Analysis of the oak processionary caterpillars

Did you already hear of the Oak processionary caterpillars? The oak processionary (Thaumetopoea processionea) is a moth whose caterpillars can be found in oak forests, where they feed on oak leaves, causing significant damage. They are a human irritant because of their venomous setae (hairs), which can cause skin irritation and asthma.

This spring, The Netherlands are struggling with major problems because of these little animals. Due to their extensive occurrence, almost every citizen has experienced some stinging hairs on their skin. Painful and irritating off course, but did you ever wonder how these micro hairs will look like? On this special request of RTV Oost (Dutch Radio/Television) we have for once made an exception and we took a closer look at the caterpillar instead of our usual microelectronics analyses. The creature has been inspected with our optical microscope, our 3D microscope and on top of that we took a magnification of 2.000 times with our Electron Microscope (SEM). Although it might let you think of a bunch of asparagus, if you take a closer look you will see a lot of nasty barbs…