Families living on Spurn Point are having to keep their windows shut and cover up outdoors for fear of getting covered in the tiny hairs from the brown tail moth caterpillar.

The voracious larvae, Euproctis chrysorrhoea, have small barbs all over their bodies to protect them from predators but these can break off and irritate the skin, eyes and may even cause vomiting or an asthmatic-type reaction.

Residents and visitors suffered when the caterpillars emerged last year and now a new generation is causing havoc.

Coxswain Dave Steenvoorden, from the Humberside lifeboat based on Spurn Point, said: "They were on the Point last year, but this year they have come back with a vengeance. We have tried to interrupt the breeding cycle by burning the nests but it has had very little effect.

"Our station is crawling with them and we have had to suspend any outside work. The station had a family barbecue on Sunday and one of the lads got covered in spots. It's like a chicken pox rash, we thought at first he had shingles."

Christine Parry, 50, from Mirfield, West Yorkshire, was affected after going for a walk on the point over the weekend.

Bird watcher Mrs Parry said: "I never even noticed anything whilst we were there, but it was only when we got back and my husband David told me that I had a chicken-pox type rash on my arms and on the back of my neck."

Mrs Parry went to the chemist where she was told it looked like an allergy and to use antihistamine cream. It was only later, after she looked up Spurn Point on the internet, that she remembered brushing off a caterpillar from her arm during the drive home.

Mike Sleight, ecology officer for North East Lincolnshire Council, said: "They originated on the south coast and have gradually made their way north in recent years."

The caterpillars, which are protected as Spurn Point is a Site of Special Scientific Interest, are often found on the branches of trees and shrubs. They will spend a month cocooned before turning into moths.