Did You Know There Are Freshwater Jellyfish in Kentucky?

Yes!  There are freshwater jellyfish in Kentucky.  So, let's get to the good news first.  Unlike the jellyfish that will sting the holy crap out of you in the ocean, these are much more mild.  Yay!!  No one is going to have to pee on you if you get stung.  LOL!

According to the Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Services, the freshwater jellyfish have the same "stinging cells" as the saltwater creatures, however they don't penetrate human skin.  Well, that's certainly good to know.  I have lots of friends who boat and the last thing they want to experience is an unexpected jellyfish sting.  I mean, if I was in Pensacola, I would expect it.  Rough River?  Hardly.  And let's just throw this out there too.  I am certain I'm not the only person in Kentucky to have gone skinny dipping.  The thought of a random encounter with the tentacle of a jellyfish is the last item on my bucket list.

The photo above is from the U.S. Geological Survey.  Those are some great pics of freshwater jellyfish, otherwise known as Olindiidae.  Now, I will admit.  I have zero idea how to pronounce that.  If you'd like to learn more about this particular family of hydrozoans, you can check out their official Wikipedia page.  Just be warned.  Unless you have a Doctorate in Biology, you may be as lost as I was reading it.  What I learned is that some of these suckers can grow up to six inches.  But I will be honest with you.  I don't even know if those are Olindiidae in that photo.  Until I sat down to write this, I had never seen that word before.  So, go team!

If you want to check out some more pics of these things, scroll through the comment section of the Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Services' Facebook post about freshwater jellyfish.  There is a great pic taken by Madeline Withrow of Lousiville.  She snapped a photo of hundreds of jellies in the lake at the Girl Scout camp here in Owensboro.  She says. "My favorite way to see the jellies are camping on the dock in the middle of the lake and shining a flashlight in the water at night."  #Mindblown

Did you know there were freshwater jellyfish here in Kentucky?