All parents know to warn their kids to look out for poisonous snakes and stay away from wood piles, but few know to stay away from a tiny, fuzzy caterpillar.
However, Florida mom Ang Staggs is now warning parents everywhere about how dangerous these innocent looking insects are after a brush with one left her 5-year-old son in the emergency room screaming in agony. “He started screaming, screaming and screaming,” Staggs said. “He screamed, ‘Get them off me!'” Staggs rushed her son up to the bathroom, but when she got a closer look, there were no ants or bite marks of any kind.
“He started to hyperventilate from screaming, and I was trying to figure out if he got into stinging nettles, but this scream was blood-curdling,” Staggs said. “Then it clicked…” Staggs told her dad to go outside to look for a caterpillar. “He comes back in and says ‘there’s a fuzzy looking thing out there, but I don’t think it’s a caterpillar.'”
“When my dad said a ‘fuzzy-looking thing’ my heart dropped,” Staggs said. “I knew exactly what it was before I even got out there.” When she ran outside, she saw the poisonous puss caterpillar on the porch, which her son must have stepped on after taking his shoes off to go inside.
Staggs carefully put the insect in a ziplock bag and rushed her son to the emergency room. “Mommy, am I going to die?” the little boy asked his mom. “That’s how bad it was,” Staggs said. “By then his foot was turning red on the bottom of his toes and the pain was radiating to the top of his foot.” Once at the hospital, doctors immediately gave the boy Benadryl and a narcotic painkiller and kept him for three hours to make sure the reaction didn’t get worse. “The doctor compared the pain to your skin being on fire. It’s as if you are being burned. We tell our kids to stay watch out for snakes, stay away from piles of wood, but who thinks to say watch out for this caterpillar?”
“He’s a little bit sore today, but much better than yesterday. I just wanted to put this out there to warn EVERYONE that these things are out now, and you would never expect it to be a caterpillar. I have never seen my child in so much pain, and I have never felt so helpless in my life. They are not big bugs, and they do not look like a typical caterpillar. Be aware of what is around you, look on the ground, tables, chairs, your kids ride on toys, anything that is outside, even your patio.”
Did you know how dangerous these fuzzy caterpillars are? Let us know what you think in the comments below and please SHARE this with friends on Facebook.
[Featured Image: Facebook/Ang Staggs]
Mom Warns Parents After Son Is Stung By Poisonous Caterpillar is an article from: LifeDaily