![]() Long, trailing tentacles (that can reach well over 30 feet long!) contain stinging cells that can inject a barbed thread and paralyzing toxin into prey they find along their journey. The float acts like a windsail and so the winds and ocean currents dictate where the colony goes. ![]() The others will attach themselves to that one animal with the floatation device and hang on. Within a colony of the animals, one of them gets modified into a pneumatophore, which is basically a gas filled float. Though they are related to the jellyfish family they are actually part of the feathery hydroid colonies that you might see growing on pier pilings in the ocean. or anytime on News 6+.Most people think the Portuguese Man-O-War are jellyfish, which isn't true. You can catch the show every Thursday on News 6 at 5:30 p.m. To learn more about the sea creatures washing ashore in Volusia County check out Talk to Tom. So, if you are walking along the beach be careful not to step on a man o’ war. “They get eaten by birds and other wildlife, it’s just a natural thing and we don’t pick them up.” “We let them deteriorate naturally,” she said. Malphurs told Sorrells, officials do not pick the man o’ war up off the beach. When kids come across them, they are extremely beautiful, so people, especially kids, do want to play with them, do want to pick them up, but we tell people not to do that, they can still sting you pretty bad.” They deteriorate naturally “We tell people not to pick them up, not to play with them. “If you ever come across one and you are on the beach and it’s washed up on shore, don’t think that it can’t sting you, because the tentacles are still there, and they can still pack a powerful sting,” she said. Dead man o’ war can stingĮven if they are dead Malphurs told Sorrells man o’ war can still sting you. She said lifeguards may also advise you to get further care if your skin is extremely irritated noting, everybody reacts differently. If you are allergic she said you may experience trouble breathing. Malphurs said you will likely know if you need further medical treatment in the first 15 minutes. “The two times that I’ve been stung, I had to go seek medical care, just because the sting was so bad,” she said. Malphurs said the vinegar likely won’t help with the pain and if it persists you may want to seek medical attention like she did. She said if they don’t get them out, the tentacles will continue to irritate you. When you get there, she said a lifeguard will likely treat it with plain white vinegar and make sure the tentacles are not still embedded in your skin. That way, if it does happen, you can get out of the water and go straight to the lifeguard tower. Malphurs said it’s important to know that you could get stung at any time and to always swim in front of a lifeguard stand. Watch News 6+ in the player below for live news and original programming: They’re not life-threatening unless you have like an allergic reaction or something like that, which is pretty rare,” Malphurs said. And it’s not anything really to worry about. Most of the time, it’s just a lot of pain. And it’s a very powerful sting, it can hurt pretty bad. “Tentacles are the things that sting you. But those man o’ war, a lot of times you could see them because of that balloon-type bubble that sticks out of the water,” she said. A lot of times jellyfish are pretty clear and they’re floating just under the surface. They have a little balloon that sticks up out of the water that you can see a lot better than you can see a jellyfish in the water. “Man o’ war are beautiful, they have a blueish-purple color. Malphurs told Sorrells man-of-war and jellyfish are not the same. Typically, we usually see those in the spring and the wintertime when we have those onshore winds that stay with us for a while,” Malphurs said. So, if we get a strong onshore wind for a few days in a row, we’ll start seeing those man o’ war. “The man o’ war are at the mercy of the winds and the currents. – Small little blue balloon-type animals are washing ashore in Volusia County and while the Portuguese man o’ war may be beautiful they can pack a pretty serious sting.ĭeputy Chief Tamra Malphurs with Volusia County Beach Safety Ocean Rescue joined News 6 Chief Meteorologist Tom Sorrells on Talk to Tom to discuss the wildlife stinging people in Volusia County.
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