European immigrants imported the moth into North America to produce silk, but eventually it escaped from the laboratories, and America's well-developed transport system carried it into every state. It swept across the North American continent, damaging and disfiguring forests, and the poisonous hairs on the caterpillars 'bodies also came to be feared as a powerful allergen.
歐洲移民為了生產蠶絲，將歐洲舞毒蛾引進北美，最後舞毒蛾由實驗室被釋出，四通八達的交通將之帶往各州，橫掃北美大陸，危害林木，破壞景觀，舞毒蛾身上的毒毛，更成為可怕的過敏源。