AN apparent plague of caterpillars at Lianhua Hill Park in Futian District has some residents concerned that the pests could destroy the park s trees, a Daily Sunshine report said.
The caterpillars were particularly fond of the leaves of the park s flame trees (delonix regia), the Daily report said.
While I was walking in the park, I found a lot of caterpillars on the flame trees, and some on the ground. Many children and women are scared of them and they could do serious damage to the trees if they eat all the leaves, one netizen said.
According to the netizen, the caterpillars are about 3 centimeters long with a red head, a white body and two black stripes down the sides.
I am afraid they will eat all the leaves. Sometimes you can even hear the sound of them eating in the woods, said a cleaner, identified as Zhang.
But the park s management office said there was no reason to be concerned: large numbers of caterpillars were a natural phenomenon, and the plague occurred in the park nearly every year.
The director of the park s horticulture department, identified as Qiu, said the caterpillar was a type of moth which lived on flame tree leaves in the larval stage.
Inspections show the situation is not so bad this year and we ve already taken some measures to control the pests, Qiu said. (Wang Yuanyuan)
