A gluttonous caterpillar attacks the Khmelnitsky region.

As they say in the Main Directorate of the State Food and Beverage Service in the Khmelnitsky region, such a problem is observed in some other areas. In particular, the inhabitants of the Gorodok district write on social networks that the vegetation suffers from a dangerous pest

“We impose quarantine restrictions on the entire city of Starokonstantinov. In Gorodok we will also attract specialists for examination. It is important that people notify the service as soon as they detect a pest, because it multiplies rapidly.

And most often it is found in private households, ”said Vera Motashko, head of the plant quarantine department of the Main Directorate of the State Food and Beverage Service in the Khmelnitsky region.

A gluttonous caterpillar, as the specialist notes, is an American white butterfly. It damages more than 300 species of plants, including apple trees, pears, plums, eating leaves and forming nests from the web. Especially likes caterpillar nuts and maples.

“You can overcome the caterpillar by chemical means. However, in the village where this phenomenon is observed en masse, treating everything with “chemistry” is dangerous to human health. Therefore, it is recommended to cut and burn branches affected by caterpillar nests in specially designated places. In any case, this should not be done in the yard, ”the department’s specialists explain.

Vera Motashko also notes that the spread of the pest in the region was due to climate change. It was first recorded back in the 90s of the last century in the south of Kamenetz-Podolsky district.

American white butterfly

But the phenomenon was not massive and local pest foci were managed to destroy. Now, due to high temperatures in the summer and not too frosty winters, the butterfly spreads freely throughout Ukraine.