I went 50 years and 10 days without knowing
 

Alternate title: I've got a caterpillar in my pants!

that we have "venomous" caterpillars in Ohio. How it happened I have no idea! But two days ago, I felt this twitching at my ankle. I wrote it off as just a nerve twitch that I get once in a while due to a lingering back issue. But then it feels like it's moving up my calf. I'm thinking... damn spider!.. I pat my pantleg down and out falls this friggin green caterpillar with long black things on its back. I freak out! How the hell did that get there!? Then I freak out more because my leg is starting to itch and tingle a bit.

I bag that sucker and text my wife. She says "take a Benadryl". So after I do that I go online to look up what the hell just bit/stung me. I find out it's an American Dagger Caterpillar. Now I'm looking into whether the things are dangerous. Luckily I find out they just cause irritation, as in a pretty good rash that I now have on my calf. 50 years and 10 days... Who knew there were venomous caterpillars in Ohio??

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1629330395.jpg

Happy Belated Birthday!

My guess is that at least some of the "hair" on the caterpillar are urticating hairs which are basically the same as the hairs on a tarantula. I haven't read on it much, but I think they are like an extreme form of fiberglass. They are fine and get into your skin and irritate it. I assume they have something on them that turns the "irritating" volume up from what you get from fiber glass. I'd expect most places in the US to have them. Maybe not the desert and maybe less so in the places that get and stay really cold for a long time.

It could be worse, at least it wasn't what they call here an "asp" which is also a "puss moth caterpillar." They look like a cross between a caterpillar and cousin it. Apparently the sting from the hairs (and there are a bunch of them) can be pretty extreme.

https://naturespoisons.files.wordpre...lerie-bugh.jpg

Maybe you do have them, but hopefully not.

^^^
That's one that I saw during my search. I went Holy S..t! I'm stayin in the house!

BTW, those little green bastages are tough! I twapped it in the head with a finger flick and it popped. A while later I'm in the kitchen and the thing is still moving around in the plastic bag... so I smoosh its head with a water glass. Damn thing is still moving! If we ever go to war with those little green things, count me out!

do they eat your state's toxic nuts?

It is a good thing you didn't take a nap.

Congratulations on surviving 50 years on this mortal coil!

I haven’t seen anything like that in my pants since a course of penicillin back in ‘71.

We have those in Tennessee also. And yes, they are painful. BTDT.

lots of different caterpillers will sting/irritate your skin on touch.

Yep, I think most of them that are hairy/furry have the urticating hairs that are irritating.

That's the funny thing! My son looks at the caterpillar in the bag and says "I was petting one like that the other day" I showed him the rash it gave me on my leg and he has a "holy sh.t" reaction.

Some things are better left unknown Patrick. :D

He was headed that way but I stopped him short. :)

What if the head was on the other side?

Then I guess I squished the sh.t outta him. I thought it was his brains! Still! Not goin to war with em' they're tough.

Have them here. Wife put on a shoe last summer and freaked. I shake out the shoe and one of these, partially squished, drops out. Then she really freaked(city girl and all that). Straight into the shower with some yellow/green on her foot.
Luckily, she only had minor irritation, likely due to some serious scrubbing.

Was the real point of this thread to remind us that we forgot to wish you Happy Birthday 10 days ago?

Happy Belated Birthday

Not at all. I don't typically advertise my birthday... but thanks. Just seems funny that I went this long without knowing these things were around. I'd think with all the time I spend in the woods each year that I would have encountered something like this before... but it took some random walk to my barn and back in the house for me to experience this wonder of nature.

Don’t feel bad about it, I’m from Ohio too and this is the first I’m hearing about it as well.

I was about your same age when I first learned of the buffalo gnat or black flies.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1629380212.jpg

They are common in areas with running water. They have a painful bite as they feed on blood. They are nasty little bastages.

I had never seen or heard of them, and everyone around me at the time acted like I was saying I had never heard of a mosquito.

They tried one year to reproduce in our waterfall for the koi pond, as we saw a few. We are guessing the skinks, or the toads ate the larvae at the larvae. Mother nature took care of us that time. The koi eat all mosquito larvae so they are never an issue at the pond.

Not sure I've encountered those but the damn deer flies are horrible!