The spongy moth caterpillars have arrived and some people are experiencing allergic reactions that have them itching for relief.

Commissioner Scott Metzger shared with his cohorts and the public this week that he had ended up at the county’s Wellness Center seeking relief from a rash caused by the caterpillars.

“The eggs are hatching and they’re leaving what looks like little specks of dirt as they land on you,” Metzger said.

According to some people, the tiny caterpillars are showing up everywhere and seem impossible to avoid.

The best way to try to keep from experiencing a reaction is to try to minimize the area of exposed skin when outside or try to avoid areas where the caterpillars are, according to Dr. Nathaniel Hare, an allergist at UPMC in Northcentral PA.

“Once they’re on your skin, that’s when you’re going to end up with problems,” Hare said.

If they do get on your skin, Hare suggests you first try to brush them off.

“The problem is caterpillars that cause problems like this basically have, they’re kind of like little hairs. And they’re kind of microscopic or semi-microscopic and they can get stuck in your skin,” Hare said.

Those hair-like things have proteins on them and, when they get in your skin, your immune system reacts to them. Just like when a bee stings you, your immune system overreacts to something harmless that it shouldn’t be reacting to, he explained.

“There’s proteins in there that your immune system reacts to, it’s not really toxic but your immune system reacting to it is what ends up causing the problem on your skin,” he said.

One way to try to remove the little hair-like projections, called setae, is to take a strip of tape, put it on your skin and then pull it off, Hare suggested.

“It should help remove some of the little spines or little hairs that get stuck in there. That might be one way to try to help at least get those out,” he said.

The symptoms of an allergic reaction can last hours to a couple of days, he said.

“Because you can have an immediate type of allergic reaction or you can have like a delayed type or, a lot of times, they say it can be mixed, both immediate and delayed,” Hare said.

“(For an) immediate type, you could use any kind of a topical, over-the-counter anti-itch medication that can be a cream, a spray or whatever, which can include antihistamines, like Benadryl-type sprays. You could use a topical steroid cream or ointment — hydrocortisones over the counter and then there’s prescription strength ones that you could get,” he said.

Sometimes simply applying ice might be enough to help immediately, but for a long-term solution, oral antihistamines might be necessary, particularly if the rash becomes more itchy and hive-like, he said.

Typically the reaction will not result in blisters like someone might get from poison ivy.

“Usually it’s gonna be like either bumps or welts or irritated skin,” Hare said.

“Some of what I’m talking about is for caterpillar issues in general, not just this particular type of caterpillar. Very rarely, you could get swelling or life-threatening allergic reactions, although that’s unlikely. If a kid puts one in their mouth, you can get problems with all that swelling, pain, itching inside your mouth, drooling, runny nose, eye symptoms, shortness of breath potentially. So if it gets to that level, they need to go to the emergency room but otherwise, if it’s just on your skin causing skin issues, then the care that we talked about, should be enough,” he said.

People have been calling his office within the past week asking about what to do because of a reaction to the caterpillars, but he stressed that treatment that’s available over the counter should be sufficient in most cases.

But, he cautioned, if those options don’t work, contact your physician.

Not everyone is susceptible to getting a reaction.

“I think everyone has the potential to have a problem with them, but like any other thing that’s allergy-based not everybody is going to have a reaction. So I think the potential is there, but not everyone will,” he said.

“The main thing to keep in mind is it’s going to be short term irritating, short term reactions, as opposed to long term,” he added.