This Tuesday, the Balearic Government has ended the treatment against the pine processionary, an insect that affects both the health of the ecosystem and the recreational use of forests. However, during the last few days, some testimonies and stories have accumulated that generated some paranoia and concern about the adverse effects of the spraying.
Mainly, this campaign has focused on aerial spraying of 18,500 hectares of the island of Ibiza, which is a significant increase over last year, when 6,000 hectares were covered, with the aim of controlling this caterpillar and prevent the declaration of the pest. These works are centralized by the General Directorate of Natural Environment and Forest Management, through the Forest Health Service. The treatment was carried out by airplanes and helicopters until the beginning of December, as announced by the Government. In addition, priority was given to the most affected areas in the north, center-west and center-east of Ibiza, as well as the Natural Park of Ses Salines. Santa Eulària was one of the municipalities that concentrated the largest amount of fumigated territory. And it was there that the first complaints were made about the adverse effects of the spraying.
Testimonials
In the last few days, some producers have reported the death of several hens as a result of the effects of the product used by the airplanes. While another group of neighbors has exposed in the social networks different symptoms and difficulties, at the same time they started up a group of Facebook group group to share their concerns. There, at least nine people testified that they had suffered headaches, nausea and dizziness.
La Voz de Ibiza contacted some of them. Carla Edith said that she lives in Santa Gertrudis and, after spending the night in San Lorenzo, where the helicopters sprayed near a house, she suffered “nausea, tiredness and some dizziness“, in addition to feeling a “scratch in her throat“. Dominus Sylvestris, one of the administrators of the Facebook group, told La Voz de Ibiza that “it’s Tuesday and you can’t even go out since Sunday. The air still smells of volatile compounds and symptoms“.
Same symptoms
In this social network, the comments of the group members were almost all in the same direction. Selina Spasova said that “I had nausea, body aches and exhaustion, but I got better quickly after taking activated charcoal. Something in the air is poisoning us.” While Naia Reid wrote that “after spraying I had symptoms such as nasal irritation, dry eyes, headache and lethargy,” user Jonny Lee agreed on the nausea and lethargy. “My girlfriend experienced the same thing, which makes me wonder,” he added. Meanwhile, Sophie Hannah R said she was “at the doctor with my daughter for severe headaches and stomach pains. It’s horrible,” and Silvia Chighine responded that “we feel bad too.” Meanwhile, Tina Moller told of suffering “headache and nausea in my case,” to which Luz Ibañez added: “Same here! My partner with respiratory problems the last 2 weeks, me with nausea, stomach and liver pain a couple of weeks ago. I remember being outside in San Rafael and a plane spreading all this stuff literally on top of us”.
Biological phytosanitary” product
From the Govern have detailed that “aerial spraying has been done using two helicopters and an airplane, equipped with two poles coupled with five and three atomizers, respectively, to apply the technique of ultra low volume (ULV), which consists in the application of microdroplets on the affected forest masses“. On several occasions and in different press releases, they have clarified that they have used a “biological phytosanitary product of active material: Bacillus thuringiensis variety kurstaki”. This is a bacterium that is found naturally in the soil and in plants and is rapidly degraded by ultraviolet light; it does not affect bees and is authorized for use in organic farming, they said. In addition, they emphasize that this product is registered in the Official Register of Phytosanitary Products of the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food. “In this sense, it is fully authorized for application on forest crops and for pine processionary,” they said.
“This active substance is included in the Community list, Annex Y of Commission Directive 2008/113/EC of 8 December 2008, as an accepted substance and included until 30/04/2019. Subsequently, by Implementing Regulation (EU) No. 2023/998 and 2023/1021 it is extended until 30 June 2038,” they added. Likewise, in Ibiza, another action being carried out is land treatment. In the first pass, 20 hectares have been done. “This is a complementary action to the aerial treatment that is done on roads, roads and around areas of accessibility for a wheeled vehicle,” they reported. As for the installation of traps for mass trapping of the insect, during the summer of 2024 have been placed in Ibiza 8,180 G traps baited with a specific pheromone to capture males of processionary. These traps have a cover to prevent the entry of non-target fauna (lizards). The captures registered in 8,000 traps installed, according to provisional data, during the three revisions made have been 32,206 male pine processionary butterflies. As for Formentera, 1,132 traps of the same characteristics have been placed. “During the months of January, February and March will continue with the comprehensive fight and will proceed to the elimination of the bags that make the caterpillars to protect themselves from the cold,” added from the Govern.
