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Cinnabar caterpillars and children

4 replies

ICantChoose · 07/07/2020 08:35

Went outside the other day and found a load of cinnabar caterpillars on the grass. I've seen online that they are poisonous to predators but I'm wary of letting my 1 and 3 year old outside in case they are poisonous to touch for humans. Anyone know anything?

OP posts:
MereDintofPandiculation · 07/07/2020 11:45

They would only be poisonous if you ate them. Touching is no problem. They absorb the poisonous substance in their foodstuff, ragwort. There have been no reported cases of poisoning of humans in the UK by ragwort. You must make up your own mind, but it wouldn't worry me.

goingoverground · 07/07/2020 11:55

The hairs can cause a nasty, itchy rash if you touch them.

MereDintofPandiculation · 07/07/2020 22:23

I'd never thought of cinnabars as hairy, but they do have a few hairs. I can't find anything on-line to suggest they cause a rash apart from this site, which has suffered so much in translation I'm not sure how credence I'd like to put on it sites.google.com/site/vansalegend/home/articles/10th-of-most-poisonous-caterpillars

goingoverground · 08/07/2020 15:08

They have sparse, long hairs that can cause caterpillar dermatitis.

Cinnabar caterpillars and children
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