Hungry caterpillars

Hungry caterpillars invade Pitsea gardens

June, 8, 2013

  

In Essex, a man has experienced something completely new for hi. He awoke to a "perfectly white" scene. Caterpillars had attacked the trees in his garden overnight as seen in the picture.

The ermine moth caterpillars hadn't been there for long and just arrived in Stokefelde, Pitsea, about a week ago. There were so many caterpillars, in only one night the eat their way through the whole tree leaving a "web of white in their wake"/
An observer, the neighbor of the garden where this occurred, says: "It is a dreadful sight.
The caterpillars look like maggots with a yellow white colour and a lenghth of 2.5cm.
Mr. Cassidy, who associated the white webs with halloween decoration states, that he wasn't concerned in the beginning and did not pay a lot of attention until the population started increasing and getting bigger and bigger.
He has talked to Basildon Council and they have observed the situation but claim that nothing can be done right now.They were told that the tree will recover and go back to normal if we only let nature go its own way and not interfere with that.
I think it's interesting how this caterpillar population invaded the tree over night and no one thought it would be something serious. Especially the last statement makes me think.
To what extent should we let nature go its own way? What and what does not give us the right to interfere? It might have helped the tree to spray pesticides and get rid of the caterpillars but we would have killed a whole population of caterpillars and the tree might recover on its own way.