As a kid growing up in the U.S., I always thought of Caterpillars as the cute, fuzzy little things that eventually became beautiful butterflies. Other than possibly eating plants too much in the garden, I really didn’t give them much thought. I remember playing with them as a child, watching them curl in my hand or along a stick I was holding.
Did you know that caterpillars can be poisonous or venomous? I didn’t either before we moved to Central America. If you didn’t know the difference between poisonous or venomous (I didn’t), according to bioexplorer.net, poisonous caterpillars give you poison from the toxins on their outside. Venomous caterpillars, on the other hand, inject you or sting you and give you poison. Either way, it’s not fun.
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There is at least one caterpillar in South America that is actually deadly to touch. The deadly Lonomia, often bright green and quite pretty, of Brazil causes deaths every year. People in Central America always say that the more colorful and good looking the caterpillar, the stronger your reaction to it when it gets you.
One day we were hiking along a dirt road or trail in the mountains around Boquete. There were what looked like spider web strands hanging down from the trees above us. I thought they were interesting looking until something started causing a stabbing pain on my neck. I grabbed onto whatever was causing the pain. It dropped onto my chest and then fell onto my arm. After shaking it off, I realized that it was one of the black caterpillars hanging from the strands. It had dropped onto me.
Even after every trick we knew and learned—wash the spots the caterpillars touched with vinegar, put baking soda on the spots, take Benadryl, etc.—those spots hurt like crazy for a couple of weeks and then itched for a long time after that. It was an unpleasant lesson. Later I found out that this was likely a giant silkworm moth, which according to an on-line caterpillar source (leafyplace.com), is a kind of caterpillar with “venomous spines that can cause severe skin irritation and potentially life-threatening reactions in humans if touched.” Fortunately, I don’t think the ones near Boquete ever caused life-threatening reactions, but the skin irritation was pretty severe. The caterpillars would drop from their strings. Several of us got caught by these multiple times in our hikes up the mountains.
Caterpillars hid in dark places, under leaves, on the underside of branches and eaves, inside shoes. Even when prepared, a person could get stung in a pretty painful way. One of our friends who was trimming some flower bushes for us got five stings on his back and arm from some green spiny caterpillars. These caterpillars, likely the green Io Moth (which is quite pretty and multicolored with long green spikes), loved hanging out on the undersides of plants that have large leaves. There, they could settle down and eat your plant, while protecting themselves from anything else with their spines. The stings he had hurt him for quite some time.
Another time, I put my foot into a shoe. Usually, I searched for scorpions before putting on a shoe, because they hung out there and in other dark places. This time I forgot to search the shoes and swing them around for a few seconds before putting my foot inside. Big mistake. First, I thought I had left a sock inside the shoe. Then the foot started screaming in pain. I took the shoe off immediately. My foot was bright red and swelling. Inside the shoe was a fuzzy maroon and grey caterpillar. Most likely this was a type of a Southern Flannel Moth, which, according to leafyplants.com is a poisonous caterpillar that can cause “headaches, nausea, fever, and seizures.” Fortunately, in my case, we’re just talking severe skin reaction, headache and nausea. Not fun, but I’m glad to have avoided the seizures.
So many times I would be working in the garden and suddenly feel a strong pain somewhere on my body and find that some type of caterpillar was crawling along, leaving its poison or venom and pain behind. This was, of course, when the stinging pain didn’t come from the fire ants that lived in a city under our lot or potentially scorpions or other insects.
I developed such strong allergic reactions to these and other insects from the constant exposure sometimes that I needed to go to the doctor for shots or infusions of antihistamines and steroids. The doctor advised me to take multiple over the counter medications every day, because I was in such a state of constant allergic reaction.
At some point we decided to move north and sold our house. Before leaving town, we had a final goodbye party in our neighborhood community center and park. When nearly everyone had gone, I walked to the bathroom to go in. On the way to the bathroom, a colorful green caterpillar, likely a venomous Spiny Oak Slug Moth Caterpillar, dropped from the ceiling onto my hand and arm. The sting from this very pretty and colorful caterpillar left a welt and a lot of pain for a couple of weeks as a reminder that caterpillars in Central America and I don’t have a pleasant relationship. The chances of me ever again picking up a caterpillar to look at it curl in my hand or along a stick I am holding are zero.
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