Clear venomous creature — with 24 eyes — washes up on North Carolina beach. ‘Yikes’

A stinging creature with 24 eyes and tentacles washed up on a North Carolina beach, conservationists said.

It’s a box jellyfish, and the Bald Head Island Conservancy warned beachgoers about the animal’s appearance in an Oct. 4 news release.

“Box Jellyfish have an extremely painful sting that is venomous and dangerous to humans, especially children,” the conservancy wrote in the news release. “If you see one of these on BHI do not touch them.”

Box jellyfish, also known as sea wasps, are a class of 50 different species, according to Encyclopedia Britannica. The jellies are distinguished by their “semitransparent box-shaped bell,” Britannica says.

The animals are found in warm coastal waters but are relatively uncommon off the coast of North Carolina, the conservancy said.

Adults have 24 eyes, and unlike other jellyfish, they swim instead of floating with the current, according to Britannica. They can swim at speeds up to 4.6 mph, and they use their tentacles to stun or kill prey.

“Yikes,” multiple people said in response to the conservancy’s warning on Facebook.

The jelly that washed up off the coast of North Carolina is related to the Australian box jellyfish, which NOAA calls the most venomous marine animal.

Few species of box jellyfish are lethal to humans, and those species are found around Australia and the Indo-Pacific areas, NOAA says.

Bald Head Island is a village on North Carolina’s coast about 170 miles southeast of Raleigh.