Allison Carter

allison.carter@indystar.com

Neal Taflinger was enjoying a sunny August afternoon in the waters of Peoga Lake, a private body of water in Johnson County. As he stood in chest-deep water, sipping a Founders Pale Ale with friends, all was well.

Then it struck.

"More than an hour after I got into the water, the tranquility was shattered by what felt like a bad bee sting on my lower abdomen, about a foot underwater," Taflinger wrote in an email. (Full disclosure: Taflinger is the IndyStar audience analyst/engagement manager, and no, he did not make up this story to get clicks.)

"Their sting felt like licking a car battery," said Demian Hostetter, who was also swimming that day. He'd never felt anything like it, even after swimming in that lake for years.

At first, they weren't sure what had caused the stinging pain. But those in their party continued to be stung, some as many as three times. One after the other, they clambered out of the water to safety on a dock.

They scanned the water, looking for the source of their pain. Then they saw something floating in the water. Something that seemed impossible.

A tiny jellyfish. In a lake. In Johnson County, Ind.

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"I think we all said, in unison, 'Nuh-uh,'" Taflinger recalls.The group caught one in a bucket, and stared in awe. "It was about the size of a quarter, translucent, totally a jellyfish," Taflinger says. As they watched, more jellyfish drifted to the surface.

Believe it or not, freshwater jellyfish live here in Indiana. They're also widespread across America and around the world. However, it's the experience of being "stung" that makes the encounter unusual.

Craspedacusta sowerbii, better known as the freshwater jellyfish, are found on every continent except Antarctica. Where they originated, however, is up for debate. According to Dr. Terry Peard, a retired professor of science education at Indiana University of Pennsylvania and expert on freshwater jellyfish, the most common theories are that the critters were brought to America by hitchhiking on aquatic plants from either China or the Amazon. The plants were shipped to London botanical gardens, and eventually made their way to the U.S., where they spread to nearly every state.

Here's what the creatures look like in the wild:

Dustin Clark, a ranger at Indiana's Ouabache State Park, says that sightings of the jellies are rare in Indiana — only about five per year. "You can count yourself fortunate if you’re lucky enough to encounter them," Clark wrote in an email. "As a professional scuba diver and an employee of the DNR, I have only witnessed them a handful of times in my life."

While the floaty little bags can be found in most U.S. states, Peard says Indiana and Michigan appear to be some of their favorite stomping grounds. The jellyfish can live in nearly any body of water. Lakes, as we've seen, but also farm ponds and slow-moving sections of rivers and streams. They eat zooplankton, microscopic animals that live in the water. The jellies themselves might be eaten by a crayfish or a turtle, or perhaps pecked at by a duck.

But let's get back to the story of our hapless swimmers. Can you really be stung by a freshwater jellyfish?

"It’s not in line with any research, but it’s in line with stories I’ve been told," Peard said.

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Clark agreed. "Craspedacusta sowerbii do have the nematocysts 'stinging cell,' but with a body smaller than a quarter (20 to 25 millimeters), they don’t seem to have at ability to break the surface of human skin, and are considered harmless."

But the swimmers insist they felt a sting on that bucolic Indiana day. What could it have been?

"People who have sensitive skin who come in contact with them, may in fact get some kind of a reaction, whether it’s a slight itch, an irritation, or just a redness," Peard said. "But generally when we’ve really dug into stories about people who feel they’ve been stung, it’s turned out to be something else, either an allergy to larval stages of crustaceans, or swimmer’s itch."

Peard notes that in 20 years of handling the jellyfish, neither he nor his students ever experienced a sting or irritation.

Taflinger remains unmoved. "Three adults got stung, said, 'ow," and immediately afterward we saw jellyfish — which sting animals they come into contact with — in the area."

"I know I got stung," Hotstetter said. "Period."

Neal Taflinger contributed reporting to this story. Allison Carter is an engagement producer at IndyStar. Follow her on Twitter @AllisonLCarter.

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