Urgent warning to Brits as horror plague of toxic insects stings its way across Britain
A PLAGUE of hairy toxic caterpillars is marching across Britain, stinging as it goes, say experts.
Some 225 people were poisoned by oak processionary moth hairs last year — four times the 56 in 2021.
They can cause nasty skin rashes, eye and throat irritation, vomiting, dizziness, fever and asthma attacks, experts warn.
When threatened, the 2in moths “fire off” hairs, but they are also carried on the wind.
Much of southern England has been conquered since the pests arrived in London on a shipment of trees in 2006 — and the rate of spread is quickening.
Last year was the first the number of “attacks” topped 100.
The Forestry Commission has appealed for sightings of the moths, which have white, tennis-ball sized nests.
They have also left 121 million oak trees in peril as the critters strip them of leaves, exposing them to drought and other pests.
Once a tree is bare they move, nose-to-tail, to the next — hence their “procession” name.
The Forestry Commission, which sprays dozens of sites in a bid to kill off the moths, warned: “Don’t approach them or try to remove them.
“Call us.”