BANGOR DAILY NEWS • October 19, 2025
We’d been hiking for three miles before I started to feel a prickly sensation at the top of my foot. I stopped in the middle of the trail and pulled off my boot. Out rolled a smooshed caterpillar of a hickory tussock moth. Their hairs are barbed and contain an irritating substance that causes some people to have an allergic reaction. Over the course of the next day or so, my foot swelled and developed a bumpy rash of tiny blisters that itched horrifically — especially at night. Multiple health organizations liken the reaction to a poison ivy rash. After about a week of anti-itch cream — plus a session of me attempting to remove tiny caterpillar hairs from my skin with packing tape — my foot is back to normal. But the experience taught me to look in my hiking boots before shoving my feet into them.