Be careful with those hairy caterpillars! If you get the hairs on your tender skin, for example the back of your leg, your neck, or the inside of your forearm, they will sting like nettles or a jelly fish. One morning I got up in the predawn hours to catch a bus into Guatemala City, I lit a candle, and proceeded to get dressed. When I slipped on my shirt I got this incredible burning sensation at my belt line. I pulled off my shirt, and dropped my pants, and out fell one of those big hairy caterpillars. There were several different species of them at different times of the year, but the locals said they were all equally nasty if they rubbed you in a tender place. If my memory serves me correctly, they logically appeared in the rainy season when their host plants were growing. Ask the locals about them, and you might be told a few humorous tales such as mine. While on the subject of nasty things let me comment on poisonous snakes. As is the custom throughout Latin America the Highland Maya were very cautious of and disliked all snakes. Whenever I asked someone which snakes were venomous and which ones were not the answer was that all of them were venomous. Now the naturalist in me said that was not logical, however, in my three years of living in the highlands I only saw two snakes, and they both were these short and fat little pit vipers. In fact while I was there, one of my neighbors was snake bit while working in the milpa, and he was sick for a couple days. So, even though it was hard for me to believe, my observations were that all snakes were indeed venomous. Go figure!