(in real life - an inch or so long, but still scary and creepy ...and I did not take this picture)
Yesterday afternoon I was cutting back a nearly-dead-looking tree rose that sits on my front stoop. I was gently holding the tips of branches I wanted to cut back and as I moved my left hand around the branches, I kept feeling pricks and thought I had been touching the ends of thorns. But suddenly, I realized something else was going on. These CREATURES, hiding on the underside of the leaves, were biting or stinging or whatevering me, over and over and over.
Day...um. It HURT!
I called for backup and dh came and captured a couple of them to look for them on the internet. Turns out, they are saddleback caterpillars and they can s.t.i.n.g.
The website also said that there is no real control for them, and that we should just "stay away from them," since they turn into butterflies.
"Stay away from them" my Aunt Fannie - I want them to Die! But I'm afraid to get near enough to them to spray them with bug spray or smush them or something.
I took some expired Benadryl, and by last night the pain had subsided. But these $%^&* things had better be some drop-dead gorgeous butterflies or any of them that show up next year will be in big trouble (if I can figure out how to kill them....).
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6 comments:
someone needs to "Kiss the Boo Boo better". When I am weeding or any other outside work, I have frequent encounters with Daddy longlegs. They don't gross me out when they'r on me, but some of them bite, too.
I have never seen one-thank goodness-but I will be on the lookout next time I am out working in the garden! I looked them up and I think they turn into a kind of ugly brown moth. Since moths eat wool this is bad all the way around! Maybe the extension service could tell you how to get rid of them!
I'm sorry, but those things are NASTY and I may be the only person in the world who does not like butterflies so i say kill 'em somehow...nuclear explosion looks like it might work
Yeee - those things are wicked scary looking. I think I would have been screaming like a girl had I seen one.
i think they look really cool, but would prefer to not get bitten by them. I am glad you didn't have a bad reaction or anything!
a) it reminds me of this- just the wrong colors...
http://therollerblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/10/labyrinth_caterpillar.jpg
b) it turns into a moth, not a butterfly. and while the book i'm reading (the dangerous world of butterflies) doesn't cover moths (at least not yet) butterflies are in danger, so don't kill it. i'm sure moths are a species in danger too.
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