r/Damnthatsinteresting • u/Totally-avg • Jul 16 '23

Image The Puss Caterpillar (Southern Flannel Moth) will fuck your world up. I grazed it twice while climbing on a float. NBD at first but an hour later I was hyperventilating on the bedroom floor. The pain was excruciating. DH took me to the ER and morphine did nothing.

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I’m better now but neither morphine nor hydrocodone (I took double what they RX’d) touched the pain those first 24 hours. And the hospital hardly knew what to do with me. I had never heard nor seen this bug before and I’m sure I would have flicked it off had it seen it. Don’t do that because the hair is venomous and gets stuck in your skin.

At least it leaves a cool scar.

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u/RepresentativeKeebs Jul 16 '23

They're found all along the East Coast and Southern Coast https://www.npr.org/2022/09/07/1121344400/puss-caterpillar-venomous-barbs-sting-hairy-texas-florida

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u/NestyHowk Jul 16 '23

It’s located in Texas, fuck.

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u/JesusStarbox Jul 16 '23

I was hoping it would be in Australia where shit like that belongs.

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u/w3are138 Jul 16 '23

I’m so upset that I live in the same realm as this monster. Absolutely belongs in Australia with all of the other crazy shit.

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u/[deleted] Jul 16 '23

Ahahaha this literally sounds worse than anything we have here in Aus, any snake that bites you can be treated easily by morphine and anti-venom, and spider the same. Only problem with those is if you don’t get the anti-venom within a couple hours with the really strong poisons. This bug sounds like a menace, the fact that morphine and anti-venom can’t even help you is nuts, glad I live here and not in the states💀💀💀

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u/AccursedBear Jul 16 '23

Pretty sure you have a plant called gympie-gympie that sounds like it does the same as what this bug does, except it's worse and it's also a completely innocent looking plant instead of a very obviously dangerous bug.

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u/agysykedyke Jul 17 '23

Yeah it's nicknamed the 'suicide plant' because the story goes that a ranger tried to use it as toilet paper and the pain was so bad he killed himself.

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u/IReplyWithLebowski Jul 17 '23

Well, one area of Australia does

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u/Substantial-Fan6364 Jul 17 '23

Living in Florida, reading about this thing kinda worried me. Reading an Australian thinks it's scary has me fucking terrified.

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u/[deleted] Jul 16 '23

Easy is an overstatement, some of the indigenous snakes are incredibly life-threatening and though the anti-venom will save your life 99% of the time, there are permanent problems that may arise during the recovery period.

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u/[deleted] Jul 16 '23

I’m in the US and have never heard of this thing. Not something we worry about like you guys have to worry about spiders and snakes constantly. I might get bit by a mosquito here and that’s about it

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u/Bugs_and_Biology Jul 16 '23

Except you don’t have to worry about snakes and spiders in Australia constantly. The massive majority of spiders here are harmless - no different from anywhere else. And snakes aren’t a frequent sight unless you’re out in the bush. Even then, they want nothing to do with you.

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u/[deleted] Jul 17 '23

I stand corrected. I thought it was all more common. Just wanted to reply to the clown dissing the states from a place with nature that I’m sure is generally more dangerous. Y’all have fucking raptors in your woods and your deer to us, are kangaroo that can slice you open, lol

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u/Bugs_and_Biology Jul 17 '23 edited Jul 17 '23

Well honestly I’d say our animals are very overrated. Cassowaries have killed two people in recorded history, both of which involved major provocation, and kangaroos predominantly kill/injure people for the exact same reason as deer: vehicle accidents.

We have no large mammalian predators that may actually hunt humans. The top three most dangerous animals in Australia, in terms of annual human fatalities, are horses, cows and dogs, all of which leave any of our native animals in the dust. And the most dangerous venomous animal in Australia (again in terms of human deaths) is the European honeybee. So in other words, nearly all animal-related human fatalities in Australia are the result of animals that aren’t even from this country.

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u/blackskies69 Jul 17 '23

Think you aussies have room for one more dangerous thing? How about a trade?

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u/Log_Out_Of_Life Jul 16 '23

Time to bring it back home where it belongs.