Is This One of the Absolute Freakiest Creatures in Maine?

Maine has a pretty good collection of weird bugs.

I always used to watch nature shows when I was a kid on Maine Public Television. Nova and Marty Stouffer's Wild America were always favorites. Especially Nova because they would show all sorts of critters from all over the world. Sometimes they were perfectly normal, like lions or whatever. But occasionally they'd head into the rain forests and that's where the fun always began.

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I was always fascinated by the size of the giant spiders or huge moths the size of your head or whatnot. As I got older and simply looked around my back yard, I realized we had plenty of peculiarities right here in Maine. Ever seen a toe biter? Or a luna moth? How about a cicada? All pretty weird looking if you've never seen one.

But seriously... this creepy-crawly takes the cake.

I saw a video on Reddit yesterday, and it was nuts. I'd never seen a living organism with less definition living on land, never mind here in Maine. It's almost like a fuzzy liquid animal. You expect weird scary stuff in the ocean with this kind of movement, but it looks wholly unnatural. Look at it!

I think the moss is moving..
byu/Accomplished_Tell_18 inMaine

It's called a Monkey Slug Caterpillar. Eventually as they complete their life cycle, they grow into a Hag Moth. Even the full grown moths are fun to look at. They're these big, black and grey creatures that look like they'll turn into a vampire and bite you. But really, they just wanna eat leaves and do their thing.

Are they as nasty as Browntail Moth Caterpillars?

As you can imagine, the hairs on these buggers can cause some irritation. To the same extent as BTM caterpillars? Hard to say, as there aren't a lot of reports of a rash from the monkey slugs. But what they may lack in rash, they basically make up for in sheer terror. I could've gone my whole life without knowing this thing is real.

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Sure, they don't seem out to cause us a lot of trouble, but wouldn't you kind of freak out if you saw what looked like a fuzzy blob crawling it's way over to you? They do have legs, nine in fact, but they sure don't look like legs. But don't ask me to kill this thing if you see one. You're on your own, bub.