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Sherwood's not so merrie men prepare to fight marauding moths

Updated on: 20 September 2007

Rangers and conservationists in ancient Sherwood are at a state of high alert as the forest’s mighty oaks face a new peril - a dual-pronged attack by hairy moths! It’s the latest in a long line of threats which has sparked a £50m bid for lottery money.

Sherwood's not so merrie men prepare to fight marauding moths

From the South come the Oak Processionary Moths and to the North is an army of Brown Tailed Moths.

The Processionary Moths, thought to have come over from Tuscany, turned up in Kew Gardens and have been colonising oak trees in the South East since spring. Gardeners have resorted to hairspray to hunt down this pest which lives on oak leaves. The hairspray prevents the caterpillars shedding thousands of minute hairs which can cause skin, eye and lung irritations.

Just to the North of Sherwood, the Brown Tails are currently gorging themselves around the Humber estuary in Yorkshire. Experts there have come up with the bizarre tactic of trying to convert them to homosexuality in an effort to reduce the number of eggs laid.

Both species would be a real threat to Sherwood’s oaks if they were to establish colonies in the forest, hence the rangers’ concern. Sherwood, which is home to one of the largest collections of ancient oaks (1000 trees over 500 years old) in Europe, is of course no stranger to ‘attack’. Over the centuries its oaks have been chopped down for use in ships on which England built its trading fortune, in buildings - many of our grandest cathedrals have used timber from Sherwood - and swathes of woodland have been sacrificed to farming, industry and mining. The much diminished forest is, ironically, home to several species of rare moths which rely on ancient oaks to provide a habitat and Sherwood is now their only home, as well as several other rare, notable or listed species of bat, invertebrates and birds.

Sherwood is currently competing for £50million of BIG Lottery funding in a televised public vote in December. If successful, Sherwood would see a massive replanting of the woodland and the recreation of 700 acres of forest as part of a transformation to a new world class visitor attraction.

Izi Banton, Manager of Sherwood Forest Country Park, said: “Hopefully the moths won’t make it this far, but we have to be ready just in case. We don’t like killing anything in the forest. Everything has a part to play. But if either of these moth species establish themselves they could quite easily cause such damage that many other species including other rare moths, will be endangered.

“Over the past few centuries, people have chopped down, farmed, mined and exploited this glorious old forest. More recently we have perhaps begun to see the effects of global warming on the forest.

“The recent heavy rain waterlogged the soil to such an extent that the roots of another 500-year old tree lost its grip and crashed down. At the current rate of loss we will have lost all our ancient oaks by 2050. Which is why it is so important we win the BIG Living Landmarks lottery vote in December if we are to stand any chance of bringing the forest back from the brink”.

The men - and women - of Sherwood are understandably therefore, not so merrie as usual at the prospect of moths trying to set up home in Sherwood. Thankfully, neither moth has yet made an appearance at Sherwood.