Because Babies Grow Up

Here’s a reminder of the Wordless Wednesday picture from yesterday:

Saddleback Caterpillar

Here’s the story for Tell Me Thursday

We were in historic Cumberland Gap when my mom was visiting. We were wandering around this adorable little community and paused in the little park area with benches and shade trees. We were hanging around this one bench while Sammi and Elli were playing with the fallen leaves. I turned around at one point and saw this caterpillar. It hadn’t been there a minute ago and then there it was! It must have fallen from the tree.

Sammi was intrigued by it, of course. It had the craziest colors and the design was so clean cut it looked like it was painted on. I thought there’s no way this is real! It didn’t move at all. We got close; we backed up; we took picture after picture and it still didn’t move. Sammi reached her hand out a couple times, but we kept telling her to leave it be. We were trying to teach her to protect the creatures around us and not harm them. Little did we know it was us who needed protecting.

The caterpillar is called a Saddleback Caterpillar and is one of the slug family of caterpillars. It only grows to about an inch in size. These slug caterpillars have venom on their hairs that cause reactions to a person’s skin when pricked. The information we found compared the prick to that of a bee sting but the reaction is much more severe (unless you’re allergic to bee stings, I guess). It also said the reactions are far worse in young children, the aged and those with sensitive skin. Sammi is young and has VERY sensitive skin. I’m so glad she didn’t touch that caterpillar.

Here’s the site with some interesting info on the Saddleback as well as other slug caterpillars. It’s interesting to me that they all are intriguing in their appearance. Very flashy and very dangerous. Seems to be a theme with things in life, doesn’t it?