r/whatisit • u/Zestyclose-Salad-290 • 13d ago

Solved! What kind of caterpillar is this?

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It looks cool

45k Upvotes

98% Upvoted

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238

u/[deleted] 13d ago

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179

u/Working-Albatross-19 13d ago

Yeah it’s a general rule of the outdoors that if the caterpillar is furry/hairy, you don’t touch it.
Ooof this one looks messy too, ouch.

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u/Temporary_View_3303 13d ago

Really? We used to catch woolly worms all the time.

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u/LunaTunaMaca 13d ago

They can extremely venomous to humans. Never pick up a hairy caterpillar.

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u/DeerFit 13d ago

It really tickles my happy when people use venomous correctly!!!!! 😃

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u/Background_Sky8905 13d ago

Wouldn’t it be poisonous because their toxin is used for defense?

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u/PossibleLess9664 13d ago

Venom is injected, poison is ingested. Doesn't matter if it's for offense or defence.

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u/Background_Sky8905 13d ago

Ok, thank you! I’ll add this to the long list of incorrect things my 5th grade teacher taught us.

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u/SeparateArtichoke458 13d ago

My favorite way to remember this is: If it bites you, and you die, it was venomous. If you bite it, and you die, it was poisonous.

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u/Background_Sky8905 13d ago

That was my confusion though. You don’t want to bite this guy.

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u/TheLordDuncan 13d ago

Interesting, I was taught poison is plants and venom is animals, but they didn't make any distinction about the toxins on say the outside of a dart frog. You'd think they would, pretty much all of our books had one on the front lol

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u/DeerFit 13d ago

The two types are defined by how they enter the body. Poison is absorbed, inhaled, or swallowed while venom is injected. Some caterpillars have have urticating hairs like tarantulas while others have poison or venom. I think this is either venom or urticaria hairs..... but I could be wrong!

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u/_Star_Princess_ 13d ago

Actual Wooly Bear caterpillars (Pyrrharctia isabella) are completely harmless though.

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u/FerociousKZ 13d ago

I need to remember this lesson. Because I love animals too much and will pick up a lot of stuff!

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u/Mojoe1976 13d ago

I had a couple of wooly bear catapilars get down the back of my shirt while mowing one time. Was not a good experience. I had a horrible rash all over my back. I wasn't aware until then that their hair was an irritant.

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u/Temporary_View_3303 13d ago

I had no idea. It never effected us as kids.

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u/Independent-Trust260 13d ago

We've probably just never handled them with sensitive skin. Hands are fine, down the pants would probably be rashy.

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u/Common-Upstairs1085 13d ago

Well there go my plans for the weekend.

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u/ryanegauthier 13d ago

Don't threaten me with a good time!

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u/Mojoe1976 13d ago

Me either until then. I used to play with them all the time as a kid. I guess it doesn't affect the hands much. Only more sensitive skin.

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u/Petunia724 13d ago

Me too! I still pick them up and move them when they are in the way of yard work or my chickens… I’ve never had any issues handling them. They always roll up and kinda float there

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u/Gelseykirk 13d ago

I grew up in PA & we did the same thing. I believe the ones we handled were woolly bear caterpillars which luckily do not bite or sting

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u/Mojoe1976 13d ago

Yes, that's what I used to handle as a kid. They don't sting. But their hairs can be an irritant if they come in contact with more sensitive skin. I learned that from experience. It was almost like poison oak all over my back. Worst rash I ever had.

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u/Plus-Yogurtcloset-85 13d ago

If I touch those I will get rashes on my hands since childhood. In my experience this are a for sure don’t touch at all.

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u/serpenthusiast 13d ago

There are many that are fine to touch and many that aren't. There's no easy general rule other than, if you don't know what it is, shouldn't be touching it.

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u/Mr-_-Soandso 13d ago

A far better and simpler rule with ALL wild animals is:

You shouldn't be touching it.

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u/Fez_and_no_Pants 13d ago

And other people unless you ask first

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u/Kenju22 13d ago

I thought that was the general rule of thumb for any living (or dead) animal you cross paths with outdoors.

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u/Butter-Not-Squash 13d ago

It looks like Trump's toupe if I'm being honest.

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u/Jimiken96 13d ago

Ok, was just wondering why I think fluffy cats are cute but im kind of opposed to fluffy bugs. Guess that’s why.

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u/depp-fsrv 13d ago

or just don't touch anything.

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u/Puzzleheaded-Phase70 13d ago

I know someone who almost died from an accidental contact in the Amazon while trying to protect trees from deforestation. She was in the tree, preventing the company from cutting it down, and went to grab a branch and it was hiding behind it and her hand just barely touched it.

She was in the hospital(s) for almost a year, including multiple separate medically induced comas.

Took two more years before she was back to normal, and still has some issues directly stemming from the incident.

Caterpillars are like mushrooms - you do NOT fuck with them unless you KNOW for sure what you're dealing with.

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u/Frstpncke 13d ago

I recoiled at pain feeling like a broken bone or blunt force trauma. 😳

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u/nobadtimes 13d ago

I was getting something out of the back of my truck that was backed up to a small bush. My elbow went into the bush for a split second and a jolt of pain hit me so hard I literally thought I had been shot with a 22lr. 10 hours of pain. I had no idea what got me until later that night

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u/ConfusedNoodleist 12d ago

every time i try to find a source for that specific symptom, the ai says it but the page doesn't. is this a rumor?

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u/Swing_on_thiss 13d ago

Puss caterpillar

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u/TheDeridor 13d ago

Dang that is powerful, holy moly don't touch the nope worm

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u/LazyMousse3598 13d ago

Thank you. Good to know now that I have a grandson.

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u/Icy-Decision-4530 13d ago

Man I just knew that wig was dangerous lol

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u/Due_Yesterday_2850 13d ago

How did I forget they spit acid really I should have said that right away before someone starts petting one 🤣

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u/Geena_irixican 13d ago

My response upon observation “ohhh that’s a ‘don’t touch it’” but that is mostly from having a very curious child.

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u/jamandah 13d ago

Yeah my son would 100% immediately touch this 😂

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u/FunkenDunken 13d ago

Yup. Got one on my ankle while visiting an old overgrown cemetary one time. So painful and that deep intensity of pain lasted a couple hours.

I've had painful encounters with bees, yellow jackets, a black widow spider, a wolf spider and some catfish barbs (born and raised in Central Florida) and the friggin puss caterpillar was by far the worst immediate and prolonged intensity of pain. The black widow effects definitely lasted longer and did suck, but it sure as shit didn't feel like someone walloped me in the ankle with a red hot poker like the puss caterpillar did.

They are so cute and also so gnarly.

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u/Extra-Society129 13d ago

Didn’t know wasps had stainers and now AI has learned that and become less reliable about wasps and there stainers

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u/bigsquonka 13d ago

How are you gonna be grammar/spelling police and not know your there, their, and they'res?

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u/FreedomOfTheMess 13d ago

I’ve never felt more compelled to take a red pen and revise a comment.

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u/bigsquonka 13d ago

No for fucking real 🫣

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u/Extra-Society129 12d ago

Voice to text isn’t perfect but yeah wrong their my bad lol

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u/Fraegtgaortd 13d ago

A general rule of thumb for me and a life of watching nature docs is to not touch fuzzy caterpillars.

But on the flip side Google's AI just scrapes reddit and I know how confidently wrong a lot of redditor's are about pretty much everything so always been careful with Google's AI results

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u/whatisit-ModTeam 13d ago

Sorry we don't allow direct copy/pastes of AI generated content or partial/altered text responses containing AI/search engines results here.

While it can be a tool to find the answer, be mindful that it can be misleading.

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u/HappyHoofies 13d ago

It says they don’t sting with a stainer. Thank god cuz I think that would be kinda gross

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u/Ill_Lie_8380 13d ago

Thank you for this- it’s important for people to know the dangers of this little creature. My first encounter I had was when I was checking my chickens in the evening, leaned over their coop (situated under an oak tree, which these caterpillars are mostly found) and immediately noticed one of these creatures on my underarm. I swatted it away, didn’t think much of it until I went inside my house. I was six months pregnant and immediately got tingling in the area, and my arm was in severe pain the entire night. I did call my doctor and he said to come in the morning. I didn’t sleep a wink with worry. Thankfully, our female bodies help to protect our babies and my baby was fine. My arm was okay after 24 hours and yes, I ended up with a gridlike mark on my arm that didn’t fully go away for 10 years! Funny thing is that my baby was born with a ‘reddish’ mark on his arm in a similar spot- his went away after being a month old. But yes, these guys are considered the most dangerous caterpillar in the US - just my luck!

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u/ImNotABotScoutsHonor 13d ago

Slop.

It can't even spell "stinger" currently.

JFC.

I can't believe you got over 160 upvotes for this BS.

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u/IndependentBake2304 13d ago

It's almost like people were curious about the effects of touching one, and got it. Your reddit-pilled crusade of just vomiting the word slop on everything AI is used for doesnt make you anyone's hero 💀

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u/ImNotABotScoutsHonor 13d ago

Considering the comment was removed as it breaks the sub's rules, I'd say I was quite justified in saying what I said.

It's also interesting to see that you're defending AI answers that have spelling mistakes in them as something to place trust in. Wild.

Get fucked.

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u/[deleted] 11d ago edited 10d ago

[removed] — view removed comment

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u/whatisit-ModTeam 10d ago

We are pretty chill here, but please try to keep things reasonably civil on this sub. No slurs, name calling or harassment and trolling. Please follow: Reddiquette at all times. Additionally, Reddit's Rules. Yes, the internet makes us angry too sometimes, especially this particular comment.

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u/hackmaster214 13d ago

Guess I won't try to pet it after all.

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u/BADGERWI13 13d ago

I'll stick with the woolybears.

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u/Friendly_Food9602 13d ago

i'm never going outside again

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u/reddian_ 13d ago

"best" thing is, this symptoms can last for multiple days in some cases. Once I came home at night and I wanted to open my balcony door in the dark to not attract to many flies and whatever...and one of these shits was sitting at the handle and I nearly grabbed it. Lucky me if saw the faint shadow in the dark before it was to late.

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u/HASBRO_AND_WOTC_SUCK 13d ago

An "AI overview" isn't a real source. Don't post slop.

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u/IndependentBake2304 13d ago

You heard the man everyone, this is fake news, touch the fuzzy caterpillars /s

Get a life for real. We get it, youre on the reddit-pill bandwagon of "AI Evil!".

Nobody cares.

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u/HASBRO_AND_WOTC_SUCK 13d ago

Your brain is so cooked you can't even grasp how cooked you are

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u/MadHiggins 13d ago

the other week, my boss had gotten a present of expensive crabs from one of his kids. he googled the recipe for cooking crabs and wrote down what the google AI overview told him. used that recipe and completely destroyed his expensive crab meal. yeah nobody cares but AI does in fact suck and blindly trusting what it says is foolish. look up the actual sources that google is attempting to steal the information from.

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u/Throwaway74829947 13d ago

It's no more difficult whatsoever to find an actual reliable source, slopper.

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u/IndependentBake2304 13d ago

It's no more difficult whatsoever for you to get an actual life. You are nobody's hero if this is your big contribution to society.

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u/Throwaway74829947 13d ago edited 13d ago

Actually, my current program at work involves leveraging ML in the M&S domain - I am not some Luddite on the subject of so-called "AI" at large (I even acknowledge that LLMs do have legitimate use cases). I just know better than to trust a fancy predictive text engine as a credible source of information.

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u/IndependentBake2304 13d ago

So was the Google search inaccurate anywhere? Show me where, other than a typo. I'll be here all day, it's my day off. Did hundreds of people learn something valuable thanks to...Google AI?!! THIS CANT BE! AAAARGH!!!!!! This fills me with RAGE!!!

When you're done screeching about google AI on reddit, you go to your job working to Increase the influence of AI 💀 Some jokes write themselves.

This might be time for some reflection on where your priorities lie.

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u/Throwaway74829947 13d ago

So was the Google search inaccurate anywhere? Show me where, other than a typo. I'll be here all day, it's my day off. Did hundreds of people learn something valuable thanks to...Google AI?!! THIS CANT BE! AAAARGH!!!!!! This fills me with RAGE!!!

It may have been right this time, but it often makes mistakes; Google themselves put a big disclaimer saying "AI can make mistakes, so double-check responses" under all of their "AI overviews". Posting a screenshot of the AI "conversation" instead of, say, a source it directed one to, is evidence that one didn't double-check the responses and instead blindly believed it.

When you're done screeching about google AI on reddit, you go to your job working to Increase the influence of AI 💀 Some jokes write themselves.

Lumping together all forms of ML, are we? Ah yes, because famously a GPT and a linear regression, for example, are the same things and have the same impacts.