Worm Invasion

The other day my super fabulous Ayi, Xiao Liu, looked out into our back yard and said, "You have many the hairy worms in your yard.  They poison and will make you itch and get the bubbles on your skin."  What the heck????  I kid you not, I looked out and "many" is like the biggest underestimate of the year.  It looked like the ground had a moving hairy yellowish carpet on it.  They were literally dropping out of the neighboring tree right into our yard, all over the patio.  I was eating lunch at the time and proceeded to scrape the rest in the garbage after I was so grossed out by the creepy, crawly, nasty caterpillars. 
I did find out that they are in fact poisonous.  They have hairs that if you come in contact with them will cause a really nasty red, bumpy rash that itches like crazy. They can cause serious problems if the airborne hairs are inhaled.  Great stuff.....considering I had thousands of them in my yard! 
Thank goodness Xiao Liu is so on top of it.  She called the office and they came out immediately to spray the trees and yard.  By the evening time them critters weren't moving very fast anymore!  They came back 2 days later to spray again.  That is when this picture was taken.  I wish I would have thought to take a picture when the "moving carpet" was out there but c'est la vie.
Well, between the poisonous caterpillars and all of the pesticides being sprayed in my yard, it may be a long time before I allow the dog and kids to go out and play!! The funniest part of this whole thing is when my Ayi tells me, "People here say these hairy worms come from America".  Go figure!



Disgusting little critters!

This is actually after the second time they sprayed.  Gross!