In the Loiret, chickadees to eliminate processionary caterpillars

Along the roads of the Orléans agglomeration, the services of the Loiret department have declared war on processionary caterpillars.

With as a weapon… chickadees, birds particularly fond of these insects with stinging hairs which colonize pines with their large white cocoons.

In mid-November, about fifty wooden nesting boxes were installed in the most infested areas, with the hope that the tits will come and settle there in the spring to hatch.

“Chickadees can eat up to 200 caterpillars per day.

They also perforate the nests, which weakens the caterpillars, ”explains Céline Lebrun, in charge of operations on departmental roads.

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Since phytosanitary treatments were banned, the departments of the department have used bacteria or pheromones to fight against these caterpillars, which often leave the top of the pines in February-March.

But this is now proving insufficient to halt the growth of colonies, perhaps linked to global warming.

Hence the idea of ​​chickadee nesting boxes, a method that has been successfully tested for two years in certain parks in Loiret.

However, it will be necessary to wait for the cleaning of the nesting boxes, in a year, to see if they have been occupied by the chickadees, and the spring of 2023, at least, to observe the first effects on the density of the caterpillars.

If the result is also there, new nesting boxes could be installed along the road, especially in the Montargis sector.