"Snowfall" & Removal of the Caterpillars

Today was spent relaxing mostly. The last 3 days have been incredible, and just when I think it can't get any better, it does. Perfect temps, a nice breeze, and no clouds in the sky at all! I hope it stays like this for tomorrow. I'm quite tired, but wanted to write about my adventures.

Midday I was notified by Patrick that he'd discovered a caterpillar nest down on the edge of the property. I can't remember what they call them here in Italy (some kind of processionary caterpillar), but apparently they are extremely dangerous and can cause major respiratory complications if you breathe in the toxic poison injecting hairs they release when threatened. So it was our job to dispatch of them. We headed down to the location to survey the scene. Luckily they were in a low bush (quite odd for the species actually) and we'd decided to try and set a fire to burn them. The plan was hatched to dump fuel on the nest and toss in a match. We took some petrol down with us as well as a bit of Wasp and Bee Spray. The whole Littlehales family was down there ready to stamp out the fire should it start showing signs of getting out of control. I was attempting to record a video of the entire thing but my camera crapped out due to low memory only 30 seconds after I set it up to :[ In any case, we moved in, Patrick hit them with a dose of petrol and I hit them with the Wasp Spray. They didn't seem to like it much but when they began jumping ship, Patrick tossed in the match. I didn't see the initial explosion of combusting petrol, but I heard it and looked to see a large plume of orange flames and brown smoke rising into the sky. It was quite exciting, and quite spectacular.

Needless to say, the caterpillars were toast (literally). The threat had been neutralized completely. Unfortunate that we had to kill them, but they are quite dangerous. I'm still bummed I wasn't able to capture the whole thing with my camera. Oh well. The rest of the afternoon was relaxing. And later we went down to Lago Trasimeno (my first time ever) for a stroll and a pizza. It was a great evening. Tomorrow I will be heading off to Perugia for the day, and I may have also found a local tour guide to show me around. She speaks mostly Italian, so it could be quite an interesting day. I will be forced to use my Italian so I'm kind of excited :] In any case, it should be a lot of fun. Until next time, ciao!

Zach

"Snowfall"