North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

["Bill Russell" <shaman@pennswoods.net>]

Good grief. Do we have to garden now with space suits?

Do you know another name for the saddleback and Puss Moth? I'd like to check
them out and see if the caterpillars live in my garden. I have not been
bitten by a caterpillar yet. But last week, I mowed over a bumblebee nest
and as fast as I could run (I'm a very good runner) they kept up with me for
about 200 feet, repeatedly stinging my head and neck for the whole distance.
I don't know what made them decide that I had been worked over enough when
turned back to their nest.

This happened a few days ago, and I can still feel the knots on my head.

Bill

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Kieran and Donna" <redherring@tnaccess.com>
To: <nafex@lists.ibiblio.org>
Sent: Wednesday, August 20, 2003 7:24 PM
Subject: [NAFEX] caterpillar stings and brown recluse bites too


> Hi all,
>     While we're on this subject of stings and bites, and hopefully taking
> notes....
>     Plantain leaves contain proteolytic enzymes and are analgesic.  They
can
> be used on any kinds of bites or stings, but I tend to use meat tenderizer
> or an extractor on stings, I'd forgotton that little gadget till TFB
> mentioned it.  Plantain leaves are the ONLY thing besides ice that I know
> that will work on caterpillar stings.  The famous ones here in TN are the
> saddlebacks, locally known as "Packsaddles" and famous for getting you in
> the corn patch.  They also like willow trees, and there are a lot of other
> stinging caterpillars in the woods.  Most of them make very handsome moths
> and butterflies, I only mind them when I have a row of painful holes in my
> hide.  Plantain grows in every garden and every gravel driveway in America
I
> expect, so it's worth learning.  Since it's edible, I chew up a leaf and
> spit it on the sting.  Stops the pain quick, unless it's a %$^#@*  "puss
> moth" caterpillar, which I don't ever want to be stung by again.  After
the
> 2 hours of hand pain and then the arm and shoulder spasms, I stopped the
> headache with niacinamide (B3), and then took niacinamide day every 3
hours
> for 2 days, when I quit, the inflammation was gone.
>     Any kind of shocker device will work on stings or brown recluse bites.
> I met a fellow who owns a nursery in McMinnville who bought a shocker back
> when they first came out, before the FDA clamped down on them.  He said
the
> company was still in business, but you had to mention that you wanted for
> your DOGS.  I'd be surprised if the FDA hasn't shut down that use too by
> now.   Anyway, his gadget had electrodes 1/2" apart he said, and you did
4-5
> shocks around the bite or sting.  They used for everything at the nursery,
> wasps, bees, caterpillar stings.  One employee hadn't told them she was
> allergic, and didn't have a kit, so when she got stung, she began
screaming
> that they'd have to take her to the emergency room.  They shocked the bite
> before they left, and the reaction stopped.
>     I have been bitten 3X by brown recluse spiders, my husband got bitten
> once, and we know or have heard of a bunch of other people who've been
> bitten, and the only horror story out of the whole lot was the woman who
> didn't do anything, went out of town and THEN her arm swelled up.  By the
> time she got back 5 days later and went to get electrostim on it, she had
an
> area of dead skin on her arm 4" long and 1 1/2" wide.  The electrostim
> stopped it so it didn't eat down to the bone, she has an ugly scar but it
> could have been so much worse!  She has a coworker who turned up with a
bite
> recently, a purple place the size of a quarter that started developing a
> hole in the middle, got two electrostim tx's and a week later there wasn't
a
> mark left.  (One tx would probably have been enough.)  We've used electric
> fence, TENS units, A Beck Box and an electro-acupuncture device, all of
them
> seem to work, and usually one tx did it.  The PT  and the chiropractors I
> know who do this stuff seem to have 100% success with it.  This includes
the
> fellow who was coming in for therapy for something and told the PT that he
> had this brown recluse bite that was eating a hole in him.  The doctors
said
> there was nothing they could do but cut it out, but this was in a place
> where felt he didn't have anything to spare....   So the PT showed him how
> to use her portable machine and sent him to the restroom with it.  It
solved
> his problem.      Donna
>
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