People have been warned not to touch a strange foam-like substance that is set to start appearing in gardens as the warm weather sets in. The period from the end of May to the end of June is peak season for an insect which leaves an odd 'spittle' on garden plants.
Some have said it looks like a ball of froth, or foam, but householders have been urged by experts not to try and clean it off their plants. The substance is made by an insect known as a spittlebug.
The insect coats itself in a ball of foam for protection as it sucks on the sap from a plant for nutrition. The red and black creature's offspring, also known as froghoppers, then hatch on a plant which has the leftover ball of foam, Yorkshire Live reports.
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Though the insects feed on the plants, they don't remove enough nutrition to harm it and they don't hurt humans, so you don't need to do anything to get rid of the spittle. In fact, given that insect numbers have reduced by as much as 60% in the past 10 years alone, experts say washing off the spittle could interrupt the insect's life cycle.
Scientists are also worried that a plant disease known as Xyella could be spread between plants by the spittlebug as a carrier. If it was found in the UK, all plants within a 100m radius would need to be destroyed, with a 5km plant quarantine for up to five years afterwards because the disease could wipe out native UK plant species.
And because the spittlebug is a potential carrier of the disease, scientists are asking people to report any sightings of the spittlebug spittle, just in case, so that any outbreaks that do occur could be linked and tracked to what causes them. A spokesperson for the Spittlebug survey said: "Please let us know when you see either spittle, nymphs (juveniles) or adults of the xylem-feeding insects (spittlebugs / f roghoppers and some leafhoppers ) that have the potential to act as vectors of the bacteria.
"These records will help us build up a picture of where the bugs are found, what plants they feed on and how much they move around. This information will be essential for deciding how best to respond should the Xylella bacterium arrive in the UK." You can report a sighting here.
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