A woman was taken aback when she discovered gigantic cobwebs covering the trees and shrubs in her neighborhood park, leading her to believe that Halloween had arrived early this year.
Sarah Longfellow, 34, initially mistook the leaves for ‘artificial snow’ or’silly string’ until realizing they were silken homes for thousands of insects.
Ms Longfellow is terrified of spiders, therefore the cobwebs that had totally covered an entire tree and bushes overnight frightened her.
Her phobia became ‘fascination’ at the rare display of nature as she discovered hordes of hungry caterpillars wriggling in the webs and park railings.
One insect even ended up in her mouth when she got closer with her son Cain, 3.
She said: ‘When we went up to it, it just looked like Halloween had come early, but then I noticed the webs were real.
‘At first, I thought it was going to be spiders, which I’m terrified of, but my son loves.
‘However, as we got closer, it turned out to be caterpillars inside and underneath the webs, and it then became more fascinating to me.
She added: ‘I was panicking a bit when one accidentally went in my mouth, and I did worry I might have a reaction. I didn’t know what was going to happen.
‘But when I looked online, it said they were not poisonous and were harmless to humans.’
Ms Longfellow, a council technical support office from West Yorkshire said she first spotted the mass of webs last week, while driving with her son.
She said: ‘The first time I saw them, I was driving past on May 22.
‘We were on our way to a party, and I thought somebody had sprayed silly string on some bushes – it looked just like snow.
‘On the way back, I stopped as I thought it was a bit strange, and then I thought it was going to be a load of spiders.
‘But I was happy that they turned out to be caterpillars, and my son liked them too, as he loves The Hungry Caterpillar book.’
She added: ‘Apparently, they create these webs to protect themselves from birds. They strip all the leaves and have cocoons, and then later turn into moths.’
The webs hold thousands of caterpillars, which usually emerge in May or June.
The masses of silken webs slowly disappear over the summer allowing the bushes and trees recover.
The moths which eventually appear from them are white or greyish with black dots and look similar to ermine fur clothing, hence their species name.