Video to follow (from August 6, 2016)
Hi, Mr. Nature here! I haven’t been around much lately because I don’t want anybody to think I even know Joe Collidge.
But I’m here today to warn you off those furry, cuddly-looking caterpillars that just say “Pet me!” when you look at them. Believe me, you’ll be mighty sorry if you do pet one of them.
These critters are found throughout the Southeastern US, as far west as Texas, where they’re all over the place, and as far north as New Jersey.
If you’re really lucky, getting stung by one of these–and the venom is injected on contact, the caterpillar doesn’t have to do it on purpose–it will only be extremely painful. If you’re not so lucky, it will be much worse. It won’t kill you, but the sting of the puss caterpillar has been likened to that of a scorpion. In some parts of the country they’re called tree asps. (If you don’t know what that means, you need to do more crossword puzzles.)
I repeat: don’t touch!
These critters were all over the place in South Florida. They particularly liked my Oleander bushes. They really are a nuisance! And most people down south have sense enough to leave them alone – except for trying to eradicate them with some type of insecticide.
I was wondering about the size of this caterpillar, since I have never seen one, so I looked for more info on the web. In this video, it seems to be very small, about the size of a healthy pussy willow catkin: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Q0-jZHq0z4
Linda? I’m sure you can tell us the size of these. I’ve never seen one in person.
Yes, Goldbug, you’re correct. They’re very small – maybe an inch or so long at most. My method of attempting to rid my poor Oleanders of these things was to prune the laden branches and put them in plastic bags where I then sprayed them, rather than spraying into the whole tree and in the air.
Good thing we don’t have any of those here. Strangely, I’ve been seeing some very small caterpillars lately, a type I don’t recall ever seeing before. We’ve also had some beautiful white butterflies, which I have seen before, but usually in late summer or early autumn. In any event, I like them.