'It's the stuff of nightmares': Hanging 'horror bags' of caterpillars are spooking town residents
24.05.2022 - 13:49
/ manchestereveningnews.co.uk
Dangling bags of writhing caterpillars are giving the residents of an historic market town the shivers, after shrouding an entire tree with web-like cocoons. As well as covering the tree in threads, huge balls of the wriggling creatures dangle down from the tree in a scene that some have described as "like something from a horror movie".
It's all perfectly natural of course, as the silk blanket protects the caterpillars as they prepare to chrysalis into moths each year. But it has created an extraordinary display on the busy main Old Mill Road through Sandbach in Cheshire which leads to the M6 motorway.
The caterpillars shrouding the tree is a natural occurrence which tends to happen every year at the same spot, according to residents on Sandbach community groups, which is next to the town's Waitrose supermarket. But it has still caused a fright for many who have never noticed it or seen such a phenomenon before.
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One onlooker said: "When you first walk past it just looks like blossom on the tree, but as you get closer you realise it's absolutely covered in webs with caterpillars wiggling all through it. The bits dangling down are like hanging horror bags of writhing insects. It's the stuff of nightmares for me."
It's not uncommon to see the web-like sheets on trees and bushes at this time of the year, and they are commonly spun by either bird cherry ermine or hawk moth caterpillars. Moth larvae, or caterpillars, produce silk and some species, particularly ermine moths, spin copious amounts of webbing.
The huge swathes of webbing are often spotted across the UK in late spring and early summer. The silk blanket protects the
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