Beware the Oleander shrub, popular in the P-O for its evergreen qualities and delicate flowers and planted in quantity to jazz up roadsides, and gardens.
Phlebotomus actually comes from the Greek phleps, phlebos meaning ‘vein’ referring to the blood sucking habit of sand flies. These ‘sandflies’ small, hairy species of mosquito, can carry and transmit leishmaniasis, (pronounced leash man eye a sis), a disease first recorded in the Pyrénées-Orientales in 1920.
Ticks are not insects, but tiny blood sucking parasites which live in woodland and grassy areas, closely related to spiders.
La SPA (Société Protectrice des Animaux) was created in 1845 by Doctor Etienne Pariset.
These are in fact caterpillar nests, constructed by the pine processionary caterpillar (chenille processionnaire) larva, who live in large ‘tents’ and march out at night in single file (hence the name) to feed on the pine needles.
After contact with the processionary caterpillars, I was in agony for a couple of weeks until I saw your posting – and it helped the doctors by giving them a diagnosis. So – please let ladies know that they should cross their legs!
Do snakes make you shudder? Well, you’re not alone…….but how much do you REALLY know about the creatures we love to hate?
The mosquito, (‘little fly’ in Spanish) has been around for more than 30 million years.
Here in the P-O, we live amongst the vines but some grapes and raisins are believed to have a high toxicity for dogs, and can cause kidney failur
Beaches in the P-O that allow dogs in summer.
