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.
I just spat coffee all over my carpet.
Darth Waiter on
+1
Metzger MeisterIt Gets Worsebefore it gets any better.Registered Userregular
I got bit by a bug and I dunno what it was and I think I'm gonna diiiie.
It was long and slender, and black, but fairly small, probably about the length of my thumbnail. I felt a pinch on my forearm as it brushed against my shirt and I looked down and OH GOD A BUG and I brushed it away.
It stung pretty good, but much less than, say, a wasp or a honey bee, and there's a bit of itching now. There doesn't seem to be any redness, and only a very small bump where the little fucker made his last stand.
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BugBoyboy.EXE has stopped functioning.only bugs remainRegistered Userregular
You're probably fine
I don't know of any insects commonly found in the USA that can do any real harm (mosquitoes not included)
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.
Notable exceptions include: two of the most common types of wasp and the only ones I ever see, often-times while building a nest in an important location where I need to fuck with it. Good to know, thanks.
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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.
Notable exceptions include: two of the most common types of wasp and the only ones I ever see, often-times while building a nest in an important location where I need to fuck with it. Good to know, thanks.
Hey man, the question was about ecosystems, not your back yard. The wasps that people hate are hated because they combine defensive hive behavior with a propensity for liking the same kinds of places humans like. For every pound of vespidae assholes ruining your day, there's a ton of ichneumonoidae and sphecidae just fucking up flies and bagworms and leaving you alone.
I took a really nice picture of a butterfly on my car today while I was pumping gas. I didn't notice until my wife pointed it out that it matched the colors on the Cadillac emblem! :bzz:
Friend of mine was driving his motorcycle at fairly low speeds with his visor up and a tarantula hawk landed right in there. It got stuck between the helmet and my friend's face and stung him on the jaw like 10 times in 3 seconds before it got out. It was a pretty harrowing experience for him and he is frightened to death of them now.
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JedocIn the scupperswith the staggers and jagsRegistered Userregular
It's true! They put most of their stat points into being entirely unfuckwithable, and then advertising that fact on as many channels as possible. The result is that they don't actually have to fuck with anyone themselves.
Except tarantulas. They fuck with them in a big way.
Friend of mine was driving his motorcycle at fairly low speeds with his visor up and a tarantula hawk landed right in there. It got stuck between the helmet and my friend's face and stung him on the jaw like 10 times in 3 seconds before it got out. It was a pretty harrowing experience for him and he is frightened to death of them now.
Holy crap, that must suck
Though I guess he should be happy it didn't cause him to crash horribly
Friend of mine was driving his motorcycle at fairly low speeds with his visor up and a tarantula hawk landed right in there. It got stuck between the helmet and my friend's face and stung him on the jaw like 10 times in 3 seconds before it got out. It was a pretty harrowing experience for him and he is frightened to death of them now.
It's true! They put most of their stat points into being entirely unfuckwithable, and then advertising that fact on as many channels as possible. The result is that they don't actually have to fuck with anyone themselves.
Except tarantulas. They fuck with them in a big way.
Imagine having to go search out (and fight), i dunno, a venomous grizzly bear everytime you felt like producing offspring.
Metzger MeisterIt Gets Worsebefore it gets any better.Registered Userregular
edited September 2016
I found a beetle!
It was black, about an inch long, with a nasty-looking set of mandibles. He was rolling about on his back, so I fetched myself a twig and attempted to right the poor little fellow, but he just kept flipping back over and writhing, his rear legs completely straight. I figured he'd probably been injured in some way, so unfortunately I had to leave the little critter there and let nature run her course.
Metzger Meister on
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JedocIn the scupperswith the staggers and jagsRegistered Userregular
edited September 2016
I was out weeding the flower bed, and I found a wolf spider about the size of a half dollar dragging around an egg sac the size of a pinball. When the eggs hatch, she will carry the babies around on her back in an adorable/nightmarish miracle of nature. She has very nice stripes.
JedocIn the scupperswith the staggers and jagsRegistered Userregular
That looks to me like a fall webworm! They're the ones who have spent the last month making all the trees look like Halloween props. They work together to spin big webs over an entire tree branch to help protect against predators, and then devour all the leaves inside. They make your trees look like shit for a while, but most people don't bother to spray them. They don't stress trees out too much because they don't start eating until the trees have already done most of their photosynthesis for the year. Plus, they help support a population of predators that can keep down more serious pests.
There are some fuzzy caterpillars in New Jersey that can give you a serious rash, but this guy's safe to handle.
If you see one out of its tent and with those long fuzzy whiskers, it means it's looking for a place to bed down in the leaf litter while it pupates over the winter. If it makes it to next summer it'll turn into one of these handsome fellows:
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Metzger MeisterIt Gets Worsebefore it gets any better.Registered Userregular
That moth is looking fabulous as hell.
+12
JedocIn the scupperswith the staggers and jagsRegistered Userregular
If it turns out the Hindus are right and I'm going to come back as a bug for all the burgers I ate, I'm at least going to insist on feathered antennae.
Thanks! I've seen those moths earlier in the year before. They are spectacular and now I have more to look forward to next year
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Brovid Hasselsmof[Growling historic on the fury road]Registered Userregular
Cleaning my room yesterday and when sweeping beneath my bed I found the discarded exuvium of a four inch long centipede. No sign of its owner though. So that's something to look forward to.
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JedocIn the scupperswith the staggers and jagsRegistered Userregular
Well, it was four inches long before it molted. It'll be slightly bigger now.
I'm helping!
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Metzger MeisterIt Gets Worsebefore it gets any better.Registered Userregular
Yooo check out this big fuzzy caterpillar I found! There was another one smushed on the sidewalk nearby so I moved this little critter from the picnic bench where he was to a nearby bush.
I used a small leafy stick to make the transfer on account of I've heard some caterpillars are actually venomous? Not sure if that's true for my area of North America (I'm in southeastern Wyoming right next to the Nebraska border) but better safe than sorry, eh?
Metzger Meister on
+1
Brovid Hasselsmof[Growling historic on the fury road]Registered Userregular
Some of them have hairs which can cause irritation so if its fuzzy and I don't know what it is I would always err on the side of not making skin contact
I found a thing called a windscorpion today. One of the cats was fucking with something in the corner, and I saw it was a scorpion without pincers or a tail stinger so I assume it had been mangled. Nope! Guess that's just what these goofy chitin balls look like. The picture I got on my phone looks like a kindergartner drew a picture from a description, so I won't post it.
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Metzger MeisterIt Gets Worsebefore it gets any better.Registered Userregular
Yeah, windscorpions! They're neat little critters
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miscellaneousinsanitygrass grows, birds fly, sun shines,and brother, i hurt peopleRegistered Userregular
+8
JedocIn the scupperswith the staggers and jagsRegistered Userregular
Well, that's the most awesome blog I've seen all week. Here are a bunch more of that guy's pictures of mirror spiders, which I had not known about until today.
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Metzger MeisterIt Gets Worsebefore it gets any better.Registered Userregular
edited September 2016
I saw an interesting spider today! Red and fuzzy on it's main body and rear, with black legs and such, and about the size of a fingernail, or maybe a bit larger. Googling seems to suggest it's some sort of jumping spider but that seems odd, as I thought jumping spiders tended to be wee tiny things.
Edit: it looked a bit like a velvet ant actually.
Edit 2:
Like this!
Metzger Meister on
+1
JedocIn the scupperswith the staggers and jagsRegistered Userregular
That is a cardinal jumper! The fact that it looks like a velvet ant is no mistake. The spider is pretty harmless to anything larger than itself, but it's gone out of its way to mimic a critter with one of the most painful stings in the animal kingdom. That way, it gets the protection of the warning coloration without the trouble of manufacturing complex proteins and a modified ovipositor.
I actually like jumping spiders a lot because of how, when you get near them, they look right up at you (or more likely into the air you're breathing at them, maybe)
Any bug that looks like it's willing to get into a staring contest with you is pretty rad, regardless.
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Metzger MeisterIt Gets Worsebefore it gets any better.Registered Userregular
Yeah, they're such curious little critters. They're like spider puppies or something.
Hmmm that roach caught something huh
No wait it looks like it's wrestling against this small green critter
Whoa the green thing managed to escape from the roach's grip
No wait the green thing is coming back, and its actually grabbing the roach by it's head and dragging it along like a horse being pulled by a rein
BugBoyboy.EXE has stopped functioning.only bugs remainRegistered Userregular
Sounds like an Emerald Cockroach Wasp! They sting cockroaches in the brain to remove their ability to resist, then drag them back to a burrow where they'll be food for a wasp larva
You're so lucky to see one in action-I've only seen videos
Cross posting my new carport tenant. Her original web got thrashed yesterday in a storm -- but she had another built by the time I went to work this morning.
She is a common Spotted Orb Weaver. But I've never seen any with her kind of coloring around here. If I can get a good shot of her web then I will try to get a snap tonight after work.
Cockroaches eat other cockroaches, so I imagine they wouldn't balk at eating another kind of insect, assuming the opportunity presented itself and they were hungry enough.
Posts
I just spat coffee all over my carpet.
It was long and slender, and black, but fairly small, probably about the length of my thumbnail. I felt a pinch on my forearm as it brushed against my shirt and I looked down and OH GOD A BUG and I brushed it away.
It stung pretty good, but much less than, say, a wasp or a honey bee, and there's a bit of itching now. There doesn't seem to be any redness, and only a very small bump where the little fucker made his last stand.
I don't know of any insects commonly found in the USA that can do any real harm (mosquitoes not included)
Notable exceptions include: two of the most common types of wasp and the only ones I ever see, often-times while building a nest in an important location where I need to fuck with it. Good to know, thanks.
Hey man, the question was about ecosystems, not your back yard. The wasps that people hate are hated because they combine defensive hive behavior with a propensity for liking the same kinds of places humans like. For every pound of vespidae assholes ruining your day, there's a ton of ichneumonoidae and sphecidae just fucking up flies and bagworms and leaving you alone.
And not aggressive at all.
Except tarantulas. They fuck with them in a big way.
Holy crap, that must suck
Though I guess he should be happy it didn't cause him to crash horribly
Imagine having to go search out (and fight), i dunno, a venomous grizzly bear everytime you felt like producing offspring.
Hi, I'm a banded horse/deer fly (Chrysopsinae)
Unlike Yellow jackets, I'll seek your rank ass out because I want to. I want to bite you and lap up your blood.
Nope, sorry, no sleek proboscis and anaesthetic saliva here. I'm going in dry!
Oh what's that, you're wearing a longsleeve t-shirt? Ah that's cute, here lemme just bite right through it.
What? We running now? Come back here, i've got my beautiful, multifaceted eyes on you boy, you ain't going anywhere.
I'll chase your sorry ass for a mile if i have to. I don't care that i'm passing tens of other potential targets, I want your blood.
It was black, about an inch long, with a nasty-looking set of mandibles. He was rolling about on his back, so I fetched myself a twig and attempted to right the poor little fellow, but he just kept flipping back over and writhing, his rear legs completely straight. I figured he'd probably been injured in some way, so unfortunately I had to leave the little critter there and let nature run her course.
Spoiled for spider:
If you happen to be carrying around an insect net and vials, it is extremely satisfying to capture them as they assess your biteability
who's in charge now, horseflies
There are some fuzzy caterpillars in New Jersey that can give you a serious rash, but this guy's safe to handle.
If you see one out of its tent and with those long fuzzy whiskers, it means it's looking for a place to bed down in the leaf litter while it pupates over the winter. If it makes it to next summer it'll turn into one of these handsome fellows:
I'm helping!
Yooo check out this big fuzzy caterpillar I found! There was another one smushed on the sidewalk nearby so I moved this little critter from the picnic bench where he was to a nearby bush.
I used a small leafy stick to make the transfer on account of I've heard some caterpillars are actually venomous? Not sure if that's true for my area of North America (I'm in southeastern Wyoming right next to the Nebraska border) but better safe than sorry, eh?
Edit: it looked a bit like a velvet ant actually.
Edit 2:
Like this!
I actually like jumping spiders a lot because of how, when you get near them, they look right up at you (or more likely into the air you're breathing at them, maybe)
Any bug that looks like it's willing to get into a staring contest with you is pretty rad, regardless.
No wait it looks like it's wrestling against this small green critter
Whoa the green thing managed to escape from the roach's grip
No wait the green thing is coming back, and its actually grabbing the roach by it's head and dragging it along like a horse being pulled by a rein
Gonna go hurl now I am too old for this crap
This will be here until I receive an apology or Weedlordvegeta get any consequences for being a bully
You're so lucky to see one in action-I've only seen videos
Cross posting my new carport tenant. Her original web got thrashed yesterday in a storm -- but she had another built by the time I went to work this morning.
She is a common Spotted Orb Weaver. But I've never seen any with her kind of coloring around here. If I can get a good shot of her web then I will try to get a snap tonight after work.
Critical Failures - Havenhold Campaign • August St. Cloud (Human Ranger)