I got stung by one of these yesterday. Saddleback caterpillar, one of those fun ones with venomous hairs. Felt like a mild bee sting that lingered. They hang out on leaf undersides so you don't see them. I had them last year on a PawPaw, yesterday on a pear. Counted 8. They moved on though and I'm leery of brushing against anything in that area!

That thing is ugly!!! The remedy to the sting may be inside your tree.

That is too cool. I'm sorry you got too close. I didn't know they ranged up here.

Been stung by two different saddlebacks, both stings hurt like h$@# and did last for awhile. I rate the pain about a 6.

Yikes Kelby...you be careful!

That is one awesome looking critter!  We have nothing like that in Colorado that I've ever encountered.

Kelby,
So sorry you got tagged.
I posted several times about these things last year when I found a bunch of them.
I wish we had a way to organize this forum so anyone interested in possible "ouch" type bugs could look things up more easily.

It seems every year I find out about some nasty thing I didn't know about before. But even though I post pictures and a warning it just moves down the page and onto page 2 then 3 , etc. What's even worse is the entomologists can't agree on what's responsible for what. Some will tell you there is only one venomous spider in Virginia, some 2 and some will tell you there are as many as a dozen. Accck - before we go any further -- all spiders are venomous. It comes down to whether they have the mouth parts to deliver venom and whether that venom reacts to each individual.
Anyway I hope you don't get "it" again.
mgg

We have scorpions, tarantulas, rattlesnakes, but not that!  OMG!!

Suzi

They look cool!
We had slender wasps in the figs then now small yellow wasps play in the garden and eat anything moving, mantises are everywhere too... Ants are crazy, instead of pollinating my Jujube they eat the flowers and had discovered my white mulberries.

Yikes!

That is the coolest looking caterpillar I have seen.  Doesn't look like he moves too fast.

Does it do much damage to the tree or is it just helping with the leaf thinning?

Here is what it looks like as an adult.

 

Gypsy moth and tent caterpillars do a lot of damage around here.   This year I have seen a lot of webworm.  I didn't know they were also bad.  Too bad chickens won't eat these things (I have tried).
Webworms seem all over my figs this year.  They just keep crawling around and around the leaves but they don't seem to recognize the fig..

Kelby
Looks around here we are blessed with gazillions of webworms. 
I thought they were supposed to eat decaying matter only and therefore relatively harmless. 
But I caught another one of the little fellows on my figs and I see a trail of droppings and it looks like they eat the edge of the fig leaves.

 


 

Kelby, those are some horns on your saddlebacks! We had a bunch of these nasty things on some of our Hybrid Poplars last year and they had voracious appetites! Had to hunt them all down to keep them away from the tender fig tree leaves. Here's a few pix of a group of them that we pulled off then squished.

Suzi, I think your pests are much worse than this nuisance. They would eat mine, haha.

It looks like a new brood hatched. Lots of new, little ones today. Shailesh can attest to this. As long as they stay on the pear tree they can live...

 

I much prefer finding these, I was really starting to worry about the Monarchs! I counted at least 6 on this milkweed plant.

last yr i was grilling out and enjoying some beer, and one of those hairy monster dropped on me.. and went inside of my shirt. i killed it, but in process, they darn thing decided to poke me all over with its hair thingy. i had massive hive all over for good 2 weeks. not fun. 

This was a surprise.