Warning, Painful Caterpillar!

[Treezybreez]

I was up in a Quercus laevis a couple days ago, when I spotted this Puss caterpillar. In a short period of time two others were discovered.

When I was a boy living in South America I picked up a fuzzy looking caterpillar and rubbed it around my left hand. Instant pain like fire started in my hand and worked it's way up my arm. In fact, my arm gradually turned red as the poison spread up it. It was the most painful thing that I have ever experienced.

 

[Treezybreez]

Here is a little more info on the subject:

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.mn...tories/amp/8-of-the-cutest-toxic-caterpillars

 

[surveyor]

Same thing happened to me in Colombia, except I just touched the delicate looking caterpillar, and the pain spread up my arm to the lymph nodes and ached for hours.
Makes me wonder what kind of butterfly it turns into!

Edit: there are more tent caterpillars this year than I have ever seen before.

 

[JD3000]

The trouble with Tribbles.

 

[Treezybreez]

Same thing happened to me in Colombia, except I just touched the delicate looking caterpillar, and the pain spread up my arm to the lymph nodes and ached for hours.
Makes me wonder what kind of butterfly it turns into!

Edit: there are more tent caterpillars this year than I have ever seen before.

They turn into a moth that can has the same painful properties.

I knew that Hag moths existed here in the U.S., but I had not idea the Puss caterpillar did. I Actually found them in your neck of the wood Surveyor, so do be careful.

 

[Treezybreez]

The trouble with Tribbles.

I had to look that referance up.