So those of you who have read the "help help!!!!!!" post in the health forum already know Joleigh and I have had an interesting night/day... someone mentioned i should post a pic of the bug whom caused my baby so much pain, so I'm posting it here in hopes that more people will see it.

The bug is called a two striped walking stick, also known as Anisomorpha buprestoides, spitting devil and muskmare.  A lot of people amazingly have seen these or know of them but didn't know they could be dangerous.  The female (the larger of the two in the picture) has two pores on her neck which, when feeling threatened, can shoot an acidic chemical at amazing accuracy usually aimed at the eyes.   They are most commonly found in the states bordering the gulf of mexico, most in Texas and Florida.  Don't count yourself out if you arent in these states, they've been found elsewhere too. 

Altho most "victims" from these bugs are pets, they will "spit" in your eyes too! we just don't go sniffing up in their face, which i assume is why pets are more common lol. so make sure your kids know about these.

Also, beware if you or your kids get sprayed.  Most websites I found claimed it only caused stinging and irritation in the eyes, which usually went away in a few hours to a day or two.  Only one case was found that caused blindness, which was in a dog.  They never said anything about swelling tho, which joleigh woke up today with that eye swollen shut, and good thing I worried and brought joleigh to a vet.  The technical term given for her "diagnosis was "corrosion of cornea" ( i believe, I left her paper @ my parents by accident) but in laments terms it basically burned the top layer of her eyeball.  Read the other post if you'd like to hear the whole story...

Here's a picture....

Big freakshow of a bug.  I live in Texas... never seen this thing but will know better now, thanks to you. 

here's the aftermath.. this is NOTHING compared to how it looked earlier, but i was simply not worried about having a photo-op then...

Poor baby....thanks for the info....I've never seen or heard of it but now I'm going to be on the lookout (I'm in Florida)

I do believe she is eating up the loving she's getting, she's been sleeping like this for about an hour, nuzzling more into my neck every few minutes.. she seems kind of scared to go potty outside, which I don't really blame her, i'd be scared to use the toilet if something bit me in there...

anyone else scared of the toilet snakes??

ope your pup is going to be ok.  Never seen one of those bugs here in Wisconsin.  Maybe we are lucky and they dont like our weather. 

Not afraid of toilet snakes but I have always been afraid to have the toilet sit up in case a rat might swim up the pipes. Foolish I know but seen a movie when I was very young about rats and have been frighten since. Maybe that is whyI have a Rattie and a JRT to protect me and do not mind them coming into the bathroom with me? 

yeah thats why i'm scared of toilet snakes, because I saw on the news when I was a kid some woman that opened her toilet and some snake was sitting in her toilet that had came through her pipes.. echh.  I'm also scared to death of vacuum cleaners. I had repeating nightmares when I was a kid that I was playing on the floor while my mom was vacuuming and someone was behind her about to kill her but she couldn't hear me yelling to her b/c of the vacuum noise.

That poor little thing!  I hope she's back to normal very soon.  I will definitely be on the lookout for those.

I am so sorry about your baby. I hope his eye gets better soon. We live in Florida and although I have never seen this bug, I can say that Florida sure has a collection of really strange bugs. Thanks for sharing. I can certainly see Fuji going after one of those things. He chases everything else he finds in the yard.