Council workers have been ordered to stay away from a hedge in a children's park because it has been infested with caterpillars that can cause skin irritation.

The infestation has prevented the overgrown hedge in Chalky Road, Portslade, from being trimmed for several months.

Workers from Brighton and Hove City Council had to abandon an attempt to cut back the hedge this summer when three of their team developed a rash.

They soon discovered the hedge had been colonised by the Brown-Tail Moth caterpillar.

The dark brown and white bug, which can measure up to 4cm in length, carries up to two million spiked and barbed hairs which can penetrate skin, causing an irritant reaction.

Inhaling the hairs can cause severe breathing difficulties for asthmatics and hay fever sufferers.

Graeme Rolf, senior area manager of the council's parks service, said the workers would return to the site within the fortnight once the caterpillars had retired to their cocoons.

He said: "Three people ended up with a rash this summer so we have been waiting for autumn. No one is going to die because of these caterpillars but they can cause irritations which last two or three days.

"We had quite an infestation of this moth a few years ago but after a programme of spraying and cutting they haven't been too much of a problem recently."

Mr Rolf said the hedge would be trimmed within the next two weeks by workers wearing long sleeves and dust masks.

When Paul Sullivan, of Chalky Road, was told the council had been stopped in its tracks by an insect he thought it was a joke. But the 44-year-old said if the bugs were a health threat then people should have been told.

The data analyst, who works for Legal and General, said: "I walk past the hedge every morning to get to the bus stop and have been noticing it is more and more overgrown. If this caterpillar is so bad they can't even cut the hedge with protective gear and a chainsaw then maybe the kids playing next to it should be warned."

Anyone suffering minor skin irritations from the caterpillars should wash immediately with hot soapy water and apply calamine lotion if necessary.

Serious or persistent symptoms should be seen by a doctor.