~multifarious~

Okay, this is pretty freakish.

(At least it freaked me out.)

So I come home tonight, pull into the driveway, and get out to go and close the wooden gate.  I close the gate, and stop for a minute - something has caught my eye.

A little ball of light brown fur on the gate, at about eye level.

At first I didn't know it was alive.  Gratefully (I find out later), I touched it with a brown live oak leaf and it moved - in a caterpillar-esque fashion - and I think:  'Hmmm...I'll go snag the dogs and my camera and take a photo of this thing.  I'll call it an 'unidentified living furry object'. 

And then I did just that.

And then I came inside, fed the dogs, ate some dinner - and then sat down at my computer and googled 'light brown furry caterpillar'...and after a little searching, I came across this over at Bugs in the News (the emphasis in red was mine):

Because these caterpillars appear as innocuous pieces of fluff, children and adults may pick them up and play with them. Spines, hidden among the soft hairs, pierce the skin and release a toxin.

The toxin usually , but not always, produces an immediate onset of excruciating, unrelenting pain, radiating to the lymph nodes in the armpit or groin, and then to the chest. Though rarely a true medical emergency, these symptoms have the feel of a serious, life-threatening event. It is common for victims to visit emergency rooms for appropriate medical interventions.

Ouch.

I have never heard of these before, and here one is - on my front drive gate.  I like learning new things, but learning things associated with excruciating, unrelenting pain?  In my front yard?

Now, I read a bit further, all sorts of stories, and something about how they commonly fall out of trees (and onto people, and in one article it mentioned how if they fall into a woman's blouse, well, it 'ends badly'), trees like oak and birch and apple and persimmon.  Oh, and they like roses.  Now, a big chunk of my garden lies beneath a live oak canopy -- and while telling this story to a friend on the phone tonight, he felt that cutting down all of the trees and then torching the place might be a good idea (and then he said something about how he used to only have to think about all of the snakes - now he has to think about snakes AND these little furry caterpillars - and come on, he was KIDDING - he didn't really think the trees should be cut down...I don't think...) - but, there is quite a bit of discussion about how one should exterminate these guys.  Use tongs or wear thick plastic gloves and place them in a jar filled with soapy water...and as for that, I'm guessing I'm in for an exciting weekend of stinging caterpillar hunting.  Anyone want to join me?

But the story continues (for just a bit longer):  it seems that these caterpillars, often referred to as the puss caterpillars (because their fur is like that of a persian cat) or if you're from Texas, the asp - aka Megalopyge opercularis - have a predictably distinctive moth.  And it seems that this distinctive moth was my featured Front Door Light Moth Series, Part XIV on 23 July 2008.  Suggesting to me, as a trained observer (of Front Door Light Moths), that these guys are around.

Great.  Just great.

(Additional information on stinging hair caterpillars can be found here).

~~~~~

On a lighter (lighter?) note....

On September 17, 1787, forty-two of the 55 delegates to the Constitutional Convention held their final meeting - and the only item of business on the agenda that day was to sign the Constitution of the United States of America.

Now that's what I call a meeting.

Over at Daily Kos today I read a post that linked to a wonderful reading of the Constitution by David P. Currie, Edward H. Levi Distinguished Service Professor Emeritus at the University of Chicago Law School - the reading is available for anyone to download.  I think perhaps everyone should turn the dang television off and listen to it, you know?  It's relevant.  It might come in handy one day.  It hopefully comes in handy every day. 

~~~~~

So, besides caterpillars with venomous spines and an eloquent constitution, what was the day all about?  The lab's weekly meeting.  A student trying to incorporate the word 'multifarious' into the title of an abstract.  A discussion of when living 'large' became so popular, and how what the economy is 'experiencing' right now could have something to do with a much needed 'course correction'.  How it's stressful nonetheless.  How the times feel uncertain.  How it is hard to believe that there are only 48 or 49 days left until the election.  How Biden and Palin debate a week from Friday.  How we hope that illustrates some of the huge differences between the candidates.  How we feel that perhaps the press has been gentler on Palin because of getting critized about their treatment of Hillary Clinton.  How Palin and Clinton are such different animals that it's hard to even compare them.  We talked about last night's NOVA special on Einstein and the relationship between energy and mass and light and about Lise Meitner and nuclear fission and how she was ignored/over-looked for the Nobel Prize.  And there were more meetings.

And Katherine read a poem to us - one that appeared in Ploughshares.

Patron Saint of Astronomy by Sara E. Lamers

When she was pregnant, his mother had a vision that her unborn child 'was a dog who would set the world on fire with a torch it carried in its mouth; a dog with a torch in its mouth became a symbol for the order which he founded, the Dominicans.

            - Patron Saint Index

The complexity of earth and space

got him tongue-tied, befuddled at best,

the universe's expanse, its excess, human mass

and weight so meager amid the spinning cosmos,

and oh to spin past galaxies, past vapors, ozone,

ordinary weather and gravity - beyond all of it and still

the black continues, extends. They say

some stars we see are dead and yet

there they are, churning out a light that must be

what song would look like could sound

take on shape. And what of that torch he carries?

Where did he find it? Who lit it? How to fit

that bulk in his mouth, the sparks coursing

against the dirt of the earth while

he drags it, fire stick, weapon of heat, along miles.

Think of a burning like the burning

of gases inside of planets, raw heat, the vapors

yellow and red and green. Away from the earth

all must grow stone cool within an instant,

the galaxy like shattered glass against the skin.

Heaven knows what waits out there,

those feeble stars, this desperate sky.

Comments

[Pam/Digging]

Puss caterpillars? Eww! But what a fascinating looking creature. It was prudent of you to resist touching it. I probably would have.

Being in Texas, I have heard of asp caterpillars but thought they were the fuzzy black ones. I actually have been stung by a caterpillar before. I was clearing out some ivy in Raleigh when I felt something snap against my forearm, like a stick that had bent and snapped as it broke. When I got a rash a few minutes later, I poked around in the ivy to see what had stung me, and that's when I spotted a hairy caterpillar. The sting was a little painful but nothing like the reaction described for the puss caterpillar. Thank goodness.

[MikeG]

Hmmm... It looks like your little caterpillars aren't as obvious as the ones recently shared at Ugly Overload: http://uglyoverload.blogspot.com/2008/09/caterpillars-of-death.html.

Shouldn't a scorchingly nasty critter give some indication that it's less than desirable? Your little fuzzy fella looked almost cuddly.

Or it looked like a fuzzy bird dropping, but mimicry and nastiness don't usually go hand in hand.
[Arte Johnson] Very intereschting... but schtupud! [/Arte Johnson]

[MikeG]

Sorry, you'll have to pull the "." off the end of that URL to make it work.

[Annie in Austin]

Lucky leaf, Pam!

When I saw the photo it reminded me of something the Divas had warned me about called 'asp'... then saw that name further down the page.
And here I was just about ready to ditch Texas and head for Carolina after seeing Bob's post about Kissing Bugs.
http://dracogardens.blogspot.com/2008/09/kissing-bugs.html

Henry Mitchell was right. It's not nice to garden anywhere.

Annie

[Pam]

Pam/Digging, from what I've read, there are ~50 of this stinging caterpillars in this Genus - and the one that I saw can vary in color - and includes some of the black furry ones! It also seems that the range of (pain) responses can be quite large - so you were lucky.

MikeG, they say a problem with these cute furry ones is indeed that kids (oh lets face it, adults) think they're sweet and cuddly, so of course - pick them up. And WOW - I don't think I'd go pick up those caterpillars at that link (I mean, LETHAL caterpillars???? Yikes.).

Annie, and here I was, just watching our for snakes! It begs the age old philosophical question: is one more likely to be biten by a snake when aware of them (so over cautious and looking out for them?) or is it simply better to not look for them? (Well, perhaps this isn't an 'age old philosophical question', but it is one that is often brought up while hiking)...but yuck - Chagas? Can take up to 20 years to kill you? I've never heard of that one either. Perhaps we should all stay indoors (never!).

[Cat]

I thought I only had to worry about petting things in Australia! Dang, I would totally have touched that caterpillar. Once.

[Kate]

I guess I have to stop teasing lily about being scared of caterpillars now. that thing is CREEPY. and yet so harmless looking. wow.

[Pam]

Cat, nice to hear from you, and on such a creepy topic!!! Hope all is well.

Kate...Lily is indeed redeemed. I just had dinner with Susan and Lorri - and brought Lorri a gift from Australia for coming to feed Haiku a few times while I was gone (the dogs were boarded). When I told her the venomous caterpillar story she said 'and to think I was freaked out about the snakes!'...and now Jeff is saying he won't come out to my place again (half-kiddingly, I think...). But yeah...WOW. I knew very little (aka nothing) about any of these. Do show some of the website links to Lily!

[Taylor]

Yikes Pam! That's pretty scary. I probably would have been the idiot to pick it up and go "PRETTY!" as I cradled it to my face.

Man, there are a lot of things in Charleston that can kill you or cause you awful pain.

[Annie in Austin]

Central Texas also has scorpions and fire ants... is there a prize?

[Kim]

Yeah, I totally would have picked up that cute little cat--I admit it. :(

Feeble stars and desperate skies, indeed...

[Pam]

Annie, we have fire ants - but scorpions? I don't think so. I don't think they sound like much fun! The 'prize' made me laugh: when I was in Australia, it definitely seemed to be a classic tourist line to say every few minutes how something unusual (and generally innocuous-looking could kill you). Or at the very least make your life miserable as hell for awhile! I purchased one plant book while I was there (I couldn't resist - a small paperback titled 'Plants of Tropical North Queensland, the Compact Guide') - and the first chapter was title 'Some Harmful Plants' - starting with the harmLESS looking Gympi gympi, the stinging tree. If there were a prize, I kinda think they'd win!

Kim, it was kinda strange (in retrospect) that I didn't pick it up - but I'm certaily glad that I didn't.