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Caterpillars and Caterpillar control Sydney

A skin reaction commonly called Caterpillar dermatitis is the result of the penetration of the skin by particular types of hairs from some, but not all, of the caterpillars we describe as hairy.

Poisonous hairs usually exist in smaller numbers, or in segmentally arranged group is among the much longer general body hears of the Caterpillar. Such fears are associated with a gland cell which produces the toxic principle. The most important feature is that there hair retains its properties of urtication, when detached from the Caterpillar, for a year or more.

Detached hears occur in each cast skin of the success of moulds of the Caterpillar during its growth and in the remains of the dead caterpillars, and are also, in some cases, woven into the cocoon formed by the Caterpillar for pupation. Some of the caterpillars concerned are communal so that masses of potentially urticarial material may occur in a bag shelter or under loose bark on a tree. The disintegration of such masses can give rise to airborne contamination.

Contact with caterpillars hairs can arise in several ways.

The living Caterpillar may be handled deliberately or accidentally, or brushed against. In this country this appears to be the least common type of contact except with the slug moths.
Accidental handling of cast larval skins. This is most likely on tree trunks. The peeling of loose bark from a tree trunk is a compulsive act amongst some people, mostly but not necessarily young stop.
The imobile cocoons may be contacted when climbing a tree, or handling stacked wood, old bags or grasses.
Clothing or bedding used in the open may become contaminated with hears which will produce reactions when subsequently used, even on repeated occasions.
Capital near proximity to source of mass infestation of caterpillars, especially after their skins are commenced disintegrating, can lead to contamination of the exposed skin. The sufferer may consider that he or she is always being bitten by something in a particular corner of the garden. The evidence for airborne carriage of the hears or the fragments is very strong and this is probably the most frequent phenomenon encountered.
Airborne hears of some caterpillars have been known to lodge an eye where they may cause an irritable conjunctivitis and corneal ulceration. Such ears can be recognised and removed by an eye specialist before they worked their way into the interior of the eyeball early attention is essential if more serious after effects are to be avoided.