The stuff of nightmares indeed. I feel very sorry for all 4 of them, and for the other victims in the camp.

Let's hope climate change doesn't bring this sort of thing to Britain, although I've already read of something similar happening over here.

sorry to hear that shame ithe campsite never sorted out the problem properly but by the sounds of it the holiday agent was superb must be a first at least the family are ok

How to kill pests without killing yourself or the earth......

There are about 50 to 60 million insect species on earth - we have named only about 1 million and there are only about 1 thousand pest species - already over 50% of these thousand pests are already resistant to our volatile, dangerous, synthetic pesticide POISONS. We accidentally lose about 25,000 to 100,000 species of insects, plants and animals every year due to "man's footprint". But, after poisoning the entire world and contaminating every living thing for over 60 years with these dangerous and ineffective pesticide POISONS we have not even controlled much less eliminated even one pest species and every year we use/misuse more and more pesticide POISONS to try to "keep up"! Even with all of this expensive pollution - we lose more and more crops and lives to these thousand pests every year.

We are losing the war against these thousand pests mainly because we insist on using only synthetic pesticide POISONS and fertilizers There has been a severe "knowledge drought" - a worldwide decline in agricultural R&D, especially in production research and safe, more effective pest control since the advent of synthetic pesticide POISONS and fertilizers. Today we are like lemmings running to the sea insisting that is the "right way". The greatest challenge facing humanity this century is the necessity for us to double our global food production with less land, less water, less nutrients, less science, frequent droughts, more and more contamination and ever-increasing pest damage.

National Poison Prevention Week, March 18-24,2007 was created to highlight the dangers of poisoning and how to prevent it. One study shows that about 70,000 children in the USA were involved in common household pesticide-related (acute) poisonings or exposures in 2004. It is estimated that 300,000 farm workers suffer acute pesticide poisoning each year in the United States - No one is checking chronic contamination.

In order to try to help "stem the tide", I have just finished re-writing my IPM encyclopedia entitled: THE BEST CONTROL II, that contains over 2,800 safe and far more effective alternatives to pesticide POISONS. This latest copyrighted work is about 1,800 pages in length and is now being updated chapter by chapter at my new website at http://www.stephentv
edten.com/ .

This new website at http://www.stephentv
edten.com/ has all of my original IPM encyclopedia in its original form and will continue to have more and more free, updated Chapters every week. So far we have electronically updated The Introduction, Chapters 1-6, 11, 15 through 38, 40, the Glossary of Terms and Acknowledgements . All of these copyrighted items are free for you to read and/or download. There is simply no need to POISON yourself or your family or to have any pest problems.

Stephen L. Tvedten
2530 Hayes Street Marne, Michigan 49435
1-616-677-1261

"An invasion of armies can be resisted, but not an idea whose time has come." --Victor Hugo

We have just returned on Friday from 2 weeks at the same campsite and we had a great holiday. My husband, elder daughter and myself did get one or two spots but they didn't bother us and although my 2 year old son was pretty covered in spots, he didn't scratch them so we were lucky that it didn't affect our holiday at all. It seems that some people are more affected than others, especially if their placements were closer to the oak trees. There were certainly lots of people still there having a great holiday. It was our second year at the campsite and we will return again next year - it's perfect for young children. They will be spraying all the trees from the air before the campsite opens next year so hopefully there won't be the same problem.

we have just returned from 2 weeks on the campsite.. initially I though they werebites of some type but after the campsite sprayed the site things got worse... we were NOT adivsed that the catterpillars were toxic until sunday when we need to get creams and antihistamine tablets.. on the way home I started coughing and this morning my Doc confirmed a chest infection
my wife and 2 other kids were affected but not as bad..
I was advised buy one of the camping reps that their customers who had not yet arrived on site were being contacted and offered different sites...

We have also returned home this week after leaving the site it is a real issue some reps have had to leave due to infection. My wife, our 3 year old daughter and myself were all affected it is very painful and we have had a ruined holiday. DO NOT GOE HERE UNLESS YOU ARE WILLING TO HAVE A RUBISH HOLIDAY

IMPORTANT - PLEASE READ
Oh boy, yep myself, my husband and two children 9 & 10 returned from this site in the Vendee on monday (18th June), we were also offered an alternative site 5 days into our holiday, but too little, too late. We were never told the bristles become airborn (both my husband and son have asthma). It was lucky we were told about the caterpillars at all. One of the Eurocamp reps mentioned it in passing. We duly avoided all the squirming caterpillars on the ground under the oak trees, but because it had been very windy for a few days mid week we were obviously smothered in the burning, invisible toxins of which we were completely unaware and uninformed. Our dermatitis has covered our whole bodies, and I have toxins in my right eye too - (yes it causes conjunctivitis too!) it gets into your bloodstream and it is pure agony. Imagine having never ending electic shocks and severe itching combined - voila!!. After a couple of visits to the doctors, and infected blisters everywhere we have been told that the dermatitis can continue for months.
I am extremely bitter that the site owners and Eurocamp were so negligent in issuing appropriate warnings before we arrived and whilst we were there (the site office were very distant in addressing this, and were very wary when new people were still being let on the site in case we told them exactly what was going on). GOD help us if they come to Britain in any quantity. I seriously suggest you take up alternative accommodation (away from any sites in the Vendee with Oak trees) if you have a holiday at this site booked. Unless of course you want to undergo voluntary torture and resemble Mr Blobby. Im seriously cross and still in a right old state with it all, not to mention the expense all the creams and antihisthamines cost us, which by the way were completely useless.

We have also just returned from La Garangeoire and I have been reading up on the Oak Procession Caterpillars. Apparently they can cause anaphylactic shock in some people! We too were not warned out the potential risks and were drying our clothes, towels etc outside. Both my husband and I are covered in red and itchy spots which completely ruined our holiday and are still causing problems since we returned. I am quite glad the weather is bad, so we can cover ourselves up as we look pretty hideous! We were moved to another mobile home during our, as our original one was in a noisy location, and it was only after we had unpacked we realised we were under an Oak Tree! When we left on Saturday there were 25-30 caravans nr us that were empty. I feel that the campsite owners and Key Camp were negligent in the advice they gave. We were playing on the crazy golf pitch hours before they told us about the caterpillars being a problem and were amazed at the numbers around us. Little did we know what problems they would cause!

I worked on this campsite in the Vendee for two weeks before i became so itchy and ill i couldn't sleep or stop scratching and had to come home as what the dr subscribed didn't help at all!2 weeks later im still itchy and annoyed..also glad that its rubbish weather so i can cover up.

The problem was was that nobody knew why everyone was getting the rash, then when they found out they didn't know how to deal with it and made it worse. I can't imagine how dissapointing it must be for people who were on holiday there... i emphasise with you as my summer abroad was ruined and had to come home too!

Apparently, they do get the caterpillars in the u.k. like in kew gardens but they know how to deal with them. you have to spray them with hairspray and then burn them and problem is solved!if only the campsite owners knew that a month ago..............x