Why is "hot pepper" spicy? How spicy is it?

Because prickly caterpillars (commonly known as "foreign peppers") are called prickly flowers, scalding hair and baking racks in some areas, and they are called hair-sweeping racks, horse-sweeping racks and coquettish racks in Zibo, Shandong Province, with different names. ) There are poisonous gland hairs on the body surface, and poisonous gland cells secrete venom at the root of the hair and inject it into the skin through capillaries.

After the venom is injected into the skin, the skin reaction is caused by the primary stimulation of the venom to the skin. Make the pores quickly inflamed, swollen and itchy, accompanied by pain, and dare not touch them with your hands. Severe cases may be life-threatening. But generally it will not cause harm to the skin without sweat holes (such as the surface of fingers).

Animals have something to protect themselves, just as hedgehogs and porcupines have thorns to protect themselves, so do caterpillars. His way is to keep you away from him after being stabbed by him to avoid causing danger to him.

Extended data

Echinopithecus dermatitis is an acute dermatitis caused by the venom released by the poisonous hair of Echinopithecus monkey. In places where spiny caterpillars grow, dead spines are still toxic for a certain period of time and will be scattered to people with the wind, so people who have never been exposed to too many spiny caterpillars will suddenly develop spiny dermatitis.

Generally speaking, the face and neck are more common. Damage usually manifests as edematous erythema, wheal or large area edema, with occasional blisters or bullae, mostly single or small blisters. Consciously severe pain, often accompanied by itching in the later stage. The treatment methods are as follows:

1, analgesic and antipruritic agent for external use. Paste the affected area repeatedly with an adhesive plaster to remove toxic hair.

2, indigenous treatment: applying a little kerosene to the affected area can alleviate or eliminate pain and redness.

3. Because the venom is acidic, the affected area can be washed with diluted alkaline water or baking soda water;

4. Stick it down with white tape and coat it with wind oil.

References:

Baidu Encyclopedia-Spiny Caterpillar