Browntail Moths To Be Even Worse Than Last Year

It looks like this year could be even worse than last, for the invasive Browntail Moth. The pesky little jerks provide several different kinds of suffering. If you come into contact with the hairs from the caterpillar, it will give you a rash that you won't soon forget. And if you have a hard time breathing to begin with, the hairs can get into your lungs, and pretty much make you want to pull your lungs out.

Last year, one of our co-workers down in the sales department, got tangled up with one of these bad boys, and broke out sooooo badly. The rash looked downright unbearable. And that says a lot, because I'm so allergic to poison ivy, that I usually need to seek medical attention if I get it. But the rash looks a lot like this:

These critters are so insidiously evil, the Maine Center for Disease Control gives them their own section on their website. They're basically ravenous, little poison darts, that have no practical use on this planet, other than to torture us, and destroy our forests. I may actually hate them. And I try not to hate anything. Well, except Stevia. No one likes that stuff.

For real, it's worse in some ways that the caterpillars eat young leaves on trees almost as fast as they grow, causing huge amounts of devastation to our forested areas. Last year, the combined acreage the destroyed was the equivalent of half of Baxter State Park, according to NewsCenterMaine.com.

Pair that with the toxicity of their little hairs, I would have to assume that theyr really are tiny harbingers of the end of days! Nuclear war? No way. When the end comes, and the camera is doing it's pull away shot of what becomes of us humans here in Maine, there will be just one little brown caterpillar crawling over the lens.

More likely though, we'll suck it up and tough it out.