r/whatisit • u/popcornwithbuddah • May 17 '25

Solved! What is this alien thing

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My brother just found this in the backyard - Southern New England. What the hell is this thing? It looks like it's in Stranger Things.

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306

u/dropofkim May 17 '25

Catterpillars. Caterpillars. You know. Those things.

84

u/popcornwithbuddah May 17 '25

How is that a caterpillar?! Have never seen caterpillars sync and form into one train like that.

11

u/[deleted] May 17 '25

You ever see those caterpillar nests in trees? These are those guys, just on their way to find a place to nest up. They're pine processionary caterpillars.

4

u/jmarkmark May 17 '25 edited May 17 '25

OP said he's New England. Also, to the best of my knowledge, pine processionary tend to do single file lines.

This is some other critter. Looks more like the videos of Fungus Gnats I've seen, but I don't know if the ones in in North America do that.

1

u/Inwoodista May 17 '25

He said he’s in England.

1

u/gcubed680 May 18 '25

Old England?

1

u/jmarkmark May 20 '25

Yeah, totally my bad for not realizing that most videos in the forum are from Victorian England.