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Stinging insect that looks like a crawling crumb

What are those stinging bugs that look like a crawling crumb or crawling piece of cotton? they fall off of trees as they were on our picnic table as a child and I just erected a treehouse for my children and have found a dozen of them today on the structure. I know they sting because I remember that as a child but can't remember how we treated the stings because my children are surely going to get stung. I live in North Carolina. Anyone know what I'm talking about?

Yes, lacewing is what we would suggest too
They do have pincers and are known to pinch

Do you mean...
something like this?

There is some information here.

 
Nope
It has no orange on it but is very creamy colored. Looks like a crawling bread crumb and no sections on the body can bee seen.

 
Photo?
If there's any way you could post a photo, that would help a lot. I see now that you said "crumb"--somehow I read it as "thumb," which made me think of something much bigger than what you're describing.

 
Maybe a baby lacewing or planthopper?
Something that either looks like a little fuzzball or covers itself in crumbs?

 
Eureka!!!
I looked at the pictures of plant hoppers and lacewings and Eureka!!!
It has to be a baby lacewing larvae!!! The pictures of the lacewing larvae look like a fuzzy, crawling bread crumb!! Thanks to you all for your help. This would have kept me up at night trying to figure out what these things are - you have saved me from QVC purgatory!! Now I just need to read up on them. I have told my children not to touch them when they see them. I think we will be staining the treehouse a darker color so they are easier to see.

 
Stinging
I don't think you have anything to worry about as far as the stinging goes. They might hurt a little bit if they bite--which I imagine they would only do if you picked them up--but it's just a "pinch," as the Balabans said, and not any kind of "injection" like what a bee or wasp would do.

 
No- it's not just a pinch
As mentioned in this topic, lacewing larvae actually do inject substances when they bite: like many predatory insects, their saliva contains neurochemicals that paralyze the victim, and digestive enzymes that break its tissues down into an easily-eaten soup.
The bite has been described as quite painful.

 
Whoops
Thanks for the correction, Chuck. I'd never heard of these guys causing any trouble before. Eric's comment on that forum is reassuring:

"I finally remembered to query my listserv of international entomologists about bites from lacewing larvae. Apparently it is not an uncommon phenomenon, certainly not unknown (except to me I guess:-)
No worries, no one has ever become seriously ill from a lacewing larva bite. Just uncomfortable!"

...but it sounds like the bite is something to be avoided, just the same! Luckily, that won't be hard to do, since lacewing larvae have no interest in biting a person if they're left alone.

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