If you see whitish bags on the branches of your pine trees in your garden, we are confronting a very common pest:the pine processionary or Thaumetopoea pityocampa.

• Bug Description: Lepidoptera (butterfly). Butterfly Size: 3 to 4.5 cm. The female is larger thn the male

• Species affected: All species of pine and cedar.

• Biology: Butterfly Birth: 2nd half of June and ends in September. After 3 days the eggs hatch and at 15 the catepillars. With the drop in temperatures they build a bag made of white filaments to shelter from the cold.  In February/ March they come down off the tree in procession in order to bury themselves.

- To eliminate these larvae and prevent them from continuing to defoliate, grow and descend in procession with the arrival of good weather.

- We recommend a treatment with endotherapy.

- Endotherapy is an efficient and harmless method for the environment (people and animals) since by making a hole with a drill in the trunk of the tree you direct all the product inside, the vascular system of the tree is in charge to distribute the product throughout the tree. In this way we eliminate the caterpillars that feed on the pine.

• We recommend for professionals and domestic use:

- Packages with nutrient and insecticide to be able to perform endotherapy.

- Carry out a single treatment between October 15 and January 15.

- Traps and pheromone: placement of 1 trap for pine processionary with pheromone, every 5000 m2.

FIGHTING METHODS

• Mechanical work: cutting and destruction or burning of the bags present in the tree.

• Chemical treatments with selective insecticides: the most commonly used active ingredients are pyrethrins.

• Alternative methods: Placing traps with pheromones

 SYMPTOMS AND DAMAGES

• Drying of the leaves and severe defoliation. In adult trees they cause a predisposition to attacks by borers. In people and animals: allergies