Those beetles are fucking everywhere as soon as it starts getting humid.
Good Ole June Bug, bombing all your photos; they used to drive my roommate in Dallas up the wall when he went outside to smoke. As a fellow Houston native, he was regularly freaked out when they landed on him since the cockroaches down here have a habit of doing the same thing. They call them 'Palmetto bugs' in Florida, but that is a damned lie; they are cockroaches and they love to fly at your face and laugh at you as you flip out trying to swat them away.
Oh, @BugBoy can you explain to me how palo verde beetles get into my damn house? The largest avenue we've got is the AC squirrel cage, so if they're getting in through there they'd have to get through the AC cover screens which are pretty narrow, but these beetles are like the size of a golf ball!
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BugBoyboy.EXE has stopped functioning.only bugs remainRegistered Userregular
How bugs get into enclosed spaces is a mystery even I can't answer. They're very good at finding little entrances, I guess!
Or it's ancient insect magic, I like that one better.
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Metzger MeisterIt Gets Worsebefore it gets any better.Registered Userregular
Junebugs man. They're so inept. It'd be endearing if that ineptitude didn't manifest as flying right at my goddamn face.
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miscellaneousinsanitygrass grows, birds fly, sun shines,and brother, i hurt peopleRegistered Userregular
i don't wanna clutter up H/A with yet another 'identify this insect' thread, but does anyone wanna try identifying this insect?
spotted on a friend's facebook:
Can anyone identify this insect? Six legs, approx. 3mm, dark head, large reddish thorax or abdomen, no wings or markings that I could see. I find it very suspicious and wondering if I should be concerned that it was in my bed....
doesn't quite look like a bedbug, doesn't quite look like a mite, so i'm out of guesses
I'ts hard to tell which kind but that is a tick for sure, in unengorged state.
No immideate reason for concern, but if possible have someone check out all your bits you can't get a good look at yourself. And return the favor to any members of the household, including animals.
As for Assassin bugs, only the subfamily known as "Kissing bugs" are vectors for chagas disease, given their bloodsucking habits. The rest you just have to watch out for because they can bite you.
P.S: They don't really bite you though since they have no jaws. Their mouthparts are just a proboscis that they stab things with, inject nasty venom and suck out the resulting liquid after the unlucky victim has been dissolved from the inside. The venom can kill most insects in less than 10 seconds (closer to 5 really).
Fiendishrabbit on
"The western world sips from a poisonous cocktail: Polarisation, populism, protectionism and post-truth"
-Antje Jackelén, Archbishop of the Church of Sweden
I found a cicada on my laundry today! I've never seen one so dark though, is it about to molt or is it just a different type than the bright green ones I normally see?
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BugBoyboy.EXE has stopped functioning.only bugs remainRegistered Userregular
Once they're fully winged like that, they're all grown up and won't molt again. Might be a different species of cicada from the ones you usually see, might be color variation.
Either way, cool!
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valhalla13013 Dark Shield Perceives the GodsRegistered Userregular
Can someone tell me what kind of spider this is? Found in a home bathtub.
Isn't the abdomen a bit small for a tegenaria? Even for a male?
"The western world sips from a poisonous cocktail: Polarisation, populism, protectionism and post-truth"
-Antje Jackelén, Archbishop of the Church of Sweden
Metzger MeisterIt Gets Worsebefore it gets any better.Registered Userregular
Pedipalps is a fun word.
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BugBoyboy.EXE has stopped functioning.only bugs remainRegistered Userregular
I'm glad there are folks who know their spiders here! I keep meaning to learn them, but I never quite get around to it. I need to brush up on beetles too.
So I was awoken this morning for some reason or another, and in my groggy state I felt the need to stick my finger in my ear. So, I did that, and about 2 seconds later heard a noise from a horror movie and a kind of pulsing pain. This repeated a couple times before I had the wherewithal to irrigate my ear, thinking maybe it was just waxy buildup. So I stagger to the bathroom, grab my bulb from the medicine cabinet, and a fucking earwig falls out of my ear into the sink. I irrigate my ear because I just have no idea if that thing laid eggs in there or not, and I ain't taking my goddamn chances, finish off by soaking it in isopropyl alcohol for a couple minutes, and try in vain to fall back to sleep for several hours. My whole life earwigs have squicked me out, and people have been all, "Don't worry, they just call them earwigs, they don't actually crawl into people's ears!" Yeah? Fuck you, people who say that!
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BugBoyboy.EXE has stopped functioning.only bugs remainRegistered Userregular
Are you sure it was an earwig and not a young cockroach?
Cockroaches are known to go into ears on occasion, but it would be unusual for an earwig
I am a thousand million percent sure. Crescent moon tail.
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JedocIn the scupperswith the staggers and jagsRegistered Userregular
Yo, bug nerds. Is anyone else reading The Sting of the Wild by Justin Schmidt?
I haven't even gotten to the part of the book about the Schmidt Pain Scale yet, and I'm loving it. Lots of really clearly-written stuff about the evolution and behavior and science of stinging insects. For example, I'd never realized that only females can sting, because the stinger is an evolved ovipositor. Lots of males have decoy stings (often their giant spiky dongs) and will pretend to sting with them when threatened. Most people and animals will instinctively recoil before they realize they weren't actually stung, giving the male time to escape.
As a result of this, some insect-eating birds can distinguish between male and female bees in flight, and prey exclusively on the males.
Bugs, man.
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valhalla13013 Dark Shield Perceives the GodsRegistered Userregular
I have to confess, multi legged critter thread.
I killed a spider this morning.
I woke up, and it was stuck in one of my plastic ware containers (on the counter because I was lazy and didn't feel like doing dishes last night). The spider couldn't climb the edges, so it was stuck.
To be honest, the initial inclination was to fill the container with water and flush the little bel shamharoth down the sink drain, then turn the disposal on, then maybe dump some bleach down there, just to be sure.
I didn't though.
I tried to do the right thing. Stealed myself against the spider-terror that seems to be reflex anymore and carried the container outside at arms length. Set it on the edge of my porch and tipped it over. I expected little in the way of gratitude from the spider. Just wanted it to run off into the grass and maybe murder a few of the god damned crickets that have been keeping me up lately.
Didn't even get that.
The little bastard tried to make an end run around me and get back inside. I'm fairly certain it would have slammed the door on me and locked my ass out if it had the chance.
Sorry, but that's not happening.
Before I could stop and think, I had stepped on it. Reduced it to a tiny smear on the concrete.
I'm sorry tiny spider bro. I tried to give you a chance.
I saw a praying mantis nomming on a cicada last night, but my phone couldn't get a very good picture in the low light and I didn't want to turn my flash on and startle the little darling.
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JedocIn the scupperswith the staggers and jagsRegistered Userregular
So, uh...hey, fellas. That's a really nice nest you've got going there above my kitchen window. But we gotta talk.
JedocIn the scupperswith the staggers and jagsRegistered Userregular
Paper wasps. I caught those two pretty much head-on, so their wings are at an odd angle. For reference, that's about a three-inch pipe next to them, so they're pretty small. Sting like a bastard, though.
We have these fuckers in Arizona called tarantula hawks that are basically Fallout: New Vegas cazadores. I believe on this list they are the pepsis wasp.
Also, fuck them.
Pinfeldorf on
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JedocIn the scupperswith the staggers and jagsRegistered Userregular
I'm good with pretty much every bug out there, but wasps are just so shitty that I wouldn't mind seeing them disappearing forever.
Most of them are predators, so if you got rid of them you'd see an increase in whatever insects they prey on. Not a big deal for cicada killers or tarantula hawks, but smaller wasps eat a ton of flies, crickets and cockroaches, among other bugs. Some of them are important pollinators for specific plants, but that's rare. They make up a good portion of the diet of some of the larger songbirds.
But in North America, there are surprisingly few wasps who are interested in starting shit with you, or have venom that would cause a painful sting if they did. Pretty much paper wasps, yellowjackets, and hornets, and only if you're fucking with their nest or seriously violating their territory.
Most wasps are solitary parasitoids, just looking for a specific sort of bug so they can inject paralytic venom into its brainstem, lay eggs in it, and seal it off in an underground chamber so that it can be slowly devoured alive by wriggling larvae. You know: single moms.
And with some notable exceptions (tarantula hawks! fuck!) solitary wasps don't even have venom formulated to cause pain in mammals. So maybe we just kill the damn yellowjackets and leave the rest of them alone.
Posts
Also, I love the beetle photo bombing the cicada shot
Good Ole June Bug, bombing all your photos; they used to drive my roommate in Dallas up the wall when he went outside to smoke. As a fellow Houston native, he was regularly freaked out when they landed on him since the cockroaches down here have a habit of doing the same thing. They call them 'Palmetto bugs' in Florida, but that is a damned lie; they are cockroaches and they love to fly at your face and laugh at you as you flip out trying to swat them away.
Or it's ancient insect magic, I like that one better.
spotted on a friend's facebook:
doesn't quite look like a bedbug, doesn't quite look like a mite, so i'm out of guesses
IANABL
No immideate reason for concern, but if possible have someone check out all your bits you can't get a good look at yourself. And return the favor to any members of the household, including animals.
FUCK TICKS
Conversely: do not fuck ticks.
Let's not get too kinkshamy in the bug thread.
huh, you learn some insect new every day (literally quite possible)
muh bad, knowledge gained.
P.S: They don't really bite you though since they have no jaws. Their mouthparts are just a proboscis that they stab things with, inject nasty venom and suck out the resulting liquid after the unlucky victim has been dissolved from the inside. The venom can kill most insects in less than 10 seconds (closer to 5 really).
-Antje Jackelén, Archbishop of the Church of Sweden
Either way, cool!
-Antje Jackelén, Archbishop of the Church of Sweden
Not even close to sure though
Cockroaches are known to go into ears on occasion, but it would be unusual for an earwig
I haven't even gotten to the part of the book about the Schmidt Pain Scale yet, and I'm loving it. Lots of really clearly-written stuff about the evolution and behavior and science of stinging insects. For example, I'd never realized that only females can sting, because the stinger is an evolved ovipositor. Lots of males have decoy stings (often their giant spiky dongs) and will pretend to sting with them when threatened. Most people and animals will instinctively recoil before they realize they weren't actually stung, giving the male time to escape.
As a result of this, some insect-eating birds can distinguish between male and female bees in flight, and prey exclusively on the males.
Bugs, man.
Indeed.
http://arstechnica.com/science/2016/08/meet-the-worst-ants-in-the-world/
Hey, that's the author of Scatter, Adapt and Remember! No wonder it was so well-written. Good find.
I killed a spider this morning.
I woke up, and it was stuck in one of my plastic ware containers (on the counter because I was lazy and didn't feel like doing dishes last night). The spider couldn't climb the edges, so it was stuck.
To be honest, the initial inclination was to fill the container with water and flush the little bel shamharoth down the sink drain, then turn the disposal on, then maybe dump some bleach down there, just to be sure.
I didn't though.
I tried to do the right thing. Stealed myself against the spider-terror that seems to be reflex anymore and carried the container outside at arms length. Set it on the edge of my porch and tipped it over. I expected little in the way of gratitude from the spider. Just wanted it to run off into the grass and maybe murder a few of the god damned crickets that have been keeping me up lately.
Didn't even get that.
The little bastard tried to make an end run around me and get back inside. I'm fairly certain it would have slammed the door on me and locked my ass out if it had the chance.
Sorry, but that's not happening.
Before I could stop and think, I had stepped on it. Reduced it to a tiny smear on the concrete.
I'm sorry tiny spider bro. I tried to give you a chance.
I'm good with pretty much every bug out there, but wasps are just so shitty that I wouldn't mind seeing them disappearing forever.
Also, fuck them.
Most of them are predators, so if you got rid of them you'd see an increase in whatever insects they prey on. Not a big deal for cicada killers or tarantula hawks, but smaller wasps eat a ton of flies, crickets and cockroaches, among other bugs. Some of them are important pollinators for specific plants, but that's rare. They make up a good portion of the diet of some of the larger songbirds.
But in North America, there are surprisingly few wasps who are interested in starting shit with you, or have venom that would cause a painful sting if they did. Pretty much paper wasps, yellowjackets, and hornets, and only if you're fucking with their nest or seriously violating their territory.
Most wasps are solitary parasitoids, just looking for a specific sort of bug so they can inject paralytic venom into its brainstem, lay eggs in it, and seal it off in an underground chamber so that it can be slowly devoured alive by wriggling larvae. You know: single moms.
And with some notable exceptions (tarantula hawks! fuck!) solitary wasps don't even have venom formulated to cause pain in mammals. So maybe we just kill the damn yellowjackets and leave the rest of them alone.