Mysterious Web

[Klaymeb]

Newspaper from back home daan saaf has an article about a mysterious web on a small tree - Hertfordshire Local News & Hertfordshire Events News | News From Hoddesdon, Broxbourne, Cheshunt, Waltham & Royston | Web of intrigue in Stanstead Abbotts

 

I emailed asking for a bigger pic, just wondered what you guys think it could be? Or even what tree it is?

 

Dave reckons it could be the oak processionary moth (obviously dependant on what tree it is)?

 

Cheers!

[David Humphries]

Not OPM, Jen.

 

 

Wrong MO, and wrong location, confined to West London currently.

 

 

 

 

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[greenmanconservation]

That is very strange - the web makes it look like a smoke bush

 

Very wild stab in the dark: Barklice? (Psocoptera) Reported to be in the UK (Cornwall) in 2007??

"Maple and Boxelder are the most common plants that psocids inhabit. Most species are free living, but several species are gregarious, living under irregular, silken webs on tree trunks, branches, or roots of trees. These webs are spun from silk produced in the labial glands"

[NickB]

Not OPM, Jen.

 

 

Wrong MO, and wrong location, confined to West London currently.

 

 

 

 

.

 

 

Just a word of caution. As I understand it OPM is centered on west London and that by natural means it spreads quite slowly (the flying distance of the female is very limited).

 

I would however advise that arborists keep their eyes open for it - you never know for sure that it hasn't been introduced somewhere else on imported nursery stock or transported by other means. I'm sure that I heard Tony Kirkham from Kew mention that there may be a small population in the north west somewhere, but I could be mistaken on that.

 

It is such a nasty little bugger we need to keep track of it and treat it with great care. Those of you who climb are probably at more risk from it than most others, it would be worthwhile making sure that you are familiar with it.

[Amelanchier]

Ha ha - "They fear that it may have been created by a poisonous or dangerous spider not from this country that owners need to have a special licence to keep."

 

Sound journalistic principles there - bringing expert views to the masses. She'll go far... I can hear the footsteps of the Daily Mail headhunters as I type.

 

Prolly Ermine moths.

[greenmanconservation]

Caterpillars' cocoons turn garden into scene from a horror film | Mail Online

 

And as if by magic - here is the Daily Mail's own special report!

 

Good work - of course - someone should still go in dressed in a full bee-keepers suit waving gas around and charge the council a grand for the pleasure though... I'm off to catch a spider and paint it red, keep quiet about the moth...

[Amelanchier]

I'm off to catch a spider and paint it red...

 

Don't forget to glue some fangs to it as well. It needs to be both poisonous and dangerous because a single adjective won't convey the sheer terror of the imaginary situation.

[arbclimber]

Don't forget to glue some fangs to it as well. It needs to be both poisonous and dangerous because a single adjective won't convey the sheer terror of the imaginary situation.

 

Might want to get a still from the film arachnophobia too, just for good measure.

[greenmanconservation]

Excellent point, perhaps I need to drag a deer carcass down from the woods and stick it to that with the new improved fangs, then maybe a sustained wrestling match with the beast while terrified parents scatter with their children and the army cordon off the South East and evacuate London. Not forgetting the final pose with the foot resting on the quashed foe... £5k invoice now I reckon...

 

So I'm guessing that is a spindle then?

[john dawson]

tony k said last wednesday, that theyve had a few opm's at kew, so they nuked em wiv a bloody great big spraygun!! Think "fire trucks"!!