The Brown Tail Moth - Euproctis chrysorrhoea
According to google when you translate the Latin name back to English - it roughly translates to “having a fine golden-brown rear tuft”. My personal translation would be ‘pain in the ass’. That said - it’s not actually the moth that is the problem it’s the caterpillars.
The following post is my real-life experience (warts, hives and all) of these seemingly cute little caterpillars, and how they have ended up consuming so much of my time. Yes the story isn’t over - but I am working through a plan to free myself of the hairy pest.
Probably best at this point to describe the offending caterpillar - so at least you know you are reading a relevant blog of info. Have a look at the photos and this description;
Ignoring the million legs….
Dark, almost black/brown body with rows of conspicuous pale markings.
Paired reddish/orange spots running along the back — a very useful brown-tail feature.
The dense fine hairs giving them that distinctly furry appearance.
The communal silk web - where they hold up when not feeding.
Living in a hawthorn-type hedge
All the above tick the box for Brown tail moth caterpillar.
I’ve broken my story up into a number of segments - do read them all though as they are equally relevant.
Context
We are located in Northampton, England. The brown tail moth is native to Britain - but relatively rare - in that you don’t see a lot of them. We have a long hedge along the road, maybe 25 years old, cut to waist height and a tight mix of hawthorn, blackthorn and some deciduous bushes.
Background
During summer 2025 I was noticing more and more hives on my body - all over after cutting the hedge, mowing the lawn etc. I couldn’t work out what was causing them - whether it was something that I was breathing, some sap touching my skin, or getting pricked by the odd thorn. I continued to garden as normal and put up with the after-effects - confused to what was causing them.
During winter 2025, the hedge was bare. The leaves had fallen from the hedge and we noticed a small number of what looked like very thick impenetrable spider webs. I chose to ignore them (live and let live) and that proved to be one of the worst gardening decisions in my life.
Spring 2026 came and so did the first cut of the hedge to tidy it up. I finished that day with so many hives over my body. I always reacted to something in the hedge - but this was 10 times worse. It also became apparent that the webs had multiplied many times in number, and there were very small innocent-looking caterpillars living within.
That’s when my education and experimentation started.
The hottest summer ever arrived and the caterpillars got bigger and my hedge got less leafy. More and more people were stopping to have a look at the big fat hairy caterpillars that were munching through my hedge.
The first experiment was to use a face covering - that was a fail.
The second was to be fully clothed - long sleeves and long trousers - again failure
I knew we really had a problem when my son and the neighbour separately cut the hedge and had to see doctors and take prescribed super strong antihistamines to reduce their hives
I stepped up the level of research and determined the issue to be the caterpillars - everything matched to the information that I found on Google and even videos on YouTube. My initial response was this.
It was a hot day and it was like cutting a hedge in a sauna.
Whilst it wasn’t 100% - it was near enough.
Not sure it was 100% that the caterpillars were to blame - but I do feel it was 95%+, and good enough for me to research the eradication process further.
I mentioned the neighbours, didn’t I?
Well at this point next door had been properly impacted and two doors away on either side had been impacted to a lesser degree.
The council had been contacted and confirmed that it wasn’t their problem and they were unwilling to help as it wasn’t a public health issue.
I read somewhere that subsequent exposures to the caterpillars can be more significant than the initial reactions, and this seemed to be fitting the trend - which meant that I needed to act and act fast.
Facts, facts and more facts
I say these are facts - but they are premised upon the assumption that I’m correct in the identification of these pests and that Google doesn’t lie - so here goes;
1 - The brown tail moth, or more specifically its caterpillars are the issue.
2 - The hairy black caterpillars with red and white markings - shown below have urticating (new word alert, meaning - have an irritant effect). Anyway hairs that can cause breathing difficulties and/or rashes when making contact with skin. But more than that - it’s also the cocoon they build and their faeces - so in short anything caterpillar related - alive or dead.
3 - When cutting the hedge the hairs go airborne and will find their way everywhere air goes. Think cutting and clearing up a hedge for an hour in a cloud of airborne microscopic hairs - equipped with little urticating hooks for good measure. I guess they are doing their job - though I bet the caterpillars aren’t expecting Phase 1 of my plan that I’m hatching. The residual effects of the caterpillars can remain around for up to 3 years if not treated / washed away with rain naturally
4 - The breeding cycle appears to be moths lay eggs (250 to 300 each) late summer - even the eggs have the urticating hooks. These eggs then hatch within 3 weeks into caterpillars that stay small, eating little and dormant over winter in hibernacula - which loosely translated means winter quarters. In summer, with the increased foliage, like a conquering army they eat and grow significantly in size, before leaving the hedge destroyed to go and cocoon. The adult moth emerges from the cocoon late summer, breeds and the cycle is repeated. Just like the day that the flying ants decide to fly, the caterpillars decide it is the right time to emerge from the nests - the caterpillars have a similar cycle - I remember the day that I laughed as the drive was covered with caterpillars heading away from the hedge. I was completely ignorant to the phase of the cycle that I was witnessing.
5 - the caterpillars gather together for protection. The webs that they spin are truly impenetrable and provide protection. They manage this collective behaviour by laying trails of pheromones.
Irradication Plan - Project Colin
Phase 1
Remove caterpillar webs - this is done by cutting out the hedge around leaving the web (and more importantly the contents intact. Easier said than done - as they generally use the thick blackthorn to locate their homes - certainly in my hedge. Though the job was made easier as the webs were at least accessible. Neighbours with high hedges are going to have significantly more work to do. Internet advice was to either burn or bag up and bin. I did both. The burning panicked the non-impacted neighbours as it was the height of summer and we had a few grass fires in the area. Burning was very effective. Binning was not and the bin was subsequently covered in confused caterpillars the next morning - it’s green but doesn’t taste of leaves.
I was fully covered from head to toe - and even then I had a few hives between my gloves and the elastic of the disposable overalls that I purchased from Amazon - https://amzn.to/4czdG03. I’ve also since bought these longer gloves - https://amzn.to/46PGnCs, which I haven’t tested as yet.
Phase 2
Cut hedges - make them look nice. The huge gaps that were created when cutting the webs out were further accentuated. And the removal of more foliage only served to flag that not all webs had been removed. I hoped that phase 3 would resolve this and if not I’ve added Phase 4.
Phase 3
Spray hedge with BugClear Ultra 2 Insecticide - from Amazon - https://amzn.to/3SRLJKk. Just 7ml per litre of this nasty stuff promises to sort the problem. I found some nice weather days - with little chance of rain and sprayed twice - a week apart. I also bought a separate sprayer for this particular job - it worked well - https://amzn.to/4rjju49. I can’t use the spray now for another year. I gave the remaining webs an extra wet spray - hoping that the direct action will get into the very young caterpillar webs.
It’s September 2026 - The hedge is looking quite beaten up. We are waiting for autumn and for the leaves to drop to show the full extent of the webs that remain.
Phase 4 (Planned for winter 2026)
Cut out the remaining webs and burn - will be more acceptable in winter when the risk of a fire spreading is much reduced and the smoke won’t make it through the now closed neighbours’ windows
Phase 5 - Nuclear Option
Burn / dig out / blow up the hedge and replace with something non-organic
I would rather avoid that for both aesthetic reasons as well as the impact on my wallet.
Brown Tail Moth - Euproctis chrysorrhoea Brown Tail Moth - Euproctis chrysorrhoea Brown Tail Moth - Euproctis chrysorrhoea
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