When I was a kid My neighbor and I let a white one crawl on us and ended up with a bad rash. My neighbor said the brown ones don’t do that. True? Christy Bridge Joseph
Christy, ALL of the “Wooly Worms” have irritant hairs on their body, as part of their defenses. NONE of the US species are known to bite and are thus, “harmless”. The hairs can affect people on an individual basis, depending upon how sensitive they are to the hairs. The hairs can penetrate soft skin and thus, cause problems to small children. This pic is from the internet -fyi: Salt Marsh Moth Caterpillar and is common US species and is “harmless”, altho it has irritant hairs. Hope this clears up some of the questions.
