A young boy broke out with an alarming rash all over his face and body - caused by an innocent-looking caterpillar. Just 30 minutes after playing with the creature in his family's garden, four-year-old Oliver began complaining of a painful "stinging" on his face and mouth.
The next morning, he woke up covered in hives. Oliver's mum Caroline Gel is now warning others not to touch the type of caterpillar her son found - a brown tail moth caterpillar - to avoid them suffering a similar complaint.
Oliver was playing out last Tuesday evening (May 17) when he found the insect. Caroline, 43, from Steventon in Oxfordshire, said: "Oliver was learning about caterpillars at school as his class were reading the whole hungry caterpillar story.
"So he went outside to play last week and took a caterpillar down off a tree. He even made a little house for it.
"Then around half an hour later, he was complaining about a sting on his face and mouth. My husband had recently cut the grass, so I thought it might have been a grass allergy or something."
She tried to cool down Oliver's face with ice, but he still woke up the next day covered in the rash. "It was so bad particularly around his face and mouth, but it was all over his front and back too," said Caroline.
"We took him to the doctors. They said they were unsure of the cause but suggested it might have been hives so gave him antihistamines to help with the inflammation."
Caroline, a mother-of-three who works as a career coach at Oxford University, searched on Google to identify the insect as a brown tail moth caterpillar. The species has barbed hairs designed to irritate skin, acting as a defensive mechanism.
"Oliver is always outside and is very curious," Caroline said. "Normally I would never discourage him from touching things - but these insects are not very nice ones so I want to spread the word and make sure other people don't touch these caterpillars, especially children."
The antihistamines and calamine location have helped ease Oliver's symptoms, she said, while adding: "Oliver was very excited about caterpillars but not anymore. He's very vocal to people now telling them not to touch them."
