This pus caterpillar looks like a harmless little toupee but it's way more dangerous than that. (Image: © Virginia Department of Forestry)
Posted on 10/17/2020 12:43:55 PM PDT by BenLurkin
A bizarre little insect that looks like a walking toupée and squirts venomous pus from knifelike spines is terrorizing Virginia this year, according to the state's Department of Forestry (VDoF).
The venomous pus caterpillar is the larval form of the southern flannel moth (Megalopyge opercularis), and if you see one you should stay away from it. Its "hairs" are actually spines that make it among the most venomous caterpillars in the United States. A woman in New Kent County described the sensation of a "scorching hot knife passing through the outside of my calf" when she brushed against one on the door of her car, according to The Daily Progress.
Pus caterpillars have appeared in Virginia before, according to the VDoF. And they've been found as far north as New Jersey. But they're much more common in Florida and at greatest abundance in west-central Texas, according to the University of Florida. Eric Day, manager of Virginia Tech's Insect Identification Lab, told The Daily Progress that this appears to be "an outbreak year."
(Excerpt) Read more at livescience.com ...
2020 sucks.
ha, i was gonna say “Not to worry, the murder hornets will put a whoopin on em”
We call them Democrats.
2020 murder spiders.
rapture time
We have them here plus more. I was stung by a Saddle-Back (Pack-Saddle) once and ended up at the ER.
I think I encountered one of those like 45 years ago as kid in alabama. Not sure they are new?
Yikes!
This is S. Tennessee. Everything here bites or stings.
Haven’t seen any of these, yet, but here in Virginia, I got into some Giant Hog Weed and it has torn my legs up!
Northern Virginia now has its own official insect!
Living Rent Free in their empty craniums...:)
It looks like something I dreamed up. In an nightmare.
I got bit (okay, stung) by one of these emptying my RV tanks one time reaching into a blind area. Freakin hurt for a long time.
https://ugaurbanag.com/saddleback-caterpillars/
I can say with great confidence that we’re all gonna die.
OK what’s the dims up to now?
Sounds like something out of Australia.
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