Why You Should Never Touch This Fuzzy Little Caterpillar in Louisiana
Remember the movie Gremlins that starred Hoyt Axton as an inventor who bought the cute little creature Gizmo and soon discovered the "cuteness" of these little boogers was exceptionally misguided?
Louisiana has a few "gremlins" of our own, and despite their fuzzy, little, "cuteness", you certainly don't want to underestimate their power to inflict pain.
Louisiana Caterpillars Can Be Cute But Painful
My uncle has the perfect story to demonstrate the point, when what started as a routine day doing some clipping on the tractor in DeSoto Parish, nearly ended in a trip to the hospital.
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As he does each year about this time, he was out on his tractor trying to clean things up on his Grand Cane property.
He says that the grass and weeds were pretty tall and as he navigated through the jungle, he looked down to see a caterpillar had landed on his left forearm.
He didn't think much about it until he reached over with his other hand to swipe it away and the slight agony of a painful sting began to set in. Still convinced there wasn't much to it, he continued along on the tractor until he noticed the swelling in the area of the sting and was somewhat concerned.
Thinking this little furry caterpillar might have just cost him a day of work and a trip to the hospital to get this sting looked at, he began to get aggravated.
However, after a few hours, the swelling went down, easing his concerns of a possible allergy, he went about his business, but has never once forgotten that "those little boogers will bite you."
There Are 4 Caterpillars in Louisiana That Can Hurt You
Thankfully, I was able to learn from his experience and have since discovered that there are actually four different caterpillars native to Louisiana that are capable of stinging humans, with some possibly causing some serious health complications.
Some may look cute, some are kind of ugly. But all 4 can be pretty painful and even dangerous if you mess with them. Here's the 4 little buggers you have to keep an eye out for.