© Peter Lawson/Eastnews Press Agency LtdPlague: The bench and ground is covered in a silk-like web cocooning caterpillars at Southend Cemetery
The scene at Southend Cemetery in Essex is straight out of a horror film with silken threads draped over trees, plants and gravestones.
It has been caused by an invasion of thousands of bird cherry ermine moth caterpillars who have created a vast web-like nest.
Nova Bickmore, 69, could not believe the sight when she visited her father's grave.
She said: 'There were thousand upon thousand of caterpillars and a silk web all over the trees, which had no leaves left.
'Some of the caterpillars were hanging down from the trees and others were all over the floor.
'It was a really ghostly scene.' In their caterpillar stage, the bugs, known as web worms, weave leaves of trees together and eat them from their nests.
