REGIO – Walkers, spectators and revelers will start a sun-drenched Four Days Marches week next week. We are all really looking forward to it, but will have to be careful, and then it’s not about heat or fatigue. As many as four kinds of beasts can spoil the fun.
The burden you can suffer from the oak processionary caterpillar is not new. The hairs of the animal come loose, and on contact with the skin they cause itching, a burning sensation and sometimes breathing problems. The caterpillars are controlled by hanging tit boxes, planting trees other than oaks, and removing nests. This threefold approach seemed to work: the nuisance caused by the caterpillar has decreased in recent years. But now it is very doubtful whether this decrease will continue: researchers from the Knowledge Platform Processionary caterpillars recently discovered that the caterpillars can survive underground for at least a year, after which they crawl upwards like butterflies. If they can do that, there is no point in removing nests in trees. According to the researchers, it will be ‘exciting’ to see how the caterpillar population develops in the coming period. In any case, the itch caterpillars love warm weather. That doesn’t bode well; the spring was particularly warm.
Wasp-rich summer
That summery spring weather of 2022 is nice for another beast. The University of Wageningen expects it to be a wasp-rich summer. Warm, dry and sunny weather is ideal for wasp queens. “It seems that many wasp queens have managed to form a nest,” biologist Arnold van Vliet told Omroep Gelderland. In most years we mainly suffer from wasps in August, but now, according to the researcher, it is “very likely” that we will have a large population as early as mid-July. Exactly: just as the Four Days Marches begins.
That is good news for the nuisance of another sting animal: wasps like to eat mosquitoes. So it could well be a summer with less buzz and itchy bumps. The dry spring also helps with this. Mosquitoes lay their eggs in standing water, and there were relatively few this spring.
Ticks are everywhere
And then there’s another animal that can cause more serious health problems than a little itching, pain or burning: the infamous tick. About one in five ticks carries Lyme disease, a disease that can manifest itself in joint, skin, nerve and heart complaints. Researchers at Wageningen University came to a disturbing conclusion last week: ticks can be found in all types of vegetation, including, for example, short-mown grass. It was previously thought that ticks only appeared in longer vegetation. So you have to be extra careful for spectators and walkers who take a break on the verge: even if the verge has been freshly mowed, there can be ticks.