Arachnids and Other Crawlies

I hate all those things, except for dungbeetles - they are little geniusses!

Oooh, and I put lots of links of beetles and other insects on your links topic. Great pictures in there...where all good insects and spiders should be in a perfect world...but without honeybees, we would have no fruit or nuts. They are the pollenators.

Hey, dung beetles are those scarab beetles one wears as jewelry...pretty fancy for dung beetles, huh!

doesn't the so-called scarab beetle and the jewelry originate in egypt?

Indeed! Since they lay their eggs in the dung balls they roll, it seemed to the Egyptians that they were creating life out of something so lowly as dung. Creation and Reincarnation and all that! They were considered sacred. And, I have a set of the jewelry, too.

I find those little dungballs so amazing. It is like those little goggos are rolling the very planet with those blunt little ar$es of theirs.

Isn't that the truth! We have them on the Kona side of the Island, and nothing gets in their way. They roll them ceaselessly, seemingly. Incredible, considering that the balls are four times the size of the beetles!

Does anyone else have a tolerance size for spiders? Little ones - no problemo rather cute really, smallish ones - no problemo, sort of inch (2.5cm) ones - beginning problems, two inch (5cm) ones - yuk yuk and more yuk, big fat hairy ones - you won't see me for dust, large dinner plate flat ones - ditto.

I certainly do. We have little "hoppy" spiders which are zebra-striped and are pretty tiny and they are not problem whatsoever. We also have cane spiders which are a variety of Wolf Spider (sorry Wolfie) - and I do not like spiders of a size which I could skin to make a fur coat, nor one on which I could throw a saddle and ride off into the sunset. Spiders are definitely a size-tolerant item - but it never occurred to me before...

I'm tolerant of all shapes and sizes (as long as I'm not required to groom the larger ones) except for 2 species -- black widows and brown recluse. I confess a weakness for the jumping spiders myself, but I actually prefer the larger sizes on those in order to clearly see the full set of eyes ... they look like teddy bears! No, I think my "tolerance" is more dictated by location than size. If it's in my lap, drink, or bed, I tend to lapse into intolerance pretty quickly!! ;-)

Yo Karen! Welcome to the Wild Kingdom...*lol* I had no idea you liked to get eyeball-to-eyeballx8 with Wolf spiders. Yeesh! I am feeling crawly all over right now just thinking about it. One night one of those big'uns fled our capture into the linen closet and none of us was going to sleep until the critter was on the other side of the walls and doors from us. My ex rigged up a big jar taped to the handle of a rag mop (this guy was an entomologist) and started zeroing in on the unwelcome visitor. J st as he pushed enough of the handle out to get the jar into range the mop rags tickled his arm. He lept off the floor and dropped the entire assemblage. I do not recall how we got rid of the spider, but I do remember that!

I am a big fan of Teddy Bears. Never did I see a spider I though I wanted to cuddle up with. What? You do not share your food with your Teddies? Cruel and unusual, one would think...*lol*

Too bad I cannot import my handly all-purpose spellchecker for posts. That should be "thought" not though...

(Marcia) I had no idea you liked to get eyeball-to-eyeball x8 with Wolf spiders. Yeesh! I am feeling crawly all over right now just thinking about it. Masters in BioScience. Capture and release Wolf spiders, for sure, but I meant a nice size on the jumping spiders, with their short stubby little legs. Real teddy bears. I love how they stand there, bobbing right, left, up, and down in order to look around (can't roll their eyes very well) and then *pop* -- launch. If you move, they swivel right toward you and tip up and down so you know you are being examined with interest. (I like mantises because they turn their heads to look at you while the rest of them stays absolutely still. Neat!) Most other bugs don't rely on binocular vision as much as those two.

Spiders of all kinds (well, maybe not the very tiny ones) have me shaking and crying with panic. I know, they're nature's creatures like any others, but show me things with more than four legs or less than two and I want to run :-(

Indeed (love the leg count!) My reaction, as well!

Memorable encounters part 1: Scene: in bed asleep Action: slap! what was that? yes, you've guesed it a nice juicy spider, fat hairy and ... on the floor with one hairy leg left on my stomach. no electicity. where's the torch ..... Meanwhile 5 legged spider scuttled away fast. I feel bad having maimed a creature and left it to suffer. Also feel very sick! Memorable encounters part 2: Scene 1: colleague working in Zaire boasting about how their spiders were bigger than ours (Gambia) Scene 2: colleague in my bedroom (innocent honest) looking at big(ish) flat spider on wall. No problem, where's the broom? Action: Spider attacks, runs up broom handle, colleague screams and runs! I laugh, and feel much better.

Do cockraoches count in here? I had one up my nightie once.

Yeesh....Great spider stories. Maggie. *lol* Druther read about them than to experience them. Yep, Cockroaches belong here. I had one run up my bare arm once. I washed for about 1/2 hour and still could not disuade the nerve-ending to stop remembering that nasty feeling. BTW, don't waste any of your precious time lamenting spiders lost limbs - they can regenerate them by the next molt! Let's hear the rest of your nightie story...!

i have troubles with the house spiders (yeah, the black jumping ones with all those eyeballs looking at you). they spot me from across the room and threat jumping. those bug me (*lol* get it?).... now the big wolf spiders don't bother me too much if i see them and they go the other way. perhaps because i know they aren't poisonous. but black widows and recluses scare me. i think the thing that bothers me most is walking into a very sticky spider web anchor. then i don't know where the spider is and swear it's crawling down my backside.

Oh yeah...those webs which you walk into and deposit a disgruntled spider down your neck or into your hair...Eeeeeeeeek! Hate those!!! Wolf spiders and I keep away from each other unless they are in my house. We have no recluse or black widow spiders here, but we had the latter in West Virginia. My welcome as a new bride was to reel down out of our mailbox beside the front door and rotate so I could see the red hourglass. I put a big sign on the mailbox and left it for the new-husband-entomologist to handle.

(*lol* Yep, I got it!)

(Gi) but show me things with more than four legs or less than two and I want to run :-( I much prefer that reflex to the other common one: GET A STICK!! KILL IT!! KILL IT!! ... often practised when you don't know what you are attacking. The Gambian spider above demonstrates that that particular reflex isn't always wise. (I will leave my related commentary on snakes for another time and Topic). Retreat is always the better part of valour (cheez, I'm getting more British every day! Hee hee!). (Marcia) Yep, Cockroaches belong here. I had one run up my bare arm once. I washed for about 1/2 hour and still could not disuade the nerve-ending to stop remembering that nasty feeling ... I have no compunction about reverting to the unwise reflex cited above when it comes to Roaches, I'm afraid. I am sickened by the stench left by a well-established population, the tickle of their transversing my skin is more revulsion than terror, and the quick scuttle of a dark object when the light is turned on gives rise to a weary sort of annoyance. I salve my conscience whenever I off one of the critters (or even mass murder if I can possibly accomplish it) by remembering that they've been around since before the dinosaurs and will probably still be scuttling after Homo sapiens has blown itself away, so the removal of a trifling portion of the population is not an exercise in arbitrary extinction. No regrets.

We have large and mildly toxic centipedes over here. My Inconsequential Other is terrified of them, so I take care of their removal. They eat roaches and other nasties, so I never kill them. I capture them in a jar then take them outside and turn them loose. I agree on your accessment of the roach situation. They will inherit the earth just as the sharks and ants and other things we think are annoying and/or a threat will. If we do not have a snake topic, I can make one,but I think Reptiles would suffice. What think you? (We are a bit British - Drool hangover, I think!)

Roaches do carry skin diseases to humans and add things to your food which are not good for you. They are NOT a benign species by any means!!!

However, that said (and I can barely bring myself to tell you this)...Cockroaches - those huge brown ones - are fed cornmeal for a few days then fried and eaten in the Orient. (Sorry...I shall NOT open a topic for them in the Food Conference!) My favorite spiders are the huge hissing ones which rear back on their hind four legs and hiss at their enemies to scare them away. I think that is unnecessary - at least for me! I'm gone!

we have flying palmetto bugs. those things set a shiver up me. thank God for the orkin man!

I'm sorry, I'm not familiar with palmetto bugs (although I'm familiar with palmettos). Of what Order are they? (i.e. True Bugs, Hemiptera? or is "Bug" a familiarization?) What are their closest relatives?

Yeah - another one which you can saddle. Don't like'um that big.

Ok getting out the books...not there...sending an email to my ex. He will know and I will report back.

Oh, I dunno. With my failing eyesight, I appreciate a scale that doesn't require optical enhancement to study. I was always rather fond of June beetles, not only because of their iridescence, but also their size (And the golden brown"fur" around the underside.)

I like mantises for the same reason ... on a scale of watchablility.

What is a Palmetto Bug? While discussing the creation of our newsletter, our article in VW Trends and then these web pages, it occurred to me (and some of my fellow VW nuts) that we should probably describe what a Palmetto Bug actually is. Odds on, if you live in South Florida, you have already encountered a Palmetto Bug or two. What are they? Simply stated, a Cockroach. But not your ordinary run of the mill cockroach. No, they are nothing like the cute little creepy crawlies you see in Orkin commercials. For one thing, Palmetto Bugs tend to be a bit larger then your average roach. I'm not kidding when I say that I have seen them grow to three inches or more. You may think cockroaches are gross, but the experience is much more vivid when all the gory details are magnified. As if that wasn't enough, Palmetto Bugs can fly! Yes, fly. You have never been creeped out, until you see a three inch roach fly up and land on the table next to you. And it gets worse, Palmetto Bugs aren't afraid of the light. You're just as likely to encounter one during the day as at night. The last little detail to distinguish the Palmetto Bug from your average cockroach is that they are armored. Step on one and you're lucky if you get its attention. You don't even get the pleasure of squishing one. Palmetto Bugs are larger then you would expect, they fly, you see them day and night, and they are very rugged.

Love Mantises...have them here and bring them home if I find one which seems lost and put them on my Gardenias. As I suspected, Palmetto bugs are Blattidae...cockroaches!

Oh, and all mature insects can fly...cockroaches and all.

The above "What is a Palmetto Bug" is from http://www.dudeface.com/pbdefinit.html

Oh, and that makes them Orthoptera - like crickets and grasshoppers.

Thanks, I appreciate the thorough description and diligent scholarship, all for an idle point of curiosity. I suppose I wouldn't be so languid about all those members of Insecta, Arachnida, Chilopoda, etc. If I lived closer to the tropics ... they come in the giant economy size there on a rather regular basis. But still, things like Rhinoceros -beetles are more intriguing than terrifying. (I've always been amazed that something as chunky as a giant rhinoceros beetle CAN fly.) If, as you say, palmetto bugs are blattids, then I might be as repulsed as you (although I've seen those giant oriental hissing cockroaches and didn't find them repellent, just weird). But something that size flying into my soup would have a distinct negative side to their personalities, and limit their acceptability, I suspect. (actually, such things seen behind glass improve their acceptability tremendously!) ;-D

Actually, I find them all fascinating when there is a glass enclosure assuring they and I will not have a close encounter of the third kind. When they happen to get into your home by hiding under the flaps of a cardboard carton where they sleep in the daytime, and emerge at about 7pm (really!), and start flying around the room I find it most disquieting. In fact, I can get pretty noisy about it! Indeed, there is just about nothing which comes in the small sample size in the tropics.

i like mantises too, butterflies, and ladybugs. oh, katydids, rolly pollies, and some beatles are neat too. we have some that live in the sludge with the crawdads. they're beautiful because of their shiny irredescent shell but they aren't shy one bit and will run right at you! the spiders we find in there aren't very much fun either. in fact, i'm getting shivers just thinking about them. and speaking of spiders, i really like those big yellow and green garden spiders. when i was a teenager, we had one make a web on the woodpile. we took great pains not to disturb her. and what's up with those cockroaches (?) that are huge and are allowed to crawl around on a person's hand? i've seen them on bug specials on discovery. can't remember if they're hairy or what. just dark in color and the shell seems hairy looking.

(Wolfie)...and some beatles are neat too. Still pinin' for the lads from Liverpool, are ya?! (Couldn't resist! *lol*) We have crayfish (crawdads) in the "moat" surrounding my yard...those buggers can nip you if they get too close! You have sluge-dwelling spiders? *shudder* Ah, yes...Argiope, the Golden Garden Spiders. They are here by the jillion. All the ones you can actually see are females. The male is a tiny little thing and very drab. Good fun, those! Oh heavens...never seen hairy cockroaches...Yuck! But, seeing as they have a chitonous exoskelaton, it was most probably an optical illusion.

Good grief! I go away and sleep for a night - and this topic has spawned!!! OK Marcia - nightie story part 2. Again electricity cut (frequent in Gambia I'm afraid) wake up clutching aforesaid nightie. Realise what I'm clutching is wriggling. Shock, horror. Pitch black. Stumble to bathroom drop clutched wrigger in loo (brit English for toilet pan), shine torch (flashlight) to see what I've caught, feel VERY nauseated. Large 2 inch dark brown cockroach, don't know which variety. Worse thing was the water was off too so I couldn't bathe. Here's two more to try and identify - a sort of fishing cockroach nightmare. Never did see the whole of it, but it (or they?) lived under the shower, and fished with long 2 inch+ things out of the plug hole. We often had guests run screaming out of the shower - a good source of fun! Colour brown, definitely exoskeletal. The body must have been smaller than a 'regular' african cockroach because on occasion it 'fished' out of the shower head too. We wondered if it was some sort of cockroach cum crab, as it seemed to scuttle sideways. - a blister beetle. Large (2 1/2 inch) olive green coloured flying beetle which buries it's head in skin on landing and secretes a blistering fluid. VERY nasty. One which I dug out of an African friend left a 2 inch scar which took weeks and weeks to heal.

euwwww!!

Oh heavens...How ghastly! See why they call the tropics "Paradise"? It is only done so by those not living here *grin* I am familiar with the blister beetle...will post information on it...but yours were much larger than ours on the US mainland (none out here that I know of) I'll check on that fishing nightmare...have no idea what it could be but I do have my sources...! When insects are in their immature and smaller instars they can get into the most incredible places...perhaps that is how they got into your shower head? Have you seen an entire one of these things? *S H U D D E R* BTW, South African Cockroaches are the biggest there are - a guy had a colony of them at Penn State while I was there and you could smell them before you could see them. I avoided looking or breathing in their direction whenever possible.

from: http://www.funkandwagnalls.com/encyclopedia/low/articles/b/b003001710f.html BLISTER BEETLE, common name for any beetle of the family Meloidae, so called because the dried bodies of certain species can raise blisters on human skin. The insects of this family pass through a complex metamorphosis, some having as many as nine distinct stages from egg to adult. The larvae are parasitic on other insects, some living in nests of wild bees and others on locust or grasshopper eggs. The adults are mostly black, gray, or striped with yellow and are pests in flower and vegetable gardens. The chief genera of the family are Meloe, the oil beetles; Lytta, the Spanish flies; and Epicauta, which includes potato and tomato beetles.

from: http://cbs.infoplease.com BLISTER BEETLE common name for certain soft-bodied, usually black or brown, mostly elongate and cylindrical beetles belonging to the family Meloidae. Blister beetles are common insects found feeding on the flowers and foliage of various plants. Occasionally some, e.g., potato beetles, become serious defoliating pests of potatoes, tomatoes, beets, asters, and other crops and flowers. The larvae are predacious or parasitic, feeding on the eggs of grasshoppers and of bees. Blister beetles undergo hypermetamorphosis, a complex life cycle with several different larval forms. The first of the six larval stages, called a triungulin, is a minute, active, and long-legged form that seeks out the host's nest; the following stages are grublike. Adults emerge in midsummer. One group of blister beetles has body fluids that contain cantharadin, a substance that can cause the skin to blister, from which the family gets its name. The Spanish fly (Lytta vesicatoria), a bright green or bluish blister beetle, is a common S European species from which cantharides are extracted and commercially prepared by crushing the wing covers (elytra) of the adults. This quite poisonous chemical is used medicinally as a skin irritant (in plasters), a diuretic, and an aphrodisiac. The lethal dosage for man is about .03 grams. Another group of meloid beetles has no cantharadin and is sometimes called the oil beetles because of the oily substance they secrete as protection against predators. Blister and oil beetles may be brushed into pans of kerosene or killed with systemic poisons or contact insecticides. Blister beetles are classified in the phylum Arthropoda, class Insecta, order Coleoptera, family Meloidae.

And, on our favourite, Blattids(That's how I learned to spell it!), from the same source, COCKROACH name applied to approximately 3,500 species of flat-bodied, oval insects forming the suborder Blattaria of the order Orthoptera. Cockroaches have long antennae, long legs adapted to running, and a flat extension of the upper body wall that conceals the head. They range from 1/4 in. to 3 in. (.6�7.6 cm) in length. Some cockroaches have two pairs of well-developed wings, the front pair covering the hind pair when at rest; others have reduced wings or none at all. In some species only the wings of the female are reduced or absent. Many species are able to fly well, although the familiar household species do not fly. Most cockroaches are shiny brown or black, but bright yellows, reds, and greens occur in some tropical species. Cockroaches are night-active insects and most live in damp places; most are omnivorous scavengers. They are worldwide in distribution but are most numerous in the tropics. Most species live in the wild in their native regions, e.g., the wood cockroaches, species of the genus Parcoblatta, found under forest litter in the NE United States. A few tropical and subtropical species that have been introduced into the temperate zone have become residents in human homes, where they multiply rapidly and are serious pests. They invade food supplies and emit foul-smelling glandular secretions. Their shape enables them to use tiny cracks as hiding places. They are popularly believed to be carriers of human diseases, although this has not been proved. The large, dark Oriental cockroach, Blatta orientalis, is a cosmopolitan household species. The smaller German cockroach, or Croton bug, Blattella germanica, native to Europe, is the common urban cockroach of the NE United States. The American cockroach, Periplanata americana, is a large light-reddish species that invades houses in the S United States. Cockroaches reproduce sexually. Their eggs are encased in capsules called oothecae, which in some species remain attached to the abdomen of the female until the eggs hatch. In a few species the ootheca is retained within the body of the female and the young are born live. Young resemble the adults except in size. The group as a whole is extremely old; fossil evidence indicates its extreme abundance during the Carboniferous period, about 350 million years ago. These ancient cockroaches were able to fly and were probably the first flying animals. Cockroaches are classified in five families of the phylum Arthropoda, class Insecta, order Orthoptera, suborder Blattaria.

BTW, anytime I get something I do not want crawling back out of the ceramic flushable receptacle in the tiled room, I squirt it with detergent to break the surface tension. They sink and drown.

Earlier on in this topic Ree and I were applauding the ingenuity of the dung beetle (scarab). I just discovered in one of my archaeology magazines that Hezekiah's father, Ahaz, had one engraved on his seal-stone (bulla)...rolling a dung ball! As King of the Israelite kingdon of Judah, that is pretty high praise, indeed!

Oh, yes...that beetle rolling that ball of dung represented the movement of the rising sun and symbolizes the deity bringing salvation. Ahaz ruled from 727BC to 698 BC... (according to the article)

"Funny" how this topic thrives while others about wonderful creatures like dogs are dormant... to say the least...

I think dogs is derelict because they are fur-people and are taken to all the conferences with any well-trained child of the Master. They just sleep in the dog conf as they might a kennel, perhaps! I have wondered about that, as well!

Actually, I think topics wax and wane depending on the inspiration and availability of the contributers. It seems all topics have this problem whether it be precious stones or collecting Barbie dolls or even things Arthurian.

True, but this one does have the attraction of horror movies - you hate to watch them, but can't resist peeping!

Peeping through your fingers? I know...and I hate myself for seeing what I didn't want to see in the first place. Why is that?!

And, like peeping through your fingers, remembering a particularly nasty episode (like the cockroach running up my arm) makes it fresh and creepy all over again.

indeed! there must be a little morbid curiosity in each of us. but if we didn't peak, how would we ever know if the yucky part was over?

I went to my first Phantom of the Opera movie with my "best" friend. I hid my eyes when she tore the mask off and trusted my friend to tell me when it was safe to look. She said, NOW! I looked and it was a full screen tight shot of the deformed face...I was so angry! And, I can still see it. Yeesh!

my point exactly!

We sort of dried up didn't we? Never mind, I'm just thinking of all the creepy crawly tales I can tell when I get back from Mali next time. At the moiment my life is surprisingly un-creepy crawly filled and I'd really rather it stayed that way.

Mine is, as well. I am not complaining, just making the observation. Looking forward to your heart-stopping hair-raising tales which make us shudder for you.

Since biblical times, locusts have never enjoyed a good press. Think plague, swarm and crop devastation. But all that may be about to change: the humble winged insects possess a unique talent which may help cars and planes dodge approaching objects. Despite rheumy eyesight and unexceptional intelligence, they are a whiz at avoiding oncoming hazards. The key to locust lightening reactions is a large neuron, called the lobula giant movement detector positioned behind each of their compound eyes, which partly controls their sudden leaps and steering in flight. A neurobiologist at Newcastle University shows dog fight sequences from Star Wars to locust to study how the neuron functions and to mimic its reactions. With Swiss scientists a three wheeled robot with the insects vision system has been constructed. They found it avoided fast moving objects 91% of the time.

I guess that is reassuring... We are having termite swarming so its lights out in the early evening or you invite in the ones roaming around for new munchies. Ah, Paradise!

do your termites build huge mounds like the African ones?

Nope. Ours are subterranean. It is Bizarre. At night they shed their wings and are all over the counters so I spray them with alcohol. By morning, the carnivorous ants have gleaned every last body off the counters and down the drains and even root the stuff out of the toaster I left out by mistake last night....but leave all of the wings behind. Wild kingdom right in my kitchen. The house was to be fumigated for termited three years ago when I was on the mainland but guess who spent the money on the greatest idiocy and it was MY money. I am furious. I would like to poison him...arrrrrrrrgh! I'll trade him for someone else's husband who might be underappreciated where he is....!!!

what did he spend your money on?

I am almost too humiliated to tell you. More walls, a concrete fountain complete with concrete squirrels (no squirrels in Hawaii) built in to one by the front door; fiberglass fake-lava-rock facing for the bottom half of the front of the house and a matching chimney (also fake) which is far too big for the roof and is so out of place it angers me every time I see it. He knows better than to bring up the subject because fire shoots out of my eyes when we "discuss" the subject. Worst of all, that facing holds moisture and makes the redwood siding rot faster and protects the termites giving them new entry to the house.

oops!

! P O W ! is more what I feel, but I have never struck a male until he bragged about hacking into....well, you know that story, too. I'd say more, but I cannot here...!

got it!

Urban Legend -- Earwigs Eat Your Brains! There is an old myth that states that earwigs--small, roach-like insects with a forceps-like appendage on their rear--will occasionally crawl into the ear (hence the name) of an unsuspecting person, burrow into their skull, and munch on their brain. This is not true. Earwigs are small herbivorous insects feeding on dead plant material. Although they look odd, they are quite harmless.

*whew*

We have them all over the place - the love the bathroom fixtures as well as the kitchen sink area. More annoying than anything else! *Whew* Indeed *lol*

I remember having breakfast during earwig season in Gambia and having them them fall out of the ceiling into my bowl. Yuk! Yuk! Yuk! why is that when they feed on dead plant material they like coming in houses?? No, maybe i don't want the answer - looking at my house!

They are hunting for more wet than there is available outside - usually during a time when it has not rained for a while and is not filling the petiole reservoirs. They like your sinks and sponges for that reason. In your bowl? Yuck!!

Tarantula Hair Most New World tarantulas have a rather unique defense mechanism that they use against perceived attackers. They have small, barbed "urticating" hairs on their abdomens. When the spider scrapes its leg over the hairs, they are rubbed off the surface and released, where they can be very irritating and painful to skin and eyes. Interestingly, the hairs have little or no effect on some predators, such as reptiles and frogs.

Hey! I just found this site dedicated to the Ants of West Africa. someone's put in a LOT of work on this. check it out. http://ibis.life.nottingham.ac.uk/~plzbt/wafants/antcover.htm

Woman Dies After Being Bitten by Ants SARASOTA, Fla. (Reuters) - An 87-year-old woman died in a Florida nursing home after being bitten 1,625 times by stinging fire ants, state health officials said on Thursday. The Sarasota County Medical Examiner's office said on Thursday the woman died in her bed last Friday in North Port, near Sarasota and health officials were still investigating the exact cause of death. A North Port police spokesman said the woman was severely bitten by the ants, which were believed to have entered her room from the outside through the baseboard of the building. Reaction to fire ant stings is similar to that of the stings of bees, wasps and hornets with some hypersensitive people suffering a life-threatening anaphylactic reaction. Fire ant infestation is a serious problem in the Southern United States from Florida to West Texas, where they have spread rapidly since coming into the country on ships from South America.