Hmm, looking at the wiki only the blue mud daubers specifically prey on black widows?
They're the main predators of widow spiders. Not because they specificly attack widow spiders (mud daubers like all sorts of spiders), but because other species tend to avoid widow spiders. So if you're in an area where widow spiders are common...sure. Otherwise you might be interested in getting rid of the nest, because spiders are some of the best friends you can have when it comes to getting rid of other pests.
"The western world sips from a poisonous cocktail: Polarisation, populism, protectionism and post-truth"
-Antje Jackelén, Archbishop of the Church of Sweden
I think that wasp might be an Organ Pipe Mud Dauber (Trypoxylon politum) but this is only based on the color pattern on the tip of the legs and the abdomen. Don't take this as gospel, it could be a lot of other kinds of wasps. It's definitely not Sphex habenus.
That caterpillar might be a cabbage worm, although it could be a cabbage looper.
Either way, I wouldn't worry about removing the Mud Dauber unless it's in a high-trafficked area or if the adult is being annoying. They're generally non-aggressive, and as Fiendish said, their sting isn't too bad if they do sting.
Also, don't soak your veggies in saltwater. This is a folk remedy for removing pests, and it doesn't really do anything that a normal bowl of water and some careful inspection wouldn't do better.
I think that wasp might be an Organ Pipe Mud Dauber (Trypoxylon politum) but this is only based on the color pattern on the tip of the legs and the abdomen. Don't take this as gospel, it could be a lot of other kinds of wasps. It's definitely not Sphex habenus.
That caterpillar might be a cabbage worm, although it could be a cabbage looper.
Either way, I wouldn't worry about removing the Mud Dauber unless it's in a high-trafficked area or if the adult is being annoying. They're generally non-aggressive, and as Fiendish said, their sting isn't too bad if they do sting.
Also, don't soak your veggies in saltwater. This is a folk remedy for removing pests, and it doesn't really do anything that a normal bowl of water and some careful inspection wouldn't do better.
Google images of Trypoxylon politum look very much like my wasp, significantly more so than Sphex habenus, so I'll go with that identification.
That light fixture that it's borrowing is right next to my front door. When I went out to take the picture, the wasp hovered a few feet in front of my face for a bit, then went up inside its tube. Had to wait a minute for it to come back out, which is when I took the picture. I'll probably leave it alone for now, but if the wasp gets aggro I am not afraid of repeatedly wrecking its house with a stick.
Who knows, maybe it'll scare off some door-to-door salesmen
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RingoHe/Hima distinct lack of substanceRegistered Userregular
I think that wasp might be an Organ Pipe Mud Dauber (Trypoxylon politum) but this is only based on the color pattern on the tip of the legs and the abdomen. Don't take this as gospel, it could be a lot of other kinds of wasps. It's definitely not Sphex habenus.
That caterpillar might be a cabbage worm, although it could be a cabbage looper.
Either way, I wouldn't worry about removing the Mud Dauber unless it's in a high-trafficked area or if the adult is being annoying. They're generally non-aggressive, and as Fiendish said, their sting isn't too bad if they do sting.
Also, don't soak your veggies in saltwater. This is a folk remedy for removing pests, and it doesn't really do anything that a normal bowl of water and some careful inspection wouldn't do better.
Google images of Trypoxylon politum look very much like my wasp, significantly more so than Sphex habenus, so I'll go with that identification.
Oh sure, trust the guy that gets paid to know these things over my renowned google search skills.
Found the cat out in the yard playing with this thing:
Unusual! Front half looks kind of like an ant but the back half is weird.
2-3 cm long, western WA
life's a game that you're bound to lose / like using a hammer to pound in screws
fuck up once and you break your thumb / if you're happy at all then you're god damn dumb
that's right we're on a fucked up cruise / God is dead but at least we have booze
bad things happen, no one knows why / the sun burns out and everyone dies
It might be a Devil's Coach Horse Beetle (Ocypus olens), but I'm not nearly an expert on Rove beetles.
Also, it's definitely too many names for one bug!
They're harmless to you and actually eat a lot of garden pests, including snails!
On the northern west coast there is really only one Rove beetle with black legs, massive pronged jaws and in that size, and it's the Devil's coach horse. Further east there are a few other variants it could have been, but the best bet would still have been an Ocypus olens.
"The western world sips from a poisonous cocktail: Polarisation, populism, protectionism and post-truth"
-Antje Jackelén, Archbishop of the Church of Sweden
Also, while I'm pretty sure that's an Asian Lady Beetle, it's important to note that ALBs are highly polymorphic, meaning that they have a wide variety of different colors and patterns, and even the white "M" shape spot on the pronotum can be missing in some variants.
That being said, if it's a relatively large lady beetle, with a lot of spots on the wings (18 or more), and a white "M" like shape on the pronotum, it's probably Asian Lady Beetle. There's an...infographic that gets passed around a lot that's pretty much incorrect. One of my friends has a nice post explaining some of the myths about these beetles.
Yeah, the matrix of all the photos of asian lady beetles, 3 down, second from the left, is a much clearer picture of what I've been seeing. My daughter has been very excited to say hello to all of them that she finds.
"I will write your name in the ruin of them. I will paint you across history in the color of their blood."
RingoHe/Hima distinct lack of substanceRegistered Userregular
@38thDoe based on coloration and relative size of the appendages I'm willing to guess that is probably some subset of Homo Sapiens. Unfortunately those things are everywhere and you really have to observe behavior patterns to get even a rough understanding of how to identify distinct variations
JedocIn the scupperswith the staggers and jagsRegistered Userregular
edited July 2020
Robber flies are good people. They eat a whole bunch of other, crappier bugs, and they don't bite unless you start something first. Pretty much the rudest thing you can say about them is that they eat bees sometimes. Sometimes while cosplaying as them.
Plus, they catch houseflies in midair! I'm not messing with that kind of Matrix-level reflexes, I tell you what.
Any idea what this is?
It thought it was a better swimmer than it was.
@38thDoe With that dark brown head and even brown body I think it's a Brown Prionid, Orthosoma brunneum.
It could be a different longhorned beetle though, but none really come to mind at the moment. Other similar beetles either have a mottled pattern (asian longhorned beetle), have a head and thorax the same colour (Spruce longhorned beetle), or a far more vibrant red-brown colour (redbrown longhorned beetle) etc
"The western world sips from a poisonous cocktail: Polarisation, populism, protectionism and post-truth"
-Antje Jackelén, Archbishop of the Church of Sweden
Robber flies are good people. They eat a whole bunch of other, crappier bugs, and they don't bite unless you start something first.
And yet I can't really warm up to robber flies. Flies of all sorts (except syphid flies), cockroaches and a few other insects are ones that I just find...offputting (revolting in the case of cockroaches).
Fiendishrabbit on
"The western world sips from a poisonous cocktail: Polarisation, populism, protectionism and post-truth"
-Antje Jackelén, Archbishop of the Church of Sweden
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ceresWhen the last moon is cast over the last star of morningAnd the future has past without even a last desperate warningRegistered User, Moderatormod
The other day I was outside with my son, who is generally scared of flies. A fly came along and he started freaking out like "aaaaaa it's a horsefly" and then ran away as fast as he could. And I was like "sigh, that just looks like a regular fly" and rolled my eyes. Then, left with just me, it started trying to land on me. Not particularly aggressive, just kept landing on me, no matter how much I shooed it away. I don't mind flies buzzing around when I'm outside, because I'm outside and I know that's where flies live sometimes. But I draw the line at things trying to land on me. When I realized it was probably going to keep doing that, I decided to go and find out how my son was doing at the other end of the parking lot very fast.
So who was right? Was it a horsefly, or do regular flies just really want to land on you sometimes? This just looked like a regular gray fly. Most of the time when I've encountered a horsefly the huge dive-bombing nightmare didn't leave much room for doubt, but I wasn't going to stick around, either.
And it seems like all is dying, and would leave the world to mourn
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OrcaAlso known as EspressosaurusWrexRegistered Userregular
edited July 2020
I took some macros of insects yesterday and I'm curious what they are (bonus, what plant is it they're hanging out on? I also saw honeybees, flies, and bumble bees hanging out on those flowers):
JedocIn the scupperswith the staggers and jagsRegistered Userregular
edited July 2020
Looks like a grass spider. They're good people. They typically don't want to hang out in your house, because they can't weave their rad funnel webs (not those funnel-webs, happily) without grass blades as part of the construction. They're not very venomous and they don't like to bite people, but they will if you get fresh with them. So use the old card-and-cup trick to evict them if you find them crawling across your floor.
Neat. It was found in my kids’ playhouse so was promptly removed to the yard already.
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H3KnucklesBut we decide which is rightand which is an illusion.Registered Userregular
edited July 2020
Found this beetle on the paper towel roll in the bathroom, about a US quarter (~1 inch, or 24 & 1/4 mm), maybe less? Didn't seem like it'd be anything harmful to have around, your advice? I apologize for the image quality.
For reference, I live in southeastern Pennsylvania.
Definitely a thread-waisted wasp. Maybe a Grass-carrying wasp like Isodontia mexicana.
Syrpid fly. Can't tell you which one, but that profile is unmistakable.
Definitely a wasp. Almost certainly some sort of Sand wasp. Unsure of which species.
In all three cases I could probably give you something more specific if I knew which state/country you lived in.
"The western world sips from a poisonous cocktail: Polarisation, populism, protectionism and post-truth"
-Antje Jackelén, Archbishop of the Church of Sweden
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OrcaAlso known as EspressosaurusWrexRegistered Userregular
edited July 2020
Thank you! I would not have guessed that second one is a fly--with that coloration I figured it was some kind of bee.
I live in the western US, which is consistent with Isodontia mexicana for that first one.
ceresWhen the last moon is cast over the last star of morningAnd the future has past without even a last desperate warningRegistered User, Moderatormod
Found this beetle on the paper towel roll in the bathroom, about a US quarter (~1 inch, or 24 & 1/4 mm), maybe less? Didn't seem like it'd be anything harmful to have around, your advice? I apologize for the image quality.
For reference, I live in southeastern Pennsylvania.
June bug?
And it seems like all is dying, and would leave the world to mourn
Queen Anne's Lace is also known as Wild Carrot, and is actually edible - at least when the carrot part is relatively young because, unlike domesticated carrots, it gets really, really fibrous when it gets older.
38thDoelets never be stupid againwait lets always be stupid foreverRegistered Userregular
I think Queen Anne's Lace can also give you the downsides of being a vampire, it can make the sun give you pretty substantial burns on your skin. Phytophotodermatits. So, that's fun.
I think Queen Anne's Lace can also give you the downsides of being a vampire, it can make the sun give you pretty substantial burns on your skin. Phytophotodermatits. So, that's fun.
Hemlock, which is a similar-looking plant, is much worse for that.
Also, really don't confuse the two and eat hemlock.
Found this beetle on the paper towel roll in the bathroom, about a US quarter (~1 inch, or 24 & 1/4 mm), maybe less? Didn't seem like it'd be anything harmful to have around, your advice? I apologize for the image quality.
For reference, I live in southeastern Pennsylvania.
June bug?
Some kind of June bug or May beetle possibly. Those antennae are quite common among males in that family and the general shape is consistent. But I can't figre out a member of the family that's a) tan/light brown. b) not hairy c) Have the rather spindly legs that this specimen has.
Fiendishrabbit on
"The western world sips from a poisonous cocktail: Polarisation, populism, protectionism and post-truth"
-Antje Jackelén, Archbishop of the Church of Sweden
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ceresWhen the last moon is cast over the last star of morningAnd the future has past without even a last desperate warningRegistered User, Moderatormod
When I was a kid in PA there were a few years when there were so many flying around at night that we'd find dead ones all over the porch, it was so gross. They were the dumbest fucking bugs, just flying into windows and walls and anyone wearing a white shirt over and over and over.
And it seems like all is dying, and would leave the world to mourn
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H3KnucklesBut we decide which is rightand which is an illusion.Registered Userregular
edited July 2020
Well, it was returned to the great outdoors. Pretty docile and easy to catch. Hopefully I didn't just miss my chance to discover a new species. I think it was some sort of a june bug/may beetle, having looked them up after ceres' first reply. I took a few other pics that first night but they're basically the same in terms of details shown, so I don't think they'd be any help.
Well, it was returned to the great outdoors. Pretty docile and easy to catch. Hopefully I didn't just miss my chance to discover a new species. I think it was some sort of a june bug/may beetle, having looked them up after ceres' first reply. I took a few other pics that first night but they're basically the same in terms of details shown, so I don't think they'd be any help.
Thanks for the input.
Unless I'm confusing them with Japanese beetles, they have a really impressive grip, and I wouldn't advise forcibly removing them from a vinyl screen.
But it is really impressive, so I do recommend giving them a tug if they're grappled to a metal screen.
Insects surviving freezing temperatures is a lot easier to believe than microwaving them. The latter being much more disruptive at cellular level...
I just assumed the caterpillars that were still crawling were necessarily among those that managed to avoid the microwave's hotspots.
You probably wouldn't notice the ones that exploded.
You might notice that mouthful of broccoli tasted slightly more caterpillary than usual.
Other than that, no problems.
I imagine any larvae whose body mass was derived largely from broccoli, and is then steamed in bunch of broccoli, probably comes out tasting pretty broccoly.
You really want to either pan fry them or soak them in a lemon-pepper marinade if you don't want to get chopped.
Insects surviving freezing temperatures is a lot easier to believe than microwaving them. The latter being much more disruptive at cellular level...
I just assumed the caterpillars that were still crawling were necessarily among those that managed to avoid the microwave's hotspots.
You probably wouldn't notice the ones that exploded.
You might notice that mouthful of broccoli tasted slightly more caterpillary than usual.
Other than that, no problems.
I imagine any larvae whose body mass was derived largely from broccoli, and is then steamed in bunch of broccoli, probably comes out tasting pretty broccoly.
You really want to either pan fry them or soak them in a lemon-pepper marinade if you don't want to get chopped.
Actually no. According to entomologist friend most edible grubs tend to have a nut-like flavor. Anywhere between almonds and coconut depending on the species, but for some reason always nutlike.
"The western world sips from a poisonous cocktail: Polarisation, populism, protectionism and post-truth"
-Antje Jackelén, Archbishop of the Church of Sweden
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So, perhaps do get rid of them if you want your local spider population to thrive (and thus eat more bugs)
Also of note is that other insects will move into empty mud dauber nests, and I don't know whether those Johnnie-come-latelys are friendly or not
The nests though, not the wasps themselves. When I first started that section I was picturing a cockpit filled with angry wasps
They're the main predators of widow spiders. Not because they specificly attack widow spiders (mud daubers like all sorts of spiders), but because other species tend to avoid widow spiders. So if you're in an area where widow spiders are common...sure. Otherwise you might be interested in getting rid of the nest, because spiders are some of the best friends you can have when it comes to getting rid of other pests.
-Antje Jackelén, Archbishop of the Church of Sweden
That caterpillar might be a cabbage worm, although it could be a cabbage looper.
Either way, I wouldn't worry about removing the Mud Dauber unless it's in a high-trafficked area or if the adult is being annoying. They're generally non-aggressive, and as Fiendish said, their sting isn't too bad if they do sting.
Also, don't soak your veggies in saltwater. This is a folk remedy for removing pests, and it doesn't really do anything that a normal bowl of water and some careful inspection wouldn't do better.
I've had insects in freezers for months, taken them out to try and pin them, and they came back to life. I'm not surprised.
Google images of Trypoxylon politum look very much like my wasp, significantly more so than Sphex habenus, so I'll go with that identification.
That light fixture that it's borrowing is right next to my front door. When I went out to take the picture, the wasp hovered a few feet in front of my face for a bit, then went up inside its tube. Had to wait a minute for it to come back out, which is when I took the picture. I'll probably leave it alone for now, but if the wasp gets aggro I am not afraid of repeatedly wrecking its house with a stick.
Who knows, maybe it'll scare off some door-to-door salesmen
Oh sure, trust the guy that gets paid to know these things over my renowned google search skills.
I'll get you next time, Arch!
Unusual! Front half looks kind of like an ant but the back half is weird.
2-3 cm long, western WA
fuck up once and you break your thumb / if you're happy at all then you're god damn dumb
that's right we're on a fucked up cruise / God is dead but at least we have booze
bad things happen, no one knows why / the sun burns out and everyone dies
It might be a Devil's Coach Horse Beetle (Ocypus olens), but I'm not nearly an expert on Rove beetles.
Also, it's definitely too many names for one bug!
They're harmless to you and actually eat a lot of garden pests, including snails!
On the northern west coast there is really only one Rove beetle with black legs, massive pronged jaws and in that size, and it's the Devil's coach horse. Further east there are a few other variants it could have been, but the best bet would still have been an Ocypus olens.
-Antje Jackelén, Archbishop of the Church of Sweden
It thought it was a better swimmer than it was.
Yeah, the matrix of all the photos of asian lady beetles, 3 down, second from the left, is a much clearer picture of what I've been seeing. My daughter has been very excited to say hello to all of them that she finds.
The Monster Baru Cormorant - Seth Dickinson
Steam: Korvalain
North Jersey
Plus, they catch houseflies in midair! I'm not messing with that kind of Matrix-level reflexes, I tell you what.
@38thDoe With that dark brown head and even brown body I think it's a Brown Prionid, Orthosoma brunneum.
It could be a different longhorned beetle though, but none really come to mind at the moment. Other similar beetles either have a mottled pattern (asian longhorned beetle), have a head and thorax the same colour (Spruce longhorned beetle), or a far more vibrant red-brown colour (redbrown longhorned beetle) etc
-Antje Jackelén, Archbishop of the Church of Sweden
And yet I can't really warm up to robber flies. Flies of all sorts (except syphid flies), cockroaches and a few other insects are ones that I just find...offputting (revolting in the case of cockroaches).
-Antje Jackelén, Archbishop of the Church of Sweden
So who was right? Was it a horsefly, or do regular flies just really want to land on you sometimes? This just looked like a regular gray fly. Most of the time when I've encountered a horsefly the huge dive-bombing nightmare didn't leave much room for doubt, but I wasn't going to stick around, either.
For reference, I live in southeastern Pennsylvania.
In all three cases I could probably give you something more specific if I knew which state/country you lived in.
-Antje Jackelén, Archbishop of the Church of Sweden
I live in the western US, which is consistent with Isodontia mexicana for that first one.
edit: And looking at the description of the thread-waisted wasp, that's a dead ringer for my picture, and sure enough, I found it on Queen Anne's Lace: https://www.insectidentification.org/insect-description.asp?identification=Thread-Waisted-Wasp
June bug?
Steam: Elvenshae // PSN: Elvenshae // WotC: Elvenshae
Wilds of Aladrion: [https://forums.penny-arcade.com/discussion/comment/43159014/#Comment_43159014]Ellandryn[/url]
Hemlock, which is a similar-looking plant, is much worse for that.
Also, really don't confuse the two and eat hemlock.
Steam: Elvenshae // PSN: Elvenshae // WotC: Elvenshae
Wilds of Aladrion: [https://forums.penny-arcade.com/discussion/comment/43159014/#Comment_43159014]Ellandryn[/url]
Some kind of June bug or May beetle possibly. Those antennae are quite common among males in that family and the general shape is consistent. But I can't figre out a member of the family that's a) tan/light brown. b) not hairy c) Have the rather spindly legs that this specimen has.
-Antje Jackelén, Archbishop of the Church of Sweden
Thanks for the input.
Unless I'm confusing them with Japanese beetles, they have a really impressive grip, and I wouldn't advise forcibly removing them from a vinyl screen.
But it is really impressive, so I do recommend giving them a tug if they're grappled to a metal screen.
I just assumed the caterpillars that were still crawling were necessarily among those that managed to avoid the microwave's hotspots.
You probably wouldn't notice the ones that exploded.
You might notice that mouthful of broccoli tasted slightly more caterpillary than usual.
Other than that, no problems.
I imagine any larvae whose body mass was derived largely from broccoli, and is then steamed in bunch of broccoli, probably comes out tasting pretty broccoly.
You really want to either pan fry them or soak them in a lemon-pepper marinade if you don't want to get chopped.
Actually no. According to entomologist friend most edible grubs tend to have a nut-like flavor. Anywhere between almonds and coconut depending on the species, but for some reason always nutlike.
-Antje Jackelén, Archbishop of the Church of Sweden