Got Worms?
I was browsing the net last night when I landed on a very interesting article (to me at least), written by Professor Ahmad Houry PhD, and Dany Doughan.
The article was meticulously detailing the ways by which you can deal with the infestation of Thaumetopoea pityocampa, better known as Pine Processionary moth caterpillars, or what we like to call: doud jommar.
This lucky find brought back many of my childhood memories – as usual – and I immediately jumped into avid reading mode. As kids running in the forest, we knew everything we needed to know about those worms; there were rules. And we made sure to stick to the rules if we didn’t want to deal with the nasty rashes. We had heard horrible stories.
rule number one
Don’t touch them!
rule number two:
Don’t touch them!
We knew that they weren’t necessarily going to harm us, but it was just better to stay out of their way. We knew that if we saw a line formation, we should not try to kill them. We should just avoid them, jump over, and keep walking. If we saw a white foamy nest up on a tree, we should just pick another one to climb and another shade to play under.
They were just hairy that way.
When they came too close to the houses (or when we came close to their habitat), men would gather with torches made out of branches, and just burn them right there.
The authors here were very scientific and informative all through the eight pages of the article. The started out by identifying the problem and its gravity; they dismissed all common and popular beliefs, and later moved to presenting and explaining the lifecycle of these little monsters. When this was out of the way, they then proceeded by explaining the proper ways which one can use to get rid of the worms, and their nests.
(they were also wise enough to note that the aim of this campaign was not to kill annihilate the worms, but only to decrease and limit their numbers).
method one
… use a biological pesticide called Bacillus thuringiensis… (and that with the specific dosage, and at a certain time of the year…etc – and they explain in detail how this should be done, what will happen to the worms, and when to follow up and spray again – very scientific and extensive details )
method two
… if nests prevail during winter time, you have to cut the branches using big cutters tied to the end of a tall stick to avoid being close to the nest… and all that has to be done in February. Again they present very precise information on how to do that.
method three
… as for the nests that are perched high up on the tree and are unreachable, use a hunting rifle and “shred the nests to pieces”… again this has to be done in February.
I'm sorry... What?
Why didn’t you say so? I could have stopped reading 7 pages ago if you had just told me that I could shoot the shit out of them! .
Why the extensive scientific report if in the end, I am going to get barbaric and shoot at the nest with a rifle? Why imply constant care and caution, when at the end there will be mayhem?
Stay right here… I am getting my gun.
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This is by no means meant as critique of the very important and much needed work published by the authors… I really did enjoy the read… I just find that the ending is hilarious.
read full article in PDF format here
(the article is in arabic)
Labels: environment, Lebanon, ramblings
posted by _z. @ 9:45 PM
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