/ Town Hall
Wednesday 15th January 2020
CALVIÀ TOWN HALL INTENSIFIES THE ACTION PLAN AGAINST THE PROCESSIONARY CATERPILLAR
Citizen collaboration is requested so that there is control, also, in private spaces
(Click on the image to see the informative leaflet)
Calvià Town Hall has intensified the action plan against the processionary caterpillar and has advanced some of the preventive actions that are carried out every year, to minimise the presence of caterpillars in the municipality as much as possible.
During the summer months, from June to September, more than 300 traps with pheromones were placed in the most sensitive public areas of the municipality, and individuals who requested them were provided with more than a hundred spare parts of pheromones to recycle traps used in previous years, as well as about fifty new traps. Since 2016, Calvià Town Hall subsidises the fungible material (the bag and the pheromone).
Subsequently, in September and October (when the caterpillar hatches), preventive treatments with the endotherapy technique were performed on about 350 pine trees in schools and other public places especially sensitive because of the presence of processionary caterpillars in previous years. With the Regional Environment Department, the process was reinforced with various aerial helicopter treatments, throughout November, in non-urban forest areas that were also very affected the previous year, such as na Burguesa or the Cala Figuera peninsula.
Since then, they have been carried out in a joint, complementary and coordinated manner between the municipal departments of Environment and Maintenance, as well as with the external companies of pest treatment and maintenance of parks and gardens, inspections and treatments with phytosanitary products in the different pine forests located in public areas, within the urban area. These actions will take place until the end of the campaign, which will be in the month of March.
The objective of this action plan to prevent the processionary caterpillar is to avoid, as far as possible, that the caterpillar reaches population levels that are above a threshold that cause health problems for humans or their pets. In this sense, citizen collaboration is also important so that control strategies are also followed in private properties.
Thus, Calvià Town Hall has published some explanatory brochures on what can be done before the main plagues that can affect the population during these first months of the year, including the processionary caterpillar, which will be distributed throughout the municipality.
