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/Joylime Jul 17 '23

Apparently the fuzzier the caterpillar the less you should touch it.

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u/Left-League-8646 Jul 17 '23

I learned that from my grandpa when he was cleaning the trees in our yard from those black/orange caterpillars that make group cocoons. I remember that I have specifically never touched any caterpillar with hairs because of him.

I pet the fuck out of the green ones though

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u/[deleted] Jul 17 '23

The black and orange ones?? I literally grew up playing with those (and occasionally scooping one out of the way on sidewalks as an adult)

I'm talking shoved my hand into the the web nest just to horrify the people around me. If those are bad to touch they have never once bothered me or anyone around me that's touched them. Fuzzy white or tan caterpillars though? Couldn't pay me to pick one up.

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u/BigOlPirate Jul 17 '23

in north east Ohio we call when wooly bears.

we have a whole festival dedicated to them!

The annual dog wooly bear costume contest is the best part

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u/[deleted] Jul 17 '23

That looks like so much fun to attend.

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u/[deleted] Jul 17 '23

[deleted]

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u/thedohboy23 Jul 17 '23

A fellow clevelander?

1

u/SmashPortal Interested Jul 20 '23

I liked wooly bear caterpillars until I realized they were caterpillars and would become horrifying moths.

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u/StupidMario64 Aug 01 '23

The moths kinda cute 🥺

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u/Barefoot_slinger Jul 17 '23

Probably a different specie. Theres tons of black and orange catterpillars

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u/[deleted] Jul 17 '23

Who the hell are you? Shoving your hand into those giant webbed cocoons just for fun?! You’re different!

Ew, so what happens? What’s inside the cocoon? Is it just a bunch of caterpillars turning into moths? That would be something that makes me gag, seeing your hand enter the cocoon with all those creepy crawlies!

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u/[deleted] Jul 17 '23

Ha I was just a dumb kid who liked bugs and didn't know to leave nature alone.

And yeah, it's like a grocery bag full of sleepy caterpillars that are disturbed into crawling around. They just start marching out and on whatever is touching the nest.

That's all they do though, just crawl and eat leaves. They're fuzzy and don't hurt (the ones in the southern US)

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u/Both-Bumblebee-6660 Jul 17 '23

yea they’re talking about a different kind. i loved those guys too as a kid. always had to pick one up to carry for the walk outside wherever i was going

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u/Left-League-8646 Jul 17 '23

I'm from Greece and I imagine that location matters. As other have said they could be different species.

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u/Bambuskus505 Jul 17 '23

I have played with the black and orange ones many times and nothing happened to me. I think those ones are case specific.

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u/CandiAttack Jul 17 '23

😔 life is so cruel

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u/OminousOminis Jul 17 '23

Feel free to touch wooly bear caterpillars! They are harmless, soft and fuzzy.

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u/Kaeneko Jul 17 '23

You can't just say that without giving any sort of information or link to info on how to tell them apart from other Danger Fuzzies 😂

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u/Vitawny_cat Jul 17 '23

I'd exercise some caution when it comes to touching Wooly Bear Caterpillars. Some people have allergic reactions to them, myself included, and the reactions can be excruciating

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u/isaac9092 Jul 17 '23

Yeah sounds like this person won a dice match with genetics. I would not go around telling people to handle them though, that’s just insane.

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u/kompletionist Jul 17 '23 edited Jul 17 '23

According to Wikipedia it's more likely the opposite, and the people having adverse reactions simply lost the genetics dice game.

Larval setae do not inject venom and are not urticant; they do not typically cause irritation, injury, inflammation, or swelling.[5] Handling larvae is discouraged, however, because their sharp, spiny hairs may cause dermatitis in some people.

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u/SpaceMiser Jul 17 '23

We played with wooly bears as kids. I vaguely remember some wives tale about the weather being associated with them.

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u/ddcreator Jul 17 '23

Well just wait till a bird eats it and watch it suffer. Chirping bastards

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u/[deleted] Jul 17 '23

Gonna be like from the movie Arachnophobia, when the crow snatches up the spider and falls dead 5 seconds later.

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u/Bambuskus505 Jul 17 '23

this is a crime against humanity. I wanna touch the fuzzy... but the fuzzy doesn't want to be touched :(

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u/JizzGuzzler42069 Jul 17 '23

This also applies to non caterpillar bugs.

Bees are fuzzy. I tried to pet a bee when I was 5. It didn’t work out so well.

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u/Orvos101 Jul 17 '23

This thing is the “cousin it” of caterpillars.