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I don’t want to imagine what it’s like to come home after a normal day and discover that I now have new tenants. The idea that thousands of worms have moved in with you, without warning, sneaking under the door. Well, now imagine Manuela Rodríguez’s face, neighbor of Folgueras de Cornásin the council of Tineo: he spent days putting up with the bad smell before packing his suitcase and leaving his own home. AND was not the only one: Several families had to abandon their homes due to a plague that has not subsided for almost two weeks. Who is the bug. Is called Mythimna unipunctaand in Spanish it accumulates half a dozen aliases: grass defoliating caterpillar, armyworm, cereal lizard. It is a moth of the Noctuidae family, native to America and today distributed throughout almost the entire planet. The larva measures between three and four centimeters, greenish or brown, with light longitudinal stripes. They come out to eat at night, in groups, and destroy the corn leaves until only the central vein is left. When the grass is exhausted, they march en masse toward the neighboring plot: hence the nickname “soldier.” And the damaged crop, that is, what they eat the most, is usually specifically ryegrass, the base grass of livestock farming in the area—very relevant in Asturias due to dairy farming. From the farm to the living room. The menu of this caterpillar is grasses: corn, oats, barley, wheat, grass. That is, no closets or clothes. The confusion with clothing is understandable—there is another moth, the textile moth (Tineola bisselliella), which does pierce wool and cotton—but it is a different insect, even with a different biological cycle. To kill them, you can use commonly used insecticides, by the way. What does happen is that, when food runs out in the countryside, thousands of larvae cross to the nearest homes, go through any crack under doors and windows, and many die right there. The result is a smell of decomposition. It is a pattern already described in other outbreaks of this pest: where the invasion is triggered, the larvae can clog exterior gutters and drains looking for moisture. In Tineo, the focus reached an old school, several farms and some homes. Why is it repeated?. And why more and more: the Ministry of Asturias maintains that the phenomenon is cyclical: it reappears every two or three years and is linked to heat. And this year’s temperatures, above 25 degrees, accelerate the reproduction of this type of caterpillars. Furthermore, the lack of rain pushes the larvae to look for moisture wherever there is it. In other words and using as a model feedback from a professional company: Climate change has not invented this pest because it has been on the peninsula for decades, but it does shorten its life cycle and adds extra generations per season, the same mechanism that triggers the fall armyworm in half the world. The more hot, dry summers, the more opportunities the armyworm has to complete an extra generation before the cold weather hits. The drama of the Cantabrian coast. Although what happened in Folgueras de Cornás is an important problem, it is not something local. In 2020, Astillero and Guarnizo, in Cantabria, lived the same script of soldier caterpillars devouring meadows and sneaking into homes in several neighborhoods. This same summer, Galicia drags another outbreak in Monterroso, Portomarín and Taboada. And they are capable of leaving corn plots completely defoliated in a matter of days. A pattern repeated almost every summer along the Cantabrian coast. The political fight, aside. In the background we have the government agencies, because the plague also generated noise from offices. The popular deputy Luis Venta Cueli accused the Barbón Government of “dereliction of functions”, and denounced that the official response to the neighbors’ request for help was that they could not act because the worm is not poisonous. It is not poisonous per se, although it can trigger an infectious chain. The technicians of the Animal and Plant Health Laboratory of Asturias They have already collected samples and are working alongside cleaning professionals. The authorized phytosanitary treatments on corn and ryegrass are complicated to apply when the crop is already growing tall. And on the street, there is no choice but to apply urban biocides on homes and public areas. The general director of Livestock and Animal Health, Rocío Huerta, asked for calm: the plague is common, cyclical, and the Principality acts with the same protocol that the PP governments apply in Galicia and Cantabria when it is their turn. A rancher from Ayones, Rosa López, interviewed about the issue, He said that the population grew from one day to the next and that it will be common for a rural environment, “but not here.” Because, although everyone agrees that the armyworm does not pose any danger to human (or animal) health, the fact that thousands of these bugs sneak into homes, no matter the cause, does not sit well with anyone. Images | Illustrative image of apartments in Navelgas / LVdT In Xataka | The boxwood moth has hatched in Pamplona en masse. The real problem is in its tracks. In Xataka | From pest in Southern Spain to “super food” for fish: we already know what to do with 60,000 tons of invasive Asian algae