|
Found in London!!
SERIAL 'PILLARS
EXCLUSIVE Britain invaded by furry one-inch monsters that can KILL a human
By Emma Donnan
BRITAIN was under threat last night from an invasion of killer CATERPILLARS.
The harmless-looking creepy-crawlies are covered in 63,000 poisonous hairs which break off and drift through the air.
When asthmatic or elderly people living nearby inhale the toxin-riddled hairs they can SUFFOCATE.
Expert Tony Kirkham of the Royal Botanical Gardens which suffered an outbreak last year said: "It is a severe danger to the public."
Alarmed council bosses will call in teams wearing biological warfare suits and armed with flamethrowers in a desperate bid to fry the latest invasion.
The innocent-sounding Oak Processionary caterpillar is rapidly multiplying in west London after infested trees were imported from Holland. Masses of the one-inch-long creatures cover branches in Royal Park, Ealing.
They have also been spotted around nearby railway tracks.
A source said: "If you are within 500 metres of even just one caterpillar, you are considered to be within the danger zone. The hairs are tiny but hyper-toxic and are so light they carry easily through the air without people noticing them.
"They are like a silent, almost invisible, killer. Anyone who is asthmatic or elderly is at serious risk."
The caterpillars were found for the first time in the UK last summer at the Royal Botanical Gardens in Kew, west London, and were eventually killed off with blow torches.
But they are rampant on the Continent. Kew official Mr Kirkham warned: "There are deaths every year in Spain."
Belgium is battling an outbreak and last week called in the army to torch millions of the caterpillars.
In Holland 20,000 people had to be treated after an outbreak of the furry little monsters ten years ago.
|
