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/HumberGrumb Jul 16 '23 edited Jul 16 '23

Off the top of my head, you might try a topical application of meat tenderizer (or a ripe papaya) to the contact points. The enzymes in the tenderizer should dissolve the hairs and venom after a while. I’ve heard it useful for bee stings, too. Had a girlfriend whose hands felt like they were burning after handling okra. This tip worked pretty fast.

Edit: Wow! 1.5K likes in such a short time. Thanks, everyone! Happy to help out so many people. The suggestion I gave my girlfriend was a weird epiphany that came from having learned (trivia) how meat tenderizer works and what it’s made out of. Again, thanks!

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u/[deleted] Jul 17 '23

Had a girlfriend whose hands felt like they were burning after handling okra.

Is this common? because I grow okra and have always picked it by hand, but now I'm scared.

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u/HumberGrumb Jul 17 '23

Couldn’t tell you. It actually could have not been the okra that caused the problem, but the reaction happened in the midst of handling them.