Vincent Reynier unloads his truck in this empty school in Coulounieix-Chamiers. This pest control professional pulls out a black paintball gun, he’s not there for fun but to counter the proliferation of pine processionary caterpillars. He fills the magazine with small white balls. There is no paint inside but pheromones. These are sex hormones that will “disturb” the male butterflies in order to prevent them from finding the females and thus avoid mating and the laying of other caterpillars in September. It is a technique of “sexual confusion” according to Vincent Reynier.
A complementary method with traps
The Périgourdin does not shoot at the nests of processionary caterpillars but at the trunks of trees that are already infected. It aims to four or six meters heights using a laser and projects four to five marbles. This is enough to treat a tree for three months. Vincent Reynier has been using this method for four years. He started in the town of Trélissac with 200 ballshe uses 800 today to treat the pines. According to him, the method of the paintball gun is complementary to that of the traps hung on hoops on the trunks of trees.