Well, my daughter and I are back from our four day trip to Bald Head Island where we go as often as we can to escape and enjoy the ocean. As usual, the ride to BHI went quickly and as soon as we boarded the ferry the stress of the world melted away and we switched to "turtle time", to those not familiar with turtle time, it is "attitude" that many assume when on the island and everything slows to a turtle pace; no hurrying, throw away the watch! As usual we were excited to get to the house unpack and get some sleep, it was late and we wanted to be on the beach bright and early so my my daughter could surf.
Many of the pleasures of visiting the island is of course watching the wildlife. There is always an array of seabirds, foxes, deer, dolphins, alligators, raccoons, lizards and of course sea turtles during certain times of the year. Not paying much attention we left the house for the beach but did comment that there were a lot of caterpillars clinging to the house and trees. We, my daughter and I never saw these types of caterpillars before and were curious and took a close look at them but then hurried away to the beach.
Later on in the afternoon hanging out on the front porch, my daughter leaned against the porch railing and then yelped, stuck to her arm was a caterpillar. Flicking the caterpillar away with my finger we continued to chat and then noticed that within five minutes her arm turned red at the site of the caterpillar assault and a rash appeared. We went into the house and applied some ointment to the arm. Unfortunately, the ointment did not work very well and my daughter began to get nauseous and the rash spread. The next day the swelling did not go down and the rash spread further so we took a trip to the Public Safety Facility. When we arrived, we asked if they received any concerns from other people about being stung. The public safety person said no but did mention that they had never noticed so many caterpillars before. So, with a new strategy in mind we headed to the the hardware store where we would ask what the other people on the island were doing about controlling the infestation. As always, we asked the owners if they had repellant for the caterpillars. They said they did but that there were so many caterpillars that it would be a losing effort. I also had a concern that if there were poisoned caterpillars everywhere then the poison might be passed along to the other critters in the environment. We also found out that the caterpillars would turn into moths within ten days and the problem would resolves itself.
I know, a long story! Anyways, curious as we are we started to search the web to see what kind of caterpillar they were. Frankly, I never heard of a stinging caterpillar. After much search we could not find anything that resembled our caterpillars. The caterpillars in a line up all looked similar and we could not find the culprit. Further investigation found that no one knew what kind of caterpillar they were.
Fast forward two weeks and visiting one of the web sites to BHI there was a picture of the nasty critter. Now we know and to find out you will have to visit my next blog to find out what they are ! I will post pictures as well.
This initial blog and future blogs will be dedicated to our interaction with the wildlife on BHI from the alligators to the tiny caterpillars and turtles and all the wildlife in between.
If you have a story about about the wildlife on BHI that you would enjoy sharing we look forward to your posts.
Many of the pleasures of visiting the island is of course watching the wildlife. There is always an array of seabirds, foxes, deer, dolphins, alligators, raccoons, lizards and of course sea turtles during certain times of the year. Not paying much attention we left the house for the beach but did comment that there were a lot of caterpillars clinging to the house and trees. We, my daughter and I never saw these types of caterpillars before and were curious and took a close look at them but then hurried away to the beach.
Later on in the afternoon hanging out on the front porch, my daughter leaned against the porch railing and then yelped, stuck to her arm was a caterpillar. Flicking the caterpillar away with my finger we continued to chat and then noticed that within five minutes her arm turned red at the site of the caterpillar assault and a rash appeared. We went into the house and applied some ointment to the arm. Unfortunately, the ointment did not work very well and my daughter began to get nauseous and the rash spread. The next day the swelling did not go down and the rash spread further so we took a trip to the Public Safety Facility. When we arrived, we asked if they received any concerns from other people about being stung. The public safety person said no but did mention that they had never noticed so many caterpillars before. So, with a new strategy in mind we headed to the the hardware store where we would ask what the other people on the island were doing about controlling the infestation. As always, we asked the owners if they had repellant for the caterpillars. They said they did but that there were so many caterpillars that it would be a losing effort. I also had a concern that if there were poisoned caterpillars everywhere then the poison might be passed along to the other critters in the environment. We also found out that the caterpillars would turn into moths within ten days and the problem would resolves itself.
I know, a long story! Anyways, curious as we are we started to search the web to see what kind of caterpillar they were. Frankly, I never heard of a stinging caterpillar. After much search we could not find anything that resembled our caterpillars. The caterpillars in a line up all looked similar and we could not find the culprit. Further investigation found that no one knew what kind of caterpillar they were.
Fast forward two weeks and visiting one of the web sites to BHI there was a picture of the nasty critter. Now we know and to find out you will have to visit my next blog to find out what they are ! I will post pictures as well.
This initial blog and future blogs will be dedicated to our interaction with the wildlife on BHI from the alligators to the tiny caterpillars and turtles and all the wildlife in between.
If you have a story about about the wildlife on BHI that you would enjoy sharing we look forward to your posts.