Out of consideration for my dogs and my elderly neighbors (our houses are only about 4 feet apart on either side) I had my massive live oak sprayed on 2 April, to eliminate the thousands of H. maia caterpillars. A week later, one of my dogs started acting very oddly and twitching and rolling around on the floor. His behavior kind of made sense if he had been stung, but I really didn't think that a caterpillar that had been dead for almost a week would still sting that severely. I had some vague idea that the proteins in venom would break down fairly rapidly as the caterpillar decomposed. I was very worried that Ross (dog) was having a reaction to the pesticide, though that also seemed unlikely.

To decipher whether my dog was severely ill or just suffering from a sting, I went out and grabbed a dead caterpillar (pictured) and - somewhat overenthusiastically - pressed it to the back of my hand. The answer? Hell yes a dead caterpillar can still sting. This was one of the most severe buckmoth stings I've had (out of dozens). Three weeks later there are still faint speckles on my hand where the barbs punctured my skin!