Keep your hands off those cute fuzzy caterpillars
Hickory tussock moth caterpillars are on the move, looking for a winter home. They are fuzzy, bright and cute. Don’t pet them. Also, don’t lick them. Eastern Ontario is home to this bug, and it’s sort of toxic, or at least irritating if you handle it. Doctors aren’t sure exactly how it causes the reaction, but insect scientist Amanda Roe says its cute hairs that look like fur are in fact barbed, a little like porcupine quills.
Once lodged in the skin they can cause a rash similar to poison ivy or stinging nettles, whether this is from something chemical or just the fact that tiny barbs in the skin are irritating. Unfortunately, they attract children who want to pet the “furry” caterpillars.
A survey by the U.S. National Institutes of Health found four out of five skin reactions were in children. Of those, “92.1% were dermal exposures, 7.5% oral, and 0.4% ocular (in the eyes),” it concluded.
Yes, that means children are licking them.
Roe grew up in Western Canada and used to bring home other fuzzy caterpillars (though not the tussock moth, which doesn’t live there).
The tussock moths — there are several varieties — are native here.
“The hickory one does come out in late summer. Kids usually find them because they are very brightly coloured and fuzzy,” she said. “The reason they’re brightly coloured and fuzzy is they use that to protect themselves” against birds that eat bugs. It’s a signal to birds that they are not safe to eat. Monarch butterflies use the same strategy. They are toxic if eaten.
Roe says the reaction in most people is not dangerous. But “like anything, anyone can have a severe reaction ... like peanuts or bee stings.
“Some people are going to react more than others, or less. As a kid I handled these things all the time. Any fuzzy caterpillar, I kept it as a pet and I never reacted to it, but I know kids who have.”
The caterpillars are now walking around, looking for a place to spin a cocoon and wait through the winter. They spent summer up in trees.
“They are stunning. They’re beautiful caterpillars,” she said. But “one of the rules in the natural world is that if it’s bright and colourful, there’s a reason why.”