Hickory Horned Devil

stephanie white said:

wow...we just found one of those on the pecan tree outside. the limbs are hanging low and my son walked right into it! we are in north central florida. i have lived here my entire life and never seen one of these. they are large and rather scary!

Ashley Butler said:

i live in atlanta and as i was walking home wit my son and daughter this huge caterpillar crossed our path i was terrified because i hate caterpillars so was my daughter who is 3 and son 2...it was the most scariest thing i ever saw in my life! so i posted it on fb for everyone 2 c

Amanda said:

I saw this big huge thing walking down the sidewalk as I was walking.I have never been so frightened by a bug in my life.I literally screamed and cried..lmbo now but I was like this is unreal, is someone "punking" me..lol.the grass had freshly been cutted and I guess this creature was looking for more grass or trees or whatever..Im just so happy im not going crazy and Im not the only person to see it...My God what a weird looking thing....I had to look it up!!thanks guys!

Karen Scott said:

I was walking around in my yard, picking up broken twigs and came upon this thing! Yikes... I had to pick it up with a stick and put it in a container and get it to my grandson for his "Show and Tell". What a scary looking insect, or whatever.....

Heather Beery said:

I've been trying to find out what this was all night. My sister and I came home from school and found it out by our mailbox while walking the dog. It does make sense now though, since we have an oak tree nearby. I thought it was some kind of endangered species of insect or something. Good to know it can't hurt me though.

Jill Bertone said:

I live in Colts Neck, NJ and found one of these caterpillars at the end of my driveway. It scared me to death. My husband scooped it up in a cup and showed my father in law, but they couldn't figure out what it was. looked to me like it should have come out of the rain forrest or something. My husband then let it go. Local farmer told us it was probably a tomato caterpillar, but when i looked that up it looked similar, but not quite the same. Luckily came across your site and recognized that this was it. Our yard is full of black walnut trees so that explains it. thanks so much to this site!

Elizabeth Snead said:

My husband and I came across one in Hibernia County Park, Chester, PA 8/14/2010

Eric Bard said:

My son Eric, was helping his neighbor with a tree stump. Here was this huge caterpillar, the hickory horned devil! We were not aware it was in this area. It was huge and quite unique!! He has pictures if you wish to see it! Very exciting! Virginia Wolff, Joplin MO

Vicky Hunt said:

A parent brought one of these into our school for the kids to see. I live in north central Florida. I want to keep him in class and let him turn into a moth. How would I go about doing this? Thanks, Vicky

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David Nepley said:

On 9/18/09 I saw a horned devil walking across the walk way in our back yard. It was about 5" long and much bigger than any caterpillar I had seen. My wife came out with only a towel on when I said "come quick". We have an ash and walnut tree in the yard. It must have been looking for a place to burrow before changing. We live in Philadelphia.

Diana Martowlis said:

We found a huge orange fuzzy moth while on vacation in Wildwood, NJ in July. It was sitting on our balcony, alive, but not moving much. how surprising to know the caterpillar is sooo big. Thank goodness we didn"t stumble across it in it's "devil" phase.

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Corey Robinson said:

I found one of these just north of Houston, TX(in conroe). It was about 6 inches long.. Never seen anything like it... It is now in an aquarium... It shrunk to about half it's size and went under the dirt.... It's probably in it's cocoon now...

David Adams said:

Found one of these last week (9-9-09) in central Ky, it was along a creekbank. it has since cacooned itself and we're awaiting it's opening.

Mike Sansone said:

I am a Locomotive Engineer and this afternoon, 9-15-09 we had one of these "fall" out of the sky and hit the front windshield on the locomotive. I'm guessing he fell out of a tree.When it hit, there was a large amount of goop that came out of him but he landed on the nose of the cab and we were able to stop and pick him up. Thought we discovered a new species for a minute :). Brought it home to show my son before it dies but it won't last long, it's covered in I guess what is blood and has a large bulge on the side now. Pretty crazy looking creature though.

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Catherine Brown said:

We found one on 9/14/2009 in Hamilton,NJ. It is very freaky and with two boys that love to catch bug and study them they WILL not even look at it long! We too
will be taking it to school! To freak out others - hee hee.

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Kim Bird said:

We found one in South River, NJ 9/13/09 at our local baseball field. Freaked me out when I almost stepped on it in the grass. My 7 year old son brought it home to show his science teacher tomorrow. Very scary when you just happen upon it!!

Xavier Goines said:

We live in Johnson City, TN. We found one of these in our front yard today (9-12-09). I was wondering if anyone knows if you can keep one of these and watch it change into a moth? My mom is a science teacher and we would love to put soil in a fish tank and watch it do it's thing. Does any one know if this will work?

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Collin Jean said:

hey...we're from sulphur, la. next to lake charles. my dad found one just a couple of days ago when he discovered a big pile of what looked like rabbit droppings. not having seen a rabbit recently...he simply looked up and it was in a gum tree next to his shed. stretched out....it's over nine inches long. it's currently in my possession to find out what it was. we heard the same thing...that they were from the east coast. wonder what they're doin this far west.

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DONALD MANESS said:

I TOUGHT THIS CATAPILLAR WAS FOUND ONLY IN THE EAST . THE ONE I FOUND IS IN SIBLEY LOUISIANA. WE HAD NEVER SEEN ANOTHER IN ALL OF OUR LIVES . WE SPEND MUCH TIME IN THE WOODS AND THIS WAS A FIRST .

Aaron Zickefoose said:

We found one of these yesterday, Sept 5, 2009 on a homeschool trip to Blue Jay Point in Raleigh, NC. It took a while to get the courage to pick it up, but no one knew what it was until the park ranger went and looked it up. Anyone know when they burrow? Ours was about 5 inches long.