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When I was a kid, I used to live in the middle of nowhere, surrounded by a pine forest from all sides. My parents always told me to not touch the pine caterpillars because I would get sick, so I always avoided them like the plague.
One day I was playing football in the garden and kicked the ball outside our fence into the woods. I went to retrieve it and at one point reached a clearing in the forest, where I held my hand up against a tree to have a look around trying to spot the ball. The tree felt really soft and soothing so I kept massaging it and rubbing my hand against it. I must have stayed there a good 2 or 3 minutes rubbing my hand on the tree before actually looking at it; it was a huge clump of pine processionary caterpillars. Some were already squished from my hand movements.
Anyway I didn't get sick and from that day on I picked them up with my hands every chance I got.
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Zebra
oak processionary moth caterpillars - or more specifically their hair