Which insect or glowly thingamy scared the bejesus out of my wife?

Question

In the middle of the night my wife got up to tend to our baby daughter and moved one of out childs fluffy animals. On doing so she appears to have upset something as she got a few drops of a liquid which glowed on her hand. There was a bit of a painful burning sensation but it seemed to fade quite fast and so far there’s been no further ill effect.

For info we have no pets and limited contact with them.

So my question is this. What sort of creature produces secretions like this?

To give some more detail. Live in south london. Pretty urban neighbourhood. Not really any water around. Can't really imagine it being a firefly or a glowworm. U get those things in london? The other thing is that it was a bit like a liquid in that there were a few drips. Freaky eh? ;oP

I've done some searching and can't see why it would be the brown recluse spider. For starters you dont get them in the UK, secondly they don't secrete glowly substances.

Answer 1

I would Google an insect indentification page, then search for "bioluminescent secretion." I've found information on some types of fungi and some aquatic insects that have a bioluminescent secretion, but so far nothing that would explain what happened at your house. Possibly, she accidentally squashed a glow worm or firefly. It would be helpful if you could add in what part of which country you reside. It would help narrow down what the creature could possibly be.

Try these:
http://www.kendall-bioresearch.co.uk/lamp.htm
http://www.entomon.net/insects-that-glow-moth-butterfly-luna.htm

Edited to add:
VERY freaky. I can just see a B-movie coming out of that one -- kind of along the lines of attack of the Blob! LOL Attack of the killer fireflies!!! Run for your life or you will be SLIMED!!!

BTW, not native to London, so I cannot be certain about your local flora & fauna. I'm near Houston, where our mosquitos have been mistaken for vampires! Ooh, another B-movie in the works! ;-D

Answer 2

Omg I'm in south London lol

I'd go 2 Dr and get it checked out and get Ur daughter outta room for a while just in case.
Never heard of nothing like that b4 but we do seem 2b getting a lot of weird insects nowadays don't we that we've never seen b4.

Hope you find what it was but get Ur wife's hand seen to by a Dr asap.

Answer 3

brown recluse spider . get her to the doctor real soon and have her checked.
and move all those toys from around your kids and clean them up real good. for we dont know what insect has been on them.
you wouldnt want those kids putting the thing in their mouth.
so just clean her toys and you might have to spray for bugs but make sure that the spray will not harm infants.

Answer 4

Firefly! OMG how could you not know that? Were you raised by wolves? LMAO Sorry I thought everyone grew up looking for fireflies as children and trying to catch them and put them in a jar! Instant nightlight! As for burning sensation could have been over active imagination in the middle of the night. Or just a mild allergic reaction? I have never in all my life heard of a burning sensation. And I knew kids who used to crush them on their skin for this glow.

Answer 5

I dunno - but i would contact local GP or whatever. These things can seem innocent at first then flare up.

Also, i would move daughter out of room until resolved?

Answer 6

urgh, I hope you find out and in the meantime maybe move your daughter's bed.

Answer 7

some sort of Caterpillar

Answer 8

i would contact my local poison control center and tell them what happend and ask their advise.

Answer 9

type of spider with venom?

Answer 10

it sounds to me like ectoplasm!