He's called a Puss Caterpillar or Asp. He has one of the MOST severe stings of all caterpillars! (Doesn't he look harmless and cuddly?) Here's a site with more info. 
This is a good time to remind your kids (and grownups, too!) that you shouldn't pick up unidentified caterpillars! Thankfully, I was using my senses this day and told my daughter that we shouldn't touch it because some caterpillars sting. She actually almost touched it accidentally as it was on a railing, but my husband noticed it and quickly said something. So, stay away from these guys! They say its sting is worse than a bee or wasp!
Thanks for the warning. I'll stay away.
ReplyDeleteYou want to hear something weird? When Jabem was little, he and Aquagirl came screaming out of the woods one day, saying that Jabem got bit by a snake. Scared me to death! He was swelling up big time, so I rushed him to his pediatrician without even calling. It was about 5 minutes away, much closer than the hospital. When we got there, they brought him back to a room, looked at the wound and determined that it was a caterpillar sting. I did not even know that caterpillars could do that. I thought they were just cute little fuzzy creatures. But once some of the swelling went down you could see the perfect little rows of sting marks on his arm.
ReplyDeleteAnyway, the doctor asked me if I could go home and find the caterpillar. I thought he was crazy. He was in the woods when he got stung for crying out loud. But when we went back into the woods, and Jabem took me right to the spot that he got "bit" and there that little critter was. So I knocked him into a spaghetti jar and brought him back to the doctor. He kept him and got him identified, but I honestly can't remember what kind it was. Poor little Jabem actually thought he'd been bit by a snake. He hadn't seen it, but he'd felt it. So take those warnings to heart. And stay away from strange caterpillars.
Btw, after a mega dose of steroids, he was fine. But he won't go near a caterpillar to this day! :-)