'Tis the season to be covered in caterpillars. Gypsy moth caterpillars are everywhere and if you stand outside in one place too long you'll wind up with one, two or five on you. They may be climbing up your pants leg...or under your pants leg! You might have one sitting on your shoulder looking like your pet parrot....or sometimes they wind up in your hair....ewwww!
I know they are pests, but when you have a kid that loves all things furry you just wind up excusing that fact. Every year for at least the past 3 years, K has been bringing a few of these "pets" inside and watching them go through their cycle. It's just something that she does and until this year it's been a fairly ordinary thing. This year, however, her body decided that it was now allergic to gypsy moth caterpillars. Oh what a fun event that was. It took me two days to connect them to the huge itching welts that were popping up on her. Just when I figured it was the caterpillars, she pulled one out of the cage and let it crawl all over her hand. I didn't say anything at the moment, other then put him back in and let's see what happens. And see we did! Thirty minutes passed by and her hand blew up. Welts all up her fingers and her thumb was too fat to bend. Hmmm.....ding, ding....we had the connection. Benadryl brought her back to normal and it's been hands off since. That doesn't stop her from watching them and playing with them....yesterday she put her winter gloves on and played hospital rescuing ones that looked weak! Like I said....she loves ALL things furry.
The other night she went out back to take a few pictures.
Is it just me or do you think these caterpillars are organizing themselves to spell out some message?
5 comments:
Allergies to caterpillars? How sad! Not that I want to touch them anyway but really what is the world coming to when kids can't even play with caterpillars w/o breaking out and/or swelling up. Poor thing! Oh, by the way, I now feel like they're crawling all over me. :) YUCK!
I've never heard of caterpillar allergies...that is wild. It makes you wonder how many people might be allergic to them and don't even know it.
We have them everywhere here too:) My little boy keeps calling them his pets:)
I have one bug lover in the house (the 3 year old)and your worms look similar to the Army Worms we get in Minnesota. Great post though. That is wild she would be allwergic. Thanks for stopping by my blog too!
Wow on so many levels. Allergic? And wow that her hand swelled up. And wow, eww gross, about all those bugs.
Over from sits.
Oh.My.Gosh!!! I got the hibbie jibbies!! Those are a lot of caterpillars in one area. I am thinking there is a horror film in the making:)
I have never heard of being allergic to caterpillars. Though that is sad she can no longer do what she loves.
Thanks for stopping by and checking out my recipe:)
Post a Comment