An epidemic of caterpillar sting dermatitis in a rural West Virginia community.

During a five-week interval which began May 1991, 19 patients presented to a community health center in a rural West Virginia community with a painful dermatitis. The dermatitis was caused by exposure to a single species of caterpillar, Hemileuca maia, larva of the buck moth. The caterpillars were apparently especially abundant during the period. Epidemics of caterpillar stings rarely have been reported. No previous epidemics of stings by the buck moth caterpillar have appeared in the literature.