Watching out for Processionary Caterpillars on your winter trip to Portugal

If you’re travelling through Europe in the winter months then read our cautionary tale of Processionary Caterpillars. The pine processionary caterpillar are throughout Europe but we spotted them in Portugal and had a less than positive meeting with them.

Discovering Processionary Caterpillars

It started harmlessly enough.

We spotted a trail of caterpillars on our trip to the Algarve with kids. Head to tail, crawling at the slowest speed, barely looking like they were moving at all, across the path.

We shrieked at delight at them, having never seen anything like it before.

I always thought caterpillars were solitary creatures so this little train on its agonisingly slow march was just delightful and intriguing.

We all bent down for a closer look.

Pain

When we got home Mr G mentioned the pain in his hand, between his fingers which lingered through the evening and then passed.

We went to bed and I thought I must have a cut between my toes as they hurt so much in the night.

In the morning the sharp pain came again. I examined my feet and couldn’t see anything there and shrugged it off, forgot about it and moved on.

Big problems!

We spent the next day out and about having fun. My son and daughter had a rolling race in the grass, under the tall pine trees that are everywhere in this region, dotted about in between the palm trees and shrubs.

Suddenly my eight year old shrieked. She had a red mark on her neck which rapidly spread and made her whole body look splashed red and covered in bumps.

She looked like she had a bad case of chicken pox or a terrible allergic reaction.

Medical treatment for Processionary Caterpillars

We rushed to the local medical centre. They calmly informed us it would be the caterpillars that had done it and to get some antihistamine gel as soon as possible.

I googled the caterpillars, wondering if maybe I had heard her incorrectly. But I was pretty shocked to find out it was correct.

Since then I’ve been reading up as much as I can about Processionary Caterpillars and why they can be such a nuisance on your winter trip to the Algarve or Portugal.

What to look out for

So, if you’re travelling here in the early months of the year here’s what to look out for.

The Processionary Caterpillar starts life in huge nests that hang from the pine trees. They are fairly easy to spot as the nests look like white clouds of freshly spun candy floss.

From here the Processionary Caterpillar drops to the floor and marches with his pals across the ground, searching out for pine needles to feast upon.

They feast and march and before spring arrives burrow underground. Then they emerge at the end of the summer as moths.

The bad bit about Processionary Caterpillars (for us, not them) is their ability to ward off predators.

Their barbed hairs are highly irritating to humans and pets.

What they can do

You don’t even have to touch a caterpillar to become irritated. Their hairs can be in the air as they shed them often, acting like harpoons, flying and looking for somewhere to land.

They can cause eye irritation or skin rashes like that my daughter experienced where her whole body itched and hurt.

I have now experienced numerous encounters that feel like sharp needles, stinging and painful.

In pets they have been known to get on to the tongues of dogs after they licked their skin to get rid of the pain and which resulted in tongue amputations.

In the worst case scenarios they can lead to anaphylactic shock.

This isn’t to scare but merely to warn as we had never heard of them and as soon as we were aware we spotted them everywhere.

It certainly wouldn’t stop us visiting the area in winter but it’s good to know they’re around, be careful around pine trees and the ground around them.

Read more about our winter trip to the Algarve here.

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