Hummingbird and Butterfly Gardening: IO Moth Caterpillars, 1 by TexasPuddyPrint

TexasPuddyPrint wrote:
Yep...they can camouflage themselves so well when they are on greenery.

Do hope you are feeling better.

I get Io caterpillars on my wisteria a couple of times a year. Every now and then I'll bring a few in to raise but am very careful when cleaning out the cage :o)

I once had a terrible encounter with an asp caterpillar. Now that one knocked me out for about 20 hours. It was on a branch I was moving to the dump pile. I dropped everything but made the mistake of rubbing my arm against the side of my stomach - the stinging hairs went through my t-shirt and zapped my abdomen as well. OUCH!!!

On some caterpillars, like the asp, you place duct tape or postal tape on the area that has the stinging hairs and peel it off - the tape does a good job at picking up any little pieces as well as pulling out anything that is embedded into your skin. Haven't been zapped by an Io caterpillar though...so don't know if that will work on those kind of stings.

Here's an Io cat I raised last year measured in centimeters :o)

~ Cat