Infestation

Saturday I went on a 5 mile hike with Jared.  We had a great time enjoying the beauties of spring, but when we got back into the van I was less enthused to discover that 2 of the beauties of spring had attached themselves to my shorts—tiny bright green inchworms, probably not more than a centimeter long and certainly less than a millimeter thick.  Their smallness almost made them more disturbing, because there was no way to know they were there other than happening to see them.

Yesterday I went to get my hair cut.  I was getting ready to walk under the small roof overhang and into the salon when I noticed what at first appeared to be tiny bright green caterpillars floating in the air in front of me.  When I stopped and looked more closely, I could see that each caterpillar was hanging from it’s own thread—some threads shining when the sun caught them, some threads almost invisible.  I also realized that I could already feel threads on me—like I had walked into the thread of a spider’s web without realizing it.

I’m sure that from the inside of the salon if anyone was watching me I looked a sight.  First brushing myself off furiously, then searching the parking lot until I found a stick, which I then used to clear a web/caterpillar free path into the salon. 

I mentioned the caterpillars to one of the hairdressers and she said that they’d put a broom outside to clear away the caterpillars & their strings, and had done it several times already that day.  When I left I grabbed the broom from it’s place and swept it back and forth in the air below the roof overhang to get rid of the caterpillars that had appeared in the hour I’d been inside.

Then I got to my car and saw that criss-crossing between my car and the next car there were MANY of these threads, shining in the sun, each holding it’s own mini inchworm.  If I wanted to get into my car without wearing all of the inchworms I would have had to do it like this:

Instead I went and got the broom and cleared them all away.  I hoped that by driving for a few minutes I would lose any of the caterpillars that were on my van, but no such luck.  When I got to Costco a few minutes later I counted 26 (26!!!) on just one side of the van.

Which is why I went from Costco straight to the carwash—something I am normally too cheap to do.  But yesterday I was more than happy to hand over my $5 in order to have a van free of inchworms. 

Up here in Bahama we’re a few days behind Durham seasonally—I think the altitude is a little higher.  So it could be that this is coming here in the next day or two.  But I’m hoping that whatever freak event of nature this infestation is that it will skip us—I might never be able to leave my house again!

 

PS—Someone at Costco said the little caterpillars have to do with the oak trees blooming.  This is my 16th spring in Durham and I’ve never noticed this happen before—so I appreciate all of the years that the oaks were able to bloom without the accompaniment of miniature inchworms. 

PPS—I tried looking for a picture online, but nothing I did turned up anything resembling these tiny creatures.

PPPS—Russ & I were actually singing the inchworm song recently.  Remember, from your childhood—

Inchworm, inchworm
Measuring the marigold
You and your arithmatic
You'll probably go far

Now I think I’m a little creeped out by it…