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.
Folks, these kinds of “studies” will continue to litter the MSM as long as there are billions of dollars in climate ca$h funding these people! And, more often than not, the climate ca$h is coming from YOU the unsuspecting tax payer…
I propose that for every “scientific study” that is reported like this, we should identify the funding agency and the amount that the researchers were paid for
getting the politically correct answerdoing the research.Correction: Easterbrook references.
Don Easterbrook’s AGU paper on potential global cooling Posted on December 29, 2008 by Anthony Watts, WUWT
New geologic evidence of past periods of oscillating, abrupt warming, and cooling” Guest post by Dr. Don J. Easterbrook, Emeritus Professor at Western Washington University, November 10, 2009 WUWT
The Role of the Oceans and the Sun in Late Pleistocene and Historic Glacial and Climatic Fluctuations, Don J.,
See Easterbrook's Climate change publications, presentations
Pacific Decadal Oscillation
There you go … these climate deniers exaggerating again … I think you will find that the “Caterpillar” to the front left of your picture is a Fordson.
P Gosselin: The Mayor of London’s global warming advocates are already onto the “sweaty armpits” as a result of climate change… this propaganda below is directed at children….
http://www.london.gov.uk/media/press_releases_mayoral/young-people%C2%A0urged-give-creative%C2%A0climate-change%C2%A0ideas-top%C2%A0vampire%C2%A0autho
The amount of collective ignorance in some people is the scary part.
““In general, these insects are getting worse in this country because the climate is changing and the summers are getting warmer. ”
Warmer summers would have very little, if any, effect.
So the further south we go the warmer weather gives more caterpillars. Something tells us the pretend science behid these claims alwys tries to point to a single variable.
******
Posted on May 14, 2010 by Anthony Watts
I recall one summer when I was a boy in the 1960′s where we had a tent caterpillar outbreak in our town.
Me too. As kids on bikes we tried to run over them as they crawled across the roads. The critters normally were found mostly on Cherries, but in outbreaks their numbers exploded and they infested almost all trees.
We’ve been carpet bombed by fear mongerers.
They appear to be short of ammunition, throwing rocks now.
Maybe a yawn is the best defense.
Why is it that psychiatrists haven’t named the phobia that causes people to think everything bad is caused by global warming/climate change???
It doesn’t say what qualifications Steve Gardner has which qualify him to comment on climatic cause and effect and yet the MSM pick it up and run with it. Contrast that with some of the excellent articles on here which never see the light of day. Bloody exasperating!
Anthony,
I did some research because the description of the caterpillar reminded me of the
Oak Procession caterpillar (Thaumetopoea processionea)
A Dutch Wikipedia article I have translated with Babel Fish states the caterpillar caused infestations from 1820 to 1900 and suddenly disappeared.
It returned around 1990 and caused big infestations in the Netherlands and Belgium in 2007. No a word about Global Warming in this Wikipedia article.
However the English version does not provide the information in the Dutch version.
Suddenly Global Warming is the primary cause of infestations, clearly a rewrite of the original article.
Dutch Translation (Babelfish)
Distribution and prevention In Flanders the caterpillar occurs commonly, especially in the provinces Antwerp and Limburg. According to the catalogue of Lempke also in the Netherlands to roughly the line Arnhem – Nijmegen – Vianen prevented the caterpillar from 1820 up to 1900 – Dordrecht, with as observation at the tasks among other things ” big numbers” and ” many”. How the type disappeared around 1900 and around 1990 appeared is not clear. In the meantime the distribution area includes the Southern provinces Noord-Brabant and Limburg, and them is also identified in Gelderland, Overijssel, Utrecht and Noord-Holland. The caterpillar is especially identified in summer oaks alleys in cities and villages, on camp-site and domains in forest surroundings. In bunch areas themselves the caterpillar is also observed, but here seems a biological balance exist with its natural enemies (the ichneumon flies, and the large headstock bandit). Because of this the oak procession caterpillar in bunch areas hardly leads to problems. The caterpillars move themselves ‘ s night, in search of food, where they in long counterfoils each other crawling, what closes think of a procession of people. By day the caterpillars return to their nests. The caterpillars eat oak leaves, with as visible consequence leafless oak trees. Dry winters and dry, warm summer conditions stimulate the development of the caterpillar.
http://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eikenprocessierups
An expert is someone who learns more and more about less and less until he/she knows almost everything about almost nothing.
Here is another article from 2007 I found:
http://www.farminguk.com/news/Action-plan-launched-to-eradicate-moth_3965.html
In this article again, no mentioning of Global Warming!
One definition of “an expert” is ‘an individual who is more than 50 miles from home’.
Indeed, here are some other examples of the ‘obvious’ which failed to follow the scientific method.
http://biology.clc.uc.edu/courses/bio104/sci_meth.htm
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Now, they’ll kill the caterpillars that turn into moths and butterflies that pollinate trees. IF, as time goes by, we see fewer trees or fruit they will blame it on ‘climate change.’ You can’t win with these people.
Is Steve Gardner a climate scientist?
Well, as is my wont, I figured I’d go look and see what the actual amount of the dread global warming was causing this outbreak. I couldn’t find any stations on the Isle of Wight, so I used Bournemouth instead, which is about 20 miles away. I also used the UAH MSU satellite temperature for the 2.5° gridbox containing the Isle of Wight. Here’s the result. The photo is of Portsmouth as seen from the Isle of Wight:
Yeah, that dang global warming has been bad there in the last few years …
“Mr Gardner said he would return in the autumn to remove the nests.”
OMG!!!! Mr. Gardner will cause the EXTINCTION of the precious brown-tail moth butterfly!!!!!…ooop, it’s not Mr. Gardner, it’s AGW!
Wow!
Here is a photo of the isolated plot. No wonder the caterpillars felt at home. One can imagine them thriving just as well in a forest and it wouldn’t make the headlines.
http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2010/05/14/article-1278405-099312E8000005DC-611_468x315.jpg
I live close to the Isle of Wight in Southampton, about 13 miles or say 23 Km away and we had a very very cold winter and last summer was below average temps. we didnt exceed 30C as far as I’m aware whereas reocrd temps are approx 34C.
So I cant really see higher temps are causing catepillar infestations.
Global warming was supposed to have caused our Sparrows to go as well, but when I go to Spain , Portugal or Gran Canaria there are loads of the little birds
“Mr Gardner said he would return in the autumn to remove the nests.”
In the interim, perhaps, he will carry on with his normal ditch digging duties.
When I was a Girl Scout in the late 60s, I remember a caterpillar outbreak that summer when they were literally dripping from the trees. It was disgusting.
We also have regular infestations of miller moths, also pretty disgusting.
Charles S. Opalek, PE says:
May 15, 2010 at 9:02 am
One definition of “an expert” is ‘an individual who is more than 50 miles from home
with a briefcase’
Richard North: May 15, 2010 at 6:49 am
I think you will find that the “Caterpillar” to the front left of your picture is a Fordson.
A Fordson spotted among the Caterpillars? It’s worse than we thought!
In 1975-1976 in SW Pennsylvania, we had a severe outbreak of gypsy moth. In 1976, after many red oak trees were killed, the Dept. of Agr. decided to spray by helicopter, using Sevin, a carbamate pesticide. Eco-moonbats protested, and delayed the process until B.T. was proposed. The science-challenged then protested until another delay. Finally, the B.T. was used, but not until many old-growth trees were eliminated. I left the region in 1993. At that point there were huge bald patches where the trees were. I don’t know if they recovered yet. It turns out that the gypsy moth has a 10 or 11 year cycle, like the locust. Probably their own high cycle numbers contain the seeds of their own population decline. So goes mother nature.
With a warming of 1C in a century or so, it would seem that a place in France or Germany that is 1C warmer than the Isle of Wight would have been taken over by the hairy little fellows by now. Surely we can look at conditions in more southerly but not too distant places with similar flora and fauna and observe what will happen further north when it heats up 1 deg. What is the range of this moth? But, hey, I’m only a geologist and engineer, how could I know better than an entymologist.