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Mysterious Hairy, Giant Caterpillars Invade Yogya
Dessy Sagita | May 28, 2011

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Roland
3:57pm May 28, 2011

...just instead of locusts! ;-)

Seriously, be careful with these caterpillars, just recently I had a nasty allergic reaction because I unwillingly got in contact with their hair - it went so far and got so nasty that I had to go to the hospital for an injection!

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Villagers from the border region between Yogyakarta and East Java have reported being attacked by what can only be described as jumbo caterpillars.

Surono, a resident of Sambirejo village, Gunung Kidul district, told the Jakarta Globe on Friday that the unusually large caterpillars — covered in long hair which make them appear about the size of a child’s fist — began appearing about 10 days ago.

“Villagers were shocked and scared because these caterpillars looked really unusual,” he said. “It is a bit bigger than a regular caterpillar, but the hair is so thick it makes them look jumbo-size.” Surono said the caterpillars had initially only attacked nearby plantations, but over the past several days they had decimated other trees in the area and were also invading villagers’ homes.

Pest control officers, he said, had recommended pesticides be used to get rid of the caterpillars but villagers opted not to for fear of damaging crops. “These caterpillars also didn’t die easily with the spray,” he added.

Surono said the villagers had instead been killing the caterpillars by hand, shaking them off the branches of affected trees and burning them. “It’s almost under control now,” he said.

The official Web site of the district administration said a similar outbreak had previously attacked a hamlet in Ngeposari village, southeast of Yogyakarta.

An official from the province’s forestry and agricultural agency, Sugeng Widodo, said it had collected specimens to conduct lab research, but still had not turned up any information about the unusual creatures.

Since March, millions of hairy caterpillars have cropped up in at least five subdistricts in Probolinggo on East Java’s north coast, invading fields and homes.

Aside from giving residents itchy rashes, the caterpillars have also destroyed more than 8,800 mango trees — the district’s main agricultural product.