As Caterpillar Swarm Spreads In Liberia, Thousands Flee Because Bugs Have Contaminated Water - NYT

[hatrack]

DAKAR, Senegal — A bizarre swarm of caterpillars is munching its way through the forests, cocoa and coffee fields of Liberia, threatening crops and forcing thousands to leave their homes because the bugs have contaminated the drinking water from rivers and lakes. Entomologists have identified the pests as a moth usually found in the forests of West Africa, but normally not in the huge numbers that appeared last month in Bong County, a lush northern region of Liberia, according to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations.

The infestation threatens crucial crops in a patch of West Africa that includes several impoverished, war-torn countries. The caterpillars have already been found in Guinea, and could appear in Ivory Coast, the world’s top cocoa producer, which borders the region of the outbreak in Liberia, and Sierra Leone, United Nations officials said.

The outbreak was first reported in mid-January, when the black wormlike creatures set upon farms in northern Liberia.

EDIT

But further testing showed that the caterpillars were actually Achaea catocaloides rena, a species that only rarely appears in such great numbers. The caterpillars live in the forest, and their population is usually kept down by wasps that lay eggs on the moth’s cocoon and eat the caterpillars, Mr. Hammond said. But the rains last year were unusual. Downpours as late as Christmas may have interrupted the reproduction cycle of the wasps that prey on the caterpillars, Mr. Hammond said.

EDIT

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/06/world/africa/06liberia.html?_r=1&ref=africa

[izquierdista]

1. Bong county??

I hope Kellogg's doesn't hear about this, they'll cut off their Frosted Flakes!

[OKIsItJustMe]

2. A friend who grew up in Zimbabwe was just terrified of caterpillars

I couldn't believe it at first. She was quite "outdoorsy," she didn't have any problem handling snakes. Spiders didn't bother her in the least. She just had this irrational fear of caterpillars, a single one would really upset her.

She explained that as a baby, she'd once been covered by a swarm of caterpillars.

[hatrack]

3. There are also really nasty venomous varieties out there . . .

In Japan, they're known as the tentou mushi and in Greece, it's the Processionary Pine Caterpillar you need to watch out for.

Either one is capable of leaving nasty and extremely painful burn-like welts & stings from their external spines.

[OKIsItJustMe]

4. I believe she may have enountered a similar species

I seem to recall something about stings. (It was probably 15 years ago that we discussed it.)