Hickory Horned Devil

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

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.

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.

Emma Goldberg said:

I almost cycled over one of these while on vacation in Washington DC, on Rocky Creek Trail. I took a photo, and an expert at the Insect House in the Zoo was able to ID it for me. I was fascinated by it, and have never seen such a big caterpillar before. While I was sketching it on a postcard, it occured to me that it is pretty similar (except for the horns) to the Very Hungry Caterpillar. Has anyone else noticed the startling resemblance?

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Christine Wardick said:

Me and my two boys where down by a stream that runs by my house in north carolina and we found a HHD floating in the water I thought it may be posiones so we put it in a fish net and brought it back to our house and asked our elderly neighbors if they have seen any thing like it before and they all said no! One neighbor said to take it to a museum thanks to your site i was able to find out what this thing was thank you!!

tina wright said:

Found one in our front yard in Murphysboro Illinois last week. Freaked us out! 2nd time I had seen one in Murphysboro so they must live in Southern Illinois. We only have pine trees in the front though so I don't know what it was doing there.

Frankie and Brax Green said:

My mom and son just found one these scary creatures outside by our creek. Braxton is 4 and wouldn't rest until I found out what it was called. It was huge. Every bit of 6 inches. My mom has trees, a creek, and squash field behind her house so we were not sure about it's habitat. Thanks for the pictures. The appearance is scary and will forever be burned in our brains.

Ashleigh Hawkins said:

I live in southern missouri and when i was about 10 years old one of these monsters fell out of a hickory tree and latched onto my bottom lip. my lip swelled up like a poisoned pup, it was horrible. my husband has never beleived it until he saw this picture. we call them hickory monsters here.

Aaron free said:

deos ayone now where to buy them.................. becuse I keep them in a tent to let them change then I breed them

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dakhari manney said:

the hickoy horned devil carterpiller of thr regal mouth

Levi Fogle said:

Yea, found one of these Caterpillars in my back yard in carrier mills Illinois many years ago, Scared the crap out of me...any ways i was always curios if it was even native to southern Illinois since everyone i showed it to has never seen or heard of it....