders to keep a lookout for the insects.
‘We have an annual pheromone trapping programme to remove the males, in order to suppress the population.
‘That has worked fairly well over the last ten years but it seems in the last couple of weeks we have had two nest sightings in trees – one in St Catherine’s Woods and one down in Grouville near the Coast Road,’ he said.
‘The one in St Catherine’s Woods was a single nest which was quite easily removed but, in the tree down in Grouville, we removed about 30 nests. The issue with these caterpillars is that the larvae are covered in urticating hairs which are barbed and carry a toxin.
‘They can cause severe rashes and blistering which can last for a number of weeks and it is very itchy, very irritating and we do not want people breathing in these hairs because it can also create some reactions in people’s lungs. So we take it fairly seriously when we have a tree in a residential area where there is going to be conflict with humans.’
The insects recovered from the two sites were removed before being bagged up, ready for incineration.
Mr Meadows said the sites will continue to be monitored before pheromone traps are deployed in August to capture any remaining males that may emerge.
He added: ‘I would label them as invasive. They are north-east European but they are present across the whole of Europe now. It is a big problem.’
Anyone who spots the caterpillars should stay well away and call 441600 or visit gov.je/environment/landmarinewildlife and click Reporting an Oak Processionary Moth sighting.
