Bob Bailey
Director
Friends Of the River San Bernard     

Don’t Let Asps Bug You 

 

Common Name: Puss caterpillar or "asp"
Scientific Name: Megalopyge opercularis

Order: Lepidoptera

 

We are  having a lot of wonderful weather along the San Bernard river these days  - kind of makes you want to spend more time outdoors. But, keep in mind a not-so-friendly neighbor living in the trees in this part of the county, just waiting to “drop in” on you.

 On the day of the River Raiser, my oldest daughter, Ellen, and her family came down to the river to help my wife, Susan, by watching three of our grandkids who were staying for the weekend while we helped at the River Raiser.

 Early that afternoon, Ellen was watching the youngest granddaughter in our driveway under a big Oak tree. She suddenly felt a sharp pain on her arm and showed it to me. It looked like a minor burn in two places - but nothing serious. The pain got progressively worse, and her arm started feeling numb. She called a service provided by her health insurance and described the injury to an on-call nurse. After describing the increasing pain, they suggested she go to the Emergency Room (since we don't have any local health clinics).

 My son-in-law took her to Sweeny Hospital ER where the doctor on call said if she had not been exposed to a chemical spill, she had been stung by an Asp caterpillar. He gave her a shot and prescribed a painkiller. By the next morning she was "90%" better.

We looked up the description of an Asp caterpillar on the internet, and the description of the effect of its venom definitely matched her symptoms. After that, we actually found one near the house. The one that stung her must have fallen out of the Oak onto her arm, but she never noticed it.

Anyway, for those interested, a good website describing our local menace is: http://nba.uth.tmc.edu/homepage/eagleman/asp/