Transcript generated automatically by AI and may contain errors.
Chapter 1: What is the tiny toxic caterpillar taking over Berlin?
Now, they are tiny, they are toxic and they are currently infesting public parks all over Berlin. Oak processionary moth caterpillars pose a significant health hazard to humans and animals and can trigger rashes and respiratory distress. Fueled by warm, dry weather, the pests are spreading rapidly, leaving authorities in the German capital scrambling to respond.
I'm joined now by Sebastian Schuchler, CNN field producer in Berlin. Sebastian, good morning to you. Good morning.
Chapter 2: What health hazards do oak processionary moth caterpillars pose?
OK, these sound particularly unpleasant. Could you describe them to us?
Yeah, they are. They're particularly unpleasant and they are highly toxic. And they're these tiny grey looking caterpillars that have hibernated themselves and infested all of these trees across the various green spaces across the German capital and across Germany more widely. And the thing that makes them so toxic are these 700,000 tiny micro hairs that are all over their bodies.
And if there is any gust of wind, a deluge of rain, they kind of fall onto people. And anybody who's got exposed skin from wearing shorts or T-shirts, which we're obviously all wearing right now, it's so hot across all of Germany and only going to get hotter. They end up falling on you and leaving you with these almost like chicken pock-like rashes all over your body.
Chapter 3: How are authorities in Berlin responding to the caterpillar infestation?
And they are incredibly itchy. And the thing that's really difficult to do is that there's almost no way to manage it. It requires mitigation happening months before. And once they're here, they're here to stay. And there's almost nothing that the authorities can do about it.
And unfortunately, Sebastian, you are speaking out of personal experience. I've watched your video online and you got a really nasty rash out of it.
Horrible. And it's been like that since Sunday night. I didn't actually immediately feel the pain of them. It was only as I was going to bed on Sunday and my son was with me as well. We were giving him a bath and I suddenly noticed all these rashes all over his legs and his back.
And then as I was getting into bed, my wife looked at my back and she was like, oh, my goodness, you are covered in these red spots. And as I had a look at them over the last few days, they are literally everywhere. And they kind of come up in waves of itching. It's almost nothing you can do apart from applying ointment to them and just hoping that in a week or so's time, they'll all be gone.
OK. And this is you. You didn't see any caterpillar. This was just blowing in the wind, wasn't it?
I didn't see them on Sunday, but I've been down to one of the local parks where obviously we filmed that video and we came across these city workers who were trying to stop the spread or at least combat it in some way. And you can see them. They're in these nests. They burrow in these nests. They look like big fur balls nestled between the branches of the trees. And they're very visible.
But if you're not looking for them, you'd miss them. sort of pervasive across the green spaces. The authorities, the one park that I was in, it's one of the most popular West Berlin parks And they said there's 2000 trees in here. We can't deal with them all. It's just impossible to do so. We can only handle tackling the trees that are on the main thoroughfares where people are out walking.
And I mean, the way they're tackling with them is fascinating as well, because they're using vacuum cleaners that are designed for us using with asbestos.
Yeah, that's right. There are two methods they can use to get rid of them. One of them, which we saw, is this use of these vacuum cleaners for asbestos. And part of the reason for that is when they suck up the nests and the caterpillars, there's no other blowback of these needles, right? They're microscopic. They get everywhere. So it feels that they just suck everything out in one go.
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