Poisonous Caterpillars in Australia

Poisonous Caterpillars

Some Australian caterpillars are armed with stinging hairs, that can cause severe reactions to humans. Having read about fatalities from this in some parts of the world, I checked in Australia but cannot locate any fatalities here, which is good news.

Generally, the brightly coloured caterpillars are poisonous; their colour being a reminder to predators about their toxicity.

Treatment

To treat irritations as a result of these poisonous caterpillars, remove all affected clothing and apply a piece of adhesive tape to each of the affected areas, then pull the tape off immediately.

This will remove some of the hairs and irritants and reduce the full impact of the irritation. The use of analgesics, creams, antihistamines and lotions with steroids will also assist in relieving the symptoms.

A good one that I would use would be a hay fever tablet, as these contain antihistamines. Very useful for many insect bites etc.