# If stinging insects or caterpillars freak you out, do not look at the enclosed lonk.
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-stinging-insects-or-caterpillars-freak-you-out-do-not-look-at-the-enclosed-lonk/369941
**Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
**Created:** [August 23, 2006, 8:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-stinging-insects-or-caterpillars-freak-you-out-do-not-look-at-the-enclosed-lonk/369941 "2006-08-23T20:50:15Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Sunspace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunspace)
#### Post date: [August 23, 2006, 8:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-stinging-insects-or-caterpillars-freak-you-out-do-not-look-at-the-enclosed-lonk/369941/1 "2006-08-23T20:50:15Z")
I just found this on DailyKos and BoingBoing:
[Massive yellow-jacket nests in Alabama](http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2006/8/23/123014/572).
Seems the lack of cold winters has ceased to hinder the wasps from breeding and building their nests year-round. So the nests are just getting bigger, and bigger, and bigger…
And the wasps are _carnivorous_.
Scarier, but not quite as creepy as this (from a message on the Devilbunnies mailing list):
[Tenet caterpillars enveloping trees and a bicycle in Sweden](http://user.it.uu.se/~svens/larverna/normal.html).
---
### Author:  [@Tikki](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tikki)
#### Post date: [August 23, 2006, 9:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-stinging-insects-or-caterpillars-freak-you-out-do-not-look-at-the-enclosed-lonk/369941/2 "2006-08-23T21:30:44Z")
The wasps are more harmful to people than the tent caterpillars but the tent caterpillars are definitely squicking me out more.
Ewww!
---
### Author:  [@xbuckeye](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/xbuckeye)
#### Post date: [August 23, 2006, 9:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-stinging-insects-or-caterpillars-freak-you-out-do-not-look-at-the-enclosed-lonk/369941/3 "2006-08-23T21:38:18Z")
Both those make me want to go out and stock up on the meanest bug killer spray I can find.
---
### Author:  [@jjimm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjimm)
#### Post date: [August 23, 2006, 9:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-stinging-insects-or-caterpillars-freak-you-out-do-not-look-at-the-enclosed-lonk/369941/4 "2006-08-23T21:39:18Z")
I fear the lonk.
---
### Author:  [@freckafree](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/freckafree)
#### Post date: [August 23, 2006, 9:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-stinging-insects-or-caterpillars-freak-you-out-do-not-look-at-the-enclosed-lonk/369941/5 "2006-08-23T21:43:00Z")
> [@Sunspace](#):
>
> I just found this on DailyKos and BoingBoing:
> [Massive yellow-jacket nests in Alabama](http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2006/8/23/123014/572).
Is there an entomologist in the house? I thought yellow-jackets build their nests in the ground (which is why you get stung when mowing the lawn) and paper or mud nests, like the one in the car, were either hornets or wasps.
Not that it makes much difference in terms of aggressive behavior.
> [@](#):
>
> Scarier, but not quite as creepy as this (from a message on the Devilbunnies mailing list):
> [Tenet caterpillars enveloping trees and a bicycle in Sweden](http://user.it.uu.se/~svens/larverna/normal.html).
That is really bizarre! (And very squicky.)
---
### Author:  [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)
#### Post date: [August 23, 2006, 9:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-stinging-insects-or-caterpillars-freak-you-out-do-not-look-at-the-enclosed-lonk/369941/6 "2006-08-23T21:49:18Z")
> [@jjimm](#):
>
> I fear the lonk.
The lonk is just misunderstood; if you ignore it, it quite possibly won’t brutally kill you.
---
### Author:  [@Inigo\_Montoya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Inigo_Montoya)
#### Post date: [August 23, 2006, 9:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-stinging-insects-or-caterpillars-freak-you-out-do-not-look-at-the-enclosed-lonk/369941/7 "2006-08-23T21:50:41Z")
I for one welcome our \*\*\*\* LONK \*\*\*\*
Nasty.
---
### Author:  [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)
#### Post date: [August 23, 2006, 9:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-stinging-insects-or-caterpillars-freak-you-out-do-not-look-at-the-enclosed-lonk/369941/8 "2006-08-23T21:53:31Z")
> **[Lonk](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lonk)**
>
> The Lonk is a British breed of domestic sheep. It belongs to the group of black-faced hill breeds of northern England,: 851 : 462 and is found in the hills of the central and southern Pennines of Lancashire and Yorkshire. It is documented from the mid-eighteenth century; a flock book was started in 1905.
> The Lonk has been reared on the fells of Lancashire and Yorkshire for several hundred years; a herd with records going back to 1740 is still in existence. It is particularly associated with...
---
### Author:  [@Inigo\_Montoya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Inigo_Montoya)
#### Post date: [August 23, 2006, 9:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-stinging-insects-or-caterpillars-freak-you-out-do-not-look-at-the-enclosed-lonk/369941/9 "2006-08-23T21:55:51Z")
I think we have a new initiation critter. At last the goat can get some rest!
---
### Author:  [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)
#### Post date: [August 23, 2006, 9:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-stinging-insects-or-caterpillars-freak-you-out-do-not-look-at-the-enclosed-lonk/369941/10 "2006-08-23T21:59:17Z")
Kneel before [Lonk](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lonk)
---
### Author:  [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)
#### Post date: [August 23, 2006, 10:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-stinging-insects-or-caterpillars-freak-you-out-do-not-look-at-the-enclosed-lonk/369941/11 "2006-08-23T22:00:41Z")
Damn. Wrong Lonk. That was supposed to be:
Kneel before [Lonk](http://www.sheep101.info/Images/Breeds/Lonk.jpg)
---
### Author:  [@Sunspace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunspace)
#### Post date: [August 23, 2006, 10:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-stinging-insects-or-caterpillars-freak-you-out-do-not-look-at-the-enclosed-lonk/369941/12 "2006-08-23T22:01:06Z")
Oh dear Og… :smack:
🙂
---
### Author:  [@indecisive1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/indecisive1)
#### Post date: [August 23, 2006, 10:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-stinging-insects-or-caterpillars-freak-you-out-do-not-look-at-the-enclosed-lonk/369941/13 "2006-08-23T22:01:37Z")
> [@Inigo Montoya](#):
>
> I think we have a new initiation critter. At last the goat can get some rest!
Long Live The Lonk.
---
### Author:  [@indecisive1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/indecisive1)
#### Post date: [August 23, 2006, 10:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-stinging-insects-or-caterpillars-freak-you-out-do-not-look-at-the-enclosed-lonk/369941/14 "2006-08-23T22:03:07Z")
> [@Mangetout](#):
>
> Damn. Wrong Lonk. That was supposed to be:
>
> Kneel before [Lonk](http://www.sheep101.info/Images/Breeds/Lonk.jpg)
Hey, didn’t your other Lonk lonk state the Lonk was hornless?
---
### Author:  [@Inigo\_Montoya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Inigo_Montoya)
#### Post date: [August 23, 2006, 10:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-stinging-insects-or-caterpillars-freak-you-out-do-not-look-at-the-enclosed-lonk/369941/15 "2006-08-23T22:03:16Z")
Good God! The \*BALLS \* on that thing!
---
### Author:  [@Inigo\_Montoya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Inigo_Montoya)
#### Post date: [August 23, 2006, 10:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-stinging-insects-or-caterpillars-freak-you-out-do-not-look-at-the-enclosed-lonk/369941/16 "2006-08-23T22:04:31Z")
> [@indecisive1](#):
>
> Hey, didn’t your other Lonk lonk state the Lonk was hornless?
The one in the pic was the missing lonk.
---
### Author:  [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)
#### Post date: [August 23, 2006, 10:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-stinging-insects-or-caterpillars-freak-you-out-do-not-look-at-the-enclosed-lonk/369941/17 "2006-08-23T22:08:35Z")
> [@indecisive1](#):
>
> Hey, didn’t your other Lonk lonk state the Lonk was hornless?
Maybe it’s a bit like the Invisible Pink Unicorn? the horny hornless Lonk.
Lonk Lonk Lonk. If my theory is correct, one of them should have just materialised behind me…
---
### Author:  [@indecisive1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/indecisive1)
#### Post date: [August 23, 2006, 10:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-stinging-insects-or-caterpillars-freak-you-out-do-not-look-at-the-enclosed-lonk/369941/18 "2006-08-23T22:09:07Z")
> [@Inigo Montoya](#):
>
> Good God! The \*BALLS \* on that thing!
Lonkers I tells ya!
---
### Author:  [@jjimm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjimm)
#### Post date: [August 23, 2006, 10:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-stinging-insects-or-caterpillars-freak-you-out-do-not-look-at-the-enclosed-lonk/369941/19 "2006-08-23T22:20:07Z")
> [@Mangetout](#):
>
> the horny hornless Lonk.
Sounds like the [no-eyed big-eyed wolf spider](http://www.fws.gov/pacificislands/wesa/caveanimals.html).
---
### Author:  [@Dunderman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dunderman)
#### Post date: [August 23, 2006, 10:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-stinging-insects-or-caterpillars-freak-you-out-do-not-look-at-the-enclosed-lonk/369941/20 "2006-08-23T22:25:21Z")
> [@Sunspace](#):
>
> Scarier, but not quite as creepy as this (from a message on the Devilbunnies mailing list):
> [Tenet caterpillars enveloping trees and a bicycle in Sweden](http://user.it.uu.se/~svens/larverna/normal.html).
Jesus H Freakazoid. That is close to the most disgusting, creepy thing I’ve ever seen.
Betraying my ignorance here: what exactly is that cobweblike substance?
[Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-stinging-insects-or-caterpillars-freak-you-out-do-not-look-at-the-enclosed-lonk/369941.md?page=2)