Creepy Crawlers!!! Higad Season!: The Aftermath

Alright, it definitely was a bad idea to let the Higad (hairy caterpillars) from walking around my room and letting them stay inside my room and create their wondrous cocoon.

What happened:

I was in a hurry to get a huge bag for my heels (shoes), so I won't have to commute in heels to an event I was part of, which required a lot of walking from the train stations to the event venue.

The bag I choose to bring, actually had a  Higad (hairy caterpillars) cocoon under it. 

I hailed a tricycle* (three wheeled vehicle with a sidecar), put that bag on my lap, & when i got to the train station. My left thigh started to itch, as if little needles were poking my leg as I was walking. I was looking at my bag if it had some needle sticking out of it. There was nothing there, when i looked under the bag the culprit was there, a Higad cocoon. 

I tried using duct tape to remove what was left of the cocoon hair on my thigh, it didn't work. So I bought alcohol spray, to relieve the itchiness and slight tolerable pain. 

I had rashes, on the spot. Some red spots turned into bruises. 

Day after the incident. It still had the rashes, the itchiness and redness. So, I searched the internet for a solution. I found http://www.curelibrary.com/blog/health-notes/cure-for-painful-and-itchy-higad-attack-hairy-caterpillar/ which was fantastic. 

After the failed attempts of looking for a cure this home remedy did the job. Boiled some water, washed the area with water, rubbed salt, and poured vinegar on the spot. Smelled perfectly great! All I need are garlic and shallots to make a Filipino fruit dip or barbeque dip that is. Just kidding. 

Anyway that cure did a great job of relieving the itchiness and redness. My skin is slowly going back to it's normal state. Thank God!!!! :D 

Thank you www.curelibrary.com! 

Creepy Crawlers!!! Higad Season!

It has been raining on and off this June and July. Our front yard has never been so green and abundant with our bougainvilleas growing mad, kamote (sweet potato) vines competing with our green and purple alugabati (malavar spinach). Yes, I do live in the city, & lucky enough we have a small plot of soil to plant some veggies. 

Aside from all the plants growing abundantly with rain comes Higad season as well & this has been the first time that I experienced this while living in Manila. They just crawled everywhere, ate all the green that were in front of them, and even crawled inside my bedroom. I didn't want to step on them. So, I let them be.

Some of them ended up being eaten by ants.

Higad attack at the garden.

So, they crawled and created cocoons on every corner in my room, they're 10 in total and I told myself. "Okay, I'll leave you alone as long as you leave me alone, & let's see what kind of moth you'll become." Having experienced keeping some green caterpillars for my son, I knew that a cocoon normally would turn into a moth, and a chrysalis into a beautiful butterfly.

Not only did it create cocoons on every corner, it also created some on my bed sheet.

Moth on bedsheet.

I saw this moth beside one of the cocoons, I'm assuming that this moth belonged to one of the cocoons.

The little brown hairy Higad turns into this kind of moth. 

As you can see in this photo, one of the cocoons are being attacked by the red ants.

Moth from Higad Cocoon.