OH SO ITCHY!!

The day before flying down to Tennessee I had a Hickory Tussock caterpillar, see pic below of a similar critter, climb up my left pant leg at some point when I was cutting my lawn.

I knew something was off, as my left ankle area was bothering me and very itchy.  However, I ignored it and kept mowing.  Only when I was done mowing did I finally peel back my pant leg to find a BIG hickory tussock caterpillar nestled or tangled in there.

I don't recall ever having issues with these dudes and have handled them in the past.  However, I can't say I ever had one in my britches before...

Seems exposure to hickory tussock moth caterpillar hairs generally results in a localized rash and associated itching - Yes and check I can now confirm this!  Apparently, ingesting the hairs may additionally elicit associated drooling, irritability and anorexia.  Now that's odd, as I did NOT ingest any of this critters hairs but oddly enough I do drool, especially when sleeping, and well, I'm always irritable and wish I could stop eating so much!  Hmm, go figure.

Well, as stated I certainly got a localized rash all over my left ankle, which also spread up to my knee and was super itchy!

I fought the urge to scratch and applied rubbing alcohol to the areas and it seemed to keep things in check.

My trip went fine with no major itching of flare ups.  After returning home on Saturday, Sunday the lawn needed to be cut again, so I put on my yard slacks and off I went and spent several hours out in the yard mowing, trimming and getting things organized again after being away for a week.  However, what I failed to remember was that I had NOT washed my yard pants, YIKES!  So, can you guess what happened?  Yup, there was still hairs from the hickory tussock caterpillar in the left pant leg and OMG, it's like ground hogs days and I'm reliving the rash and incredible itching once again AND it's spread more, see pic below -

This gave me an excuse to fill up the jacuzzi hot tub and soak for a half hour, which has helped with the itching and swelling but need to do some research for a home remedy on how to stop crazy itching. 

I decided to toss those yard trousers in the trash, NOT going to risk it.  I was in need of a new pair of yard knickers anyway.