There have been warnings out around here that the Processionary Moth Caterpillars have been active early this year.
The Processionary Moth.
The moths lay their eggs in a range of trees, depending on the country/ species, and it's mainly Pine trees around here - you can see the cocoons really easily, so one advantage is that they're easy to spot!
Then usually in spring they come down from the trees in a procession: a single line of them end to end in order to bury themselves in the earth where they transform into moths, at least I think that's the way it works.
Anyway, they are a damned pest - not only do they kill some of the trees they nest in (they feed on them overnight) they have these irritating hairs which are well known for killing any animals who may play with them and swallow them, and if a human comes into contact with them, you can get an irritating rash...
I was burning brash today, in pine, and my right shoulder started burning, I suspected immediately that it was these hairs. A friend told me he'd seen them last weekend.
I'd never been inflicted with these before, so I just ignored it, but after an hour it was starting to get a bit intense. Still, I carried on until I got to 14.00, an hour short of what I wanted to achieve, and then had to head home, it was getting a bit much.
I drove with my arm out the window to cool the area down - and when I finally had a look in the bathroom mirror (I'll spare you the picture), yup I could see the signs - some welts and my entire right shoulder blade, armpit and quite a lot of my back had been hit for sure, with some lesser legions elsewhere which aren't as bad.
My back was about three times worse than this!
5 hours on from getting stung, the red area isn't getting any bigger, but it's still sore and burning a little - sort of irritating and mildly painful.
I'm just treating it with a rag occasionally dipped in ice water, it's all I've got!
It's getting less irritable now, 5 hours after, but it's still sore! Nasty!
Anyway, I had a few plans to write some other stuff today, but I just can't concentrate because of this so I guess I'll have to take the evening off, watch some crap on Netflix and hope this has calmed down tomorrow.
I think this far along I'm pretty obviously not going to get a worse reaction, so that's something to be thankful for!