Almost touched this little fella today - Saddleback caterpillar

I am back in Georgia pulling up my Sweet potato plants and I almost grabbed this caterpillar. It would have been bad, and was not wearing gloves at the time so yeah glad it did not happen. When I saw it I pointed it out to Hive account@lovely.logic that was helping me harvest Sweet potatoes. Said it was dangerous and not to touch it. I placed it off to the side and honestly forgot about it. Later in the day I went to ID it and sure enough it is a Saddleback! One of the most venomous caterpillars out there.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saddleback_caterpillar

Camera Model	Lumix GH6
Lens	Olympus MSC ED M. 60mm Macro lens
Filter	none
Aperture	f/7.1
Shutter Speed	1/250 sec
Film Speed	800
Spectrum	Visual Light
Wavelength	380 through 700 nanometers
Location	North Georgia USA.

Here are some of the symptoms of their sting:

Some of the symptoms include headaches, conjunctivitis, difficulty breathing, gastrointestinal symptoms, asthma complications, anaphylactic shock and hemorrhaging.

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saddleback_caterpillar#Dangers_and_treatments_of_stings

Luckily I did not touch it, so I had none of these issues. But I was quickly aware I am dealing with a very dangerous caterpillar.

It stayed completely still, and seems to know nothing will touch it.

I mean look at that face.. very menacing.

It seemed happy to just rest on my Sweet potato leaf, I took some pictures of it with my new camera and just left alone.

Glad I did not touch it, otherwise I would not be writing this post right now. Rather treating my hands for a terrible caterpillar sting.

On the good news side here was our 2022 Sweet potato harvest.. Almost all of them were good, no chipmunk damage this year. I have not weighed them but it looks like at least 10 pounds.