I recall one summer when I was a boy in the 1960’s where we had a tent caterpillar outbreak in our town. Global Warming wasn’t on anybody’s mind then. This story is from the Independent in the UK.
Caterpillar plague on Isle of Wight was caused by climate change, says expert
By Ben Mitchell
Saturday, 15 May 2010 Global warming was blamed yesterday for an increase in caterpillar infestations which can cause severe allergic reactions.
In the latest outbreak, residents of a street in Newport, Isle of Wight, were forced to stay indoors or wear protective body-suits and face-masks to avoid coming into contact with tiny hairs shed by the brown-tail moth caterpillars. The insects have set up home in an isolated and overgrown plot next to gardens in the street. Steve Gardner, who has been dealing with the infestation in West Street, said: “In general, these insects are getting worse in this country because the climate is changing and the summers are getting warmer.
Normally, these insects settle in fields where they do not do anyone any harm but if they are close to houses they travel from garden to garden causing problems. As the caterpillar grows it sheds its skin and the tiny hairs float in the air and can cause a severe skin reaction.”
The insect, which has a dotted white line down each side and two very distinctive red dots on the back of its tail, emerges from its nest as the weather gets warmer in May and June.
The easiest time to get rid of them is during winter when their tent-like nests are visible. Mr Gardner said he would return in the autumn to remove the nests. Residents have been told to use calamine lotion or contact a doctor that if a rash develops.
There once was a caterpillar outbreak,
Cause by cooling that took a very long break.
The earths climate was all in a great bake,
We skeptics couldn’t catch even one break.
But emails only an insider could make,
Showed the temp data was totally a fake.
Now it makes my meager heart truly ache,
Scientist, scientist pull out that stake!
You know for all of the money you take,
We want just truth and facts for goodness sake!
So we can bake up the world’s biggest cake,
And for AWG hold an immense wake.
Sorry, up late making sure the Queen makes it to SFO, thru Texas.
She’s on her way, so I’m off to bed.
Goodnight Mrs. Calabash, where ever you are.
From Wiki:
“In northern areas, the pharate larvae are highly freeze-tolerant and can withstand midwinter temperatures as low as -40 °C”
Yep, global warming.
Steve Gardner said: “In general, these insects are getting worse in this country because the climate is changing and the summers are getting warmer”
The summer hasn’t even started yet! This UK winter has seen heavy snow and extended periods with cold northerly or north-easterly winds. Temperatures are still below average for the time of the year. As a result, some species do better than others. The balance between predator and prey and food supply gets altered by extreme weather. Infestations then become likely. The critters haven’t moved to the fields yet because it’s still so cold and plant growth is being held back. The only food available to them is in peoples gardens.
Third rate [non] science from a third rate [non] scientist. Nonsense nonscience.
An outbreak of hairy crawling creatures on the Isle of Wight.
Not another pop music festival I suppose…..
Here in Pembrokeshire, Wales, the temperature at 06:00 was +3C, yesterday was +1C.
Very few butterflies and caterpillars so far. My wife, currently doing spring planting in
the garden, complains of the bitter cold. Wind is always from the North lately.
Quite sunny though. Just looked out the window and count 17 jet contrails.
Caterpillar outbreaks in the Bible were caused by man but not in the way Mr. Mitchell would think.
Wayne Richards,
You said bacillus thuringiensis (I think it’s technically anthrax) will take care of the problem.
I didn’t think of that! I have lots of it in liquid solution for controlling pond mosquitos. Could I mix the solution with water and use it in a weed sprayer?
As a side note, my dad and me used to mix kerosene and gasoline in one of those pump-up weed sprayers and used it like a flame thrower to burn weeds out of the fence rows. It seemed completely safe, but then again he once burned much of his exposed skin off while playing with his carbide lamp and prematurely denotated a dynamite charge he’d just set in a coal mine, and in WW-II while playing around he launched a bazooka rocket from a watering trough and it stuck in a French farmer’s chimney – because he was at least smart enough not to arm the explosive.
So maybe I’m not the best person to be spraying neo-anthrax in the neighborhood, but I’d at least like to know if it would be effective.
Bacteria thuringiensis (Bt) was *made* for tent caterpillars.
Every ten years or so, New Jersey has an explosion in the gypsy moth population, and the caterpillars munch their way through a good 10% of the deciduous trees in the state, and NJ has a *lot* of deciduous forest — don’t believe all the “What Exit?” jokes. Bt, properly applied, controlled the outbreaks. In the mid-’80s, the enviroweenies screamed that Bt was killing off the Endangered Pine Barrens Tree Frog (cute little things, there are a zillion of them in the Pine Barrens, and Bt doesn’t bother them one iota), and demanded the NJDEP provide a “safe” alternative. Now, since male moths locate their lady-loves by scent, some bright light who had been educated beyond his intelligence decided that pheremones were the answer. The DEP then spent several million dollars on fifty tons of cork chips and soaked them in female gypsy moth pheremones (which we referred to as “Love Potion Number 10”) and spread them over the state, on the theory that the scent from the cork chips would either mask the scent of the female moths, or that the now-hypersexed males would attempt to mate with the cork chips.
They forgot one thing. Gypsy moths also have *eyes*, and the cork chips didn’t look anything like the gypsy moth version of Heidi Klum. The scent also attracted *female* moths to the chips and the result was the world’s biggest insect pickup zone.
Next year, there was an *early* super-infestation that chewed through 90% of NJ’s deciduous trees, and the only thing that halted it was a massive, statewide application of Bt, both from the air and from the ground.
Then the enviroweenies then screamed that
1. the NJDEP obviously hadn’t spread sufficient cork chips to distract the gypsy moths and
2. children were being exposed to “all the Bt in the atmosphere” while they were walking to and from school and were developing runny noses.
Lot of gardens and farmland around my neck of the woods. Ain’t seen any hairy caterpillars though. Seen a few ladybirds and the odd snail. Do they count?
Like RichardIII’s low temps in Wales, it’s been chilly but sunny in Lancashire. That north wind carries quite a nip. The blossom has been glorious this year, probably down to the trees having a nice long rest beneath all that global warming we locals call snow…
National Moth Night in the UK, seems appropriate somehow.
http://www.nationalmothnight.info/
But, Anthony – it was an “expert” who said it was due to global warming.
You might feel a little sorry for Steve Gardner (the man who makes the comment that summers are getting warmer). He knows not what he is talking about. There has been NO increase in summer temperatures – according to the Met Office’s data.
There is a companion article on the Daily Mail
here
Check out the body suits, and just look at the state of the garden!
But, the punchline is here:
But in recent years, thanks to Britain’s increasingly warm weather, they have begun moving north.
Last year they spread to Wiltshire, where they had never been seen before
Oh no!
My concern is that such stories are published at all. While the MSM see no problem with printing trivia or rubbish it seems incapable of publishing rebuttals.
I’m pleased to report that here in Australia more and more people are becoming sceptical of AGW in particular and alarmist science in general. There is a real chance our current AGW government will be thrown out next election. Not just for AGW/ETS but severe mismanagement of the economy and sheer waste.
Why is Steve Gardner of Island Pest Control considered an expert?
He does not appear to have any qualifications.
Yawn. Yet another shock story from climate alarmist rag the ultra-left UK Independent, during one of the coldest UK springs on record.
“As the caterpillar grows it sheds its skin and the tiny hairs float in the air and can cause a severe skin reaction.”
Yeah. And going outside can lead to death by lightening strike. I think I’ll take the risk.
Who was it who said “We must offer up scary scenarios?” As scary goes, this is desperate stuff. I don’t even think the “journalists” (to be kind) even believe this crap anymore. The “scientists” (to be even kinder) certainly don’t, but hey; if it puts bread on the table…
A pest exterminator called Gardner, who is touted in this article as an ‘expert’, is attributing the infestation in this tiny plot to AGW. The plot is so tiny I cannot find it on Google Earth. There is no “isolated and overgrown plot next to gardens in the street”. It is a heavily populated suburban street – rows of adjoining houses with long skinny back yards. So maybe our expert got that one wrong. But he is sure that he has seen an increase in such infestations over the past 5 years due to warmer summers. I can hear the grant applications being rattled up. No empirical evidence – no numbers mentioned at all. Just the gut feeling of a bug man.
http://news.aol.co.uk/environment-news/caterpillar-infestations-on-rise/article/2010051410573207007319
Agree with others about current climate here in England. It has been very cold now for a long time, and now, two weeks into May, the may tres are still not in flower out here in rural Shropshire. We have had frost every morning this week, but our London based BBC weather twits, have promised a balmy weekend, with temperatures up to 16 C. But taking into account the phantom UHI effect, here in the country we shall be lucky to see 10-12C.
Plus sa change etc……..
From the UK Independent:
Scientists warn of overlooked decline in moth population
By Michael McCarthy, Environment Editor
Saturday, 7 June 2003SHARE PRINTEMAILTEXT SIZE NORMALLARGEEXTRA LARGE
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“Some of Britain’s most beautiful moths, larger and more spectacularly coloured than many butterflies, are tumbling in numbers, sparking fears that the nation’s moth population is in serious decline.”
And of course the scientist responsible for this study says:
“He said that climate change, and the consequently wetter, warmer winters Britain was experiencing, might be implicated in the decline of the garden tiger moth.”
Cake and eat it anyone ?
I also heard a report on BBC Radio this week stating that bats, which feed on moths are also in decline. Maybe they can ship some pipestrels to the island.
Everything good is diminished by AGW while everything bad is exaggerated. No hideous and despicable creature from the depths of Hades could cause more havoc.
STOP PRESS!!
UK Sky News have been reporting for the past 2 hours that train services to France through the Channal Tunnel have been suspended due to a sensor indicating abnormal levels of CO2 – Yes that’s right! – CO2!
Suggestions please, on a postcard, as to what might have caused this rare phenomenon.
Lizards dying ,caterpillars thriving,I need a nice cup of tea.
It’s amazing what a few tenths of a degree can do to everything. I wonder what the next ice age will do.
No increase in warm summers for years so blame the outbreak on media manufactured mass delusion.
I contacted the author of this article:
Brown tail moth larvae (Euproctis chrysorrhoea) ecology in the UK D CHANNON, M RAMSDEN, A TRELAWNY, WALLACE H … – International Pest Control…, 2009 – cat.inist.fr
http://cat.inist.fr/?aModele=afficheN&cpsidt=21493308
Dr. Channon said that such outbreaks are driven not by global warming but by an abundance of food sources and an undisturbed habitat over a period of several years.
Reported “outbreaks” across the UK are sporadic and sometimes cause a local sensation as described in the article. However there is no evidence that numbers are on the rise.
He also said “Brown Tailed Moths and Oak Processionary Moth caterplillars shed urticating hairs as a defensive mechanism. Expect more press sensationalism over the course of the summer, they love a good horror story”.
If anyone actually KNOWS who Steve Gardner is and in what way he’s an “expert”, I might well find this useful. My recent complaint to the Press Complaints Commission about the Independent’s reporting of New Moore Island in the Sundarbans was rejected because Prof. Hazra was a “climate professional”, even though he was only sharing his “personal opinion”, not based on scientific evidence or study.
If Steve Gardner’s “opinion” is not “expert” in matters of climatology, I might have better luck this time.