My husband and I live in Phoenix, but we visited San Antonio this past weekend, and had dinner at a restaurant along the River Walk. It was a nice restaurant with an open patio. I had a sweater with me, as temperatures were brisk. I didn’t notice that the sweater had fallen to the floor while I ate and talked with friends. Afterward, on leaving the restaurant, I put the sweater over my arms and we drove to another place. Soon afterward I noticed that my right forearm, near my elbow, began to burn and become painful… [...]
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The sphinx moths are a subset of the Spingidae family, which includes hawk moths amd sphinx moths. Among these are the hummingbird moths, which are hawk moths that, like hummingbirds and certain bats, have evolved the ability to hover in a very precise position while inserting their proboscis deep into a flower’s nectary to extract its nectar… [...] The spiny oak slug (Euclea delphinii) is the larva (caterpillar) of a limacodid moth. The North American variant of this moth is mostly dark brown, with a conspicuous triangular green patch on the median portion of the upper wing. The larva has a bright green — in today’s parlance, many would likely call it “neon green” — body with two longitudinal pale green, orange, or red stripes. These stripes are adorned with a series of spiny tubercles. Additional spiny tubercles adorn the peripheral body. The spines on the tubercles… [...] 
Several picture-winged flies native to North America are commonly confused with fruit flies. Were they comparable, in terms of biology and habitat, that would not bode well for the picture-winged flies, as fruit flies deposit their eggs in living, healthy plant tissue and their larvae live and feed on the host plant. By contrast, the larvae of most species of picture-winged flies (today classified under the family Ulidiidae) are saprophagic, that is, they feed on dead, decaying tissue… [...] Before you stretch the placid waters of Lake Conroe, a large, inland, freshwater lake in southeast Texas. It is a warm, sunny day, and the breeze smells sweet. You’re ready — to the point of excited impatience — to take your watercraft out for a spin on the water. Years ago, after much research and leg work, you carefully chose Walden Marina, one of seven Flagship Marinas in the United States, as the place on Lake Conroe to berth your boat. To you, the waterways are more than a source of recreation; they’re also a precious natural resource. Like most boaters, you do your part to protect them, and you knew that Allison Harpold, the conscientious, hard-working manager at Walden Marina, does everything in her power to make it as clean and green as possible. [...] Several years ago, in conjunction with research on the puss caterpillar, I asked visitors to my website for personal reports of experiences with puss caterpillar stings. Before long. thousands of emails poured in. Sting victims told how they, their spouses, small children, even babies, reacted to the stings. Many had visited clinics or emergency rooms, fearing a life-threatening reaction, and reported on the treatments, examinations, and diagnostic tests they received in such settings. A few described the first aid measures and home remedies they’d tried, and how well they worked. Some of these measures were said to provide immediate relief, shorten recovery time, speed up the removal of lingering blemishes, and reduce scarring. At first I read these reports with skepticism. But similar reports kept coming in. In parallel with all this I was receiving, with regularity, calls and e-mails from individuals who had recently been stung and were in pain, who were seeking information on how to deal with the stings. I realized that, by collecting such information, I had become morally responsible for sharing it, including the remedies that had been shared with me, as those measures might be of help to others. It is in that spirit that the following materials are made available here. Please note that I am not a physician, and nothing in the following pages should be used to diagnose or treat a medical condition, or to replace or supplant advice provided by a medical professional. [...] Since it is common for puss caterpillar sting victims to go to nearby hospital emergency rooms for treatment, medical personnel should be familiar with this caterpillar and appropriate medical interventions. A list of websites that publish information for medical professionals on puss caterpillar stings and similar envenomations is provided below. All physicians, nurses, paramedics, and emergency medical technicians are advised to read through each of these papers well in advance of having to assist someone who has been stung by a puss caterpillar: [...] Though most of the reports I receive on puss caterpillars describe the excruciating pain their stings cause, some tell me how they touched, even played with, these caterpillars without receiving any ill effects. Often, the person reporting such an event seems to believe that they might be one of those fortunate individuals who happens to be immune from the puss caterpillar’s toxin. [...] The puss caterpillar is the larva of an insect in the order Lepidoptera. More specifically, it is a flannel moth in the family Megalopygidae (megalo: a combining form with Greek roots meaning “large”; and pygidae: from a Greek word meaning “rump”; thus “exaggerated tail”, possibly a reference to the fact that these caterpillars often–but not always–trail a conspicuous tail of hairs. [...] The following is a step-by-step approach that the author has used and supervised. It should be followed in the sequence prescribed. 1. First, protect yourself and others. On discovering a puss caterpillar infestation, insure that you, your family, and others stay out of the area to avoid getting stung, until you are properly dressed and have appropriate treatment equipment with you. [...] |
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