Cockroaches

[viscousmemories]

So I just killed the second cockroach I've found in this house. I realize that seeing two is not too bad for a couple of weeks, but it's still more than I'd like to see. The cockroaches here look like cockroaches I've seen in Michigan, but about twice the size.

Yuck.

There's this spray bottle in the garage with "Bug Spray" handprinted on it, filled with something that seems to kill the buggers on contact. (Well, after a period of kicking and squirming.) I have no idea if it's eco-friendly or not, as it was here when we moved in.

After I sprayed that one today, I went to get a paper towel to dispose of the little carcass and wipe up the excess spray on the tile, and I was all squeamish about it. So I'm thinking, "I've seen pretty little 18 year old girls eat these things live on Fear Factor, what is WRONG with me?"

I don't know what's wrong with me, but I hate insects. The only good insect is a dead insect. :fuming:

[Roland98]

"...what is WRONG with me?"

Do you really want people to answer that? :D

I don't know what's wrong with me, but I hate insects.

Dude, aren't you in the wrong state then? Don't they have insects the size of birds there or something?

Bugs really don't get to me. Only time they freak me out is when I'm in the shower and see a centipede or something, and I have no weapons to keep it from jumping on me (yeah, I know, like they do that anyway, but I always get that creepy feeling where you can feel them crawling all over you nevertheless). My kids looooove bugs. Aurora took a half-dozen locust shells she found outside to the babysitter's this morning as her "pets," and Zav was carrying around a huge daddy long-legs over the weekend (well, until he accidentally smashed it against his pants, that is).

[LadyShea]

That's why God created Orkin, call them, you'll be glad you did.

[viscousmemories]

Do you really want people to answer that? :D
Fair point. :eek:

Dude, aren't you in the wrong state then? Don't they have insects the size of birds there or something?
Birds? More like hippos! Nah actually the cockroaches I've seen are only about an inch long, which isn't too freaky. And I haven't really seen any other bugs. Of course I live in one of those neighborhoods where people would totally look down their nose at any non-humans moving in next door, so it's not surprising that more insects haven't chosen to relocate here.

Bugs really don't get to me. Only time they freak me out is when I'm in the shower and see a centipede or something, and I have no weapons to keep it from jumping on me (yeah, I know, like they do that anyway, but I always get that creepy feeling where you can feel them crawling all over you nevertheless).
Yeah, that feeling! That's what I meant about squeamish. And if something actually does crawl on me... *shudder* fuggedaboudit.

My kids looooove bugs. Aurora took a half-dozen locust shells she found outside to the babysitter's this morning as her "pets," and Zav was carrying around a huge daddy long-legs over the weekend (well, until he accidentally smashed it against his pants, that is).
Hehe. Cute. I don't remember ever liking insects. I always thought the kids who liked torturing and killing them to see what it was like were sick and twisted, but to this day I would stomp an insect or arachnid long before I'd try to catch it and release it outside. And honestly, the reason being that if I tried it might crawl on me or worse, escape and crawl on me later!

That's why God created Orkin, call them, you'll be glad you did.
Nah, those people are all the same. Money, money, money. It's all they think about. I'll bet ya a million dollars if I called them and asked them to come by, they'd come, spray the house, then stick their hand out. Worse, they'd have no sense of humor about it when I told 'em I have no money. :D

[freemonkey]

Go to Walgreens and pick up some boric acid roach killer powder stuff (look in the bug killer section). Its fairly cheap, kills those fuckers dead and its reasonably safe. About 15 years ago I lived in a house that was infested and I thought it would never be rid of them. It worked beautifully.

If you have pets or children in the house you want to exercise caution.

If you live in a single family home, you have much better control over their never returning. If you live in an apartment building, you're at the mercy of all the other tenants.

[livius drusus]

I say go for a desensitization program. Watching Joe's Apartment (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0116707/) once or twice should do the trick.

[Beth]

I cannot watch that movie without wanting to vomit. We have the video and the kids love it cuz it's nasty and makes Mommy wanna vomit.

[Goliath]

I'm right there with ya, vm. I despise insects, too (especially spiders...I'm a major arachnophobe). If it weren't for the fact that it would screw over the entire planetary ecosystem, I'd be in favor of a worldwide extermination effort.

[pzmyers]

Bigots.

I, for one, love our arthropod overlords. I love to play with them, I love to watch them, I love to take them apart worshipfully. See who came to visit me the other day?

http://pharyngula.org/images/visiting_dragonfly.jpg

How can you dislike something so strong and beautiful?

[Scotty]

I saw this, and it reminded me of you pzmyers, but I don't know if it is up to being your avatar or not.

[LadyShea]

That is beautiful PZ. The 3 inch long Oriental cockroaches here in Vegas are not. I'll even call a Black Widow beautiful before I stomp the bitch, but not the roaches...cannot do it.

[freemonkey]

See who came to visit me the other day?

http://pharyngula.org/images/visiting_dragonfly.jpg

How can you dislike something so strong and beautiful?

pz, that's gorgeous. I love dragonflies, and their dainty cousins (?), damselflies.

[Clutch Munny]

Just a few days ago I was floating on an air mattress, basking (the sea lion connotations not entirely misleading) in the soft heat on a clear Vancouver Island lake, when several brilliant shimmering blue dragonflies stopped in. Two alit on the mattress, one on my knee, and we all had a pleasant chinwag about being a slacker, while the rest of the world was at work.

They were very good company, and I believe they thought the same of me.

[dave_a]

Never saw a bug I didn't like except for the cockroaches when I lived in Hawaii and some funky spider in Saudi that actually chased me as well as the banana spiders in Okinawa that had baseball sized bodies and prefered to build their webs at head height and sit right in the middle of them.

Ok, briefly I will recount my experience with those banana spiders. If you are squeamish, stop reading now. I was in the Marines at the time and we would do night training missions out in the bush. It was impossible to see the webs/spiders in the pitch blackness. NOBODY wanted to be on point because we all knew what happens to those on point. You walk right into a massive web and it isn't a dainty web either, it's like a spiderman type web that is strong and thick stranded. The web completely wraps around your head and the spider then sits on your screaming face and bites. The leg span of these things is long enough to cover the face.

Thankfully I never walked into one, but I was on patrols where the point guy did. It was freakin hilarious. Everyone would be moving along trying to be as stealthy as possible and then the silence would be shattered with high pitched wails and the sound of a body thrashing around in the brush. Things like "AAArgh, fuck, helpme!!!, ohmygoddddddddd, aaaaarrgh" were typical. Genuinely hilarious I tell you. Unless it happened to you, then it wasn't funny at all :D

[viscousmemories]

Go to Walgreens and pick up some boric acid roach killer powder stuff (look in the bug killer section). Its fairly cheap, kills those fuckers dead and its reasonably safe.
Ah yes, I went the boric acid flavored powdered sugar route trying to get rid of ants in my house in California last year. They seemed to love it. :P

Seriously though, do I need to worry about this? I mean I've seen three cockroaches in as many weeks. The first was dead when I saw him (I'm guessing he was dead when we moved in) and all three were on the main floor (indicating that they had just wandered in from outside?)

Does this really call for drastic measures? Maybe they're just tourists.

[viscousmemories]

http://pharyngula.org/images/visiting_dragonfly.jpg
How can you dislike something so strong and beautiful?
Well the three section legs turn me off, but otherwise not a bad looking creature. I can't say what I'd do if such a thing was in my house because I've never had such a thing in my house (that I can recall). I'd probably open a door and shoo it out, though. Flying things don't bother me near as much as crawling things, so I probably wouldn't think it had to die at all costs.

[freemonkey]

Ah yes, I went the boric acid flavored powdered sugar route trying to get rid of ants in my house in California last year. They seemed to love it. :P

Seriously though, do I need to worry about this? I mean I've seen three cockroaches in as many weeks. The first was dead when I saw him (I'm guessing he was dead when we moved in) and all three were on the main floor (indicating that they had just wandered in from outside?)

Does this really call for drastic measures? Maybe they're just tourists.
I don't know what its like there in Texas (or wherever the hell you are now
:wink: ), so I don't know if you've got a different kind of cockroach that likes to live outside, away from the rich bounty you undoubtably provide. I wouldn't call a bit of boric acid around the hot spots "drastic measures", I'd call it "better safe than yuck :shudder: "

:chucks: hahaha I just found this one.

[viscousmemories]

I don't know what its like there in Texas (or wherever the hell you are now
:wink: ),
Hehe... y'know, now that you mention it, I do believe I've lived in 4 states and five cities in the last 3 years. :eek:

so I don't know if you've got a different kind of cockroach that likes to live outside, away from the rich bounty you undoubtably provide. I wouldn't call a bit of boric acid around the hot spots "drastic measures", I'd call it "better safe than yuck :shudder: "
Good point! Now if I could just figure out where those spots are...

:chucks: hahaha I just found this one.
I love the smilies here. :)

[livius drusus]

http://pharyngula.org/images/visiting_dragonfly.jpg

How can you dislike something so strong and beautiful?

I can't get a real sense of proportion from the picture. Just how gigantic is your pretty princess? In any case, I can't help but agree with your reverent appreciation for her: she is magnificent.

[viscousmemories]

I can't get a real sense of proportion from the picture. Just how gigantic is your pretty princess? In any case, I can't help but agree with your reverent appreciation for her: she is magnificent.
I was wondering that myself. At first glance it looks to be about 5 times the size of a Pepsi can. :eek:

[Roland98]

<snip hideous story>

I don't know if these (http://www.shadygrovetrainingcenter.com/Wildlife/bannana_spider_photo_gallery.htm) are the same species you had in Japan, but they look pretty damn cool. Nothing I'd want crawling on my face though, of course.

[Goliath]

Wow this thread is kinda short....

Oh yeah, it's because I've ignored between a third and a half of the posts. :D

[dave_a]

I don't know if these (http://www.shadygrovetrainingcenter.com/Wildlife/bannana_spider_photo_gallery.htm) are the same species you had in Japan, but they look pretty damn cool. Nothing I'd want crawling on my face though, of course.

This is the beast I am referring to


http://aboutjoel.com/images/08012004pokfulamparkspider.jpg

Imagine pitch blackness and then feeling those legs wrapped around your face and the web clinging to your entire head and part of the torso. You thrash about screaming, but can never be sure it's off you. Good chance it will bite your face before you can get it off.

If it happens to you it's horrible, but when it happens to others it's downright hilarious. Funny how that works.

[viscousmemories]

If it happens to you it's horrible, but when it happens to others it's downright hilarious. Funny how that works.
It doesn't actually work that way for everyone, y'know? I wouldn't find it funny to hear someone screaming in pain and/or terror, even if I was reasonably certain they were not in any mortal danger. You Marines have a funny view of things. ;)

I once got totally freaked out by bees during basic training. I was hacking down bushes with my trenching tool, for use around my foxhole, and hit one that had a beehive. They swarmed, I ran. I dropped the tool and my M16 as I was running. The other guys thought that was pretty funny, and in retrospect I did too. It would suck to be in combat and get spooked by bees, dropping your M16 as you're running away. From what I understand bad things can happen to unarmed people at war. :eek:

[livius drusus]

Oh dear... This is going to be the shortest active thread ever for Goliath, I suspect.

[dave_a]

It doesn't actually work that way for everyone, y'know? I wouldn't find it funny to hear someone screaming in pain and/or terror, even if I was reasonably certain they were not in any mortal danger. You Marines have a funny view of things. ;)


Are you kidding me? It was a rare joy, an exquisite pleasure if you will, to get a newbie Marine assigned to our unit who was completely ignorant of the local creepy crawlies. We would pump him up by telling him how much potential we all thought he had and we were going to give him the opportunity to demonstrate his inate leadership by taking point. It was funny as hell.

In Wisconsin we have a spider we also call a banana spider that is black and yellow. Nowhere near as large as the Oki version and probably not even related, but I used to catch them in fields and keep them as pets. I do love bugs. They were like black widows in that the female ate the male after mating. That pissed me off because I was then down 1 spider.

Today I don't remove spiders from my house because I like them and occasionally feed them. We have this rather small type that I call fly catchers because they can leap and catch flies that are larger than them. Very cool.

Whats even more cool is teaching my son (now 5) what bugs are dangerous and which aren't. In Wisc there aren't many dangerous bugs so I now have him picking up all sorts of bugs. Very cool. Oddly he does have a mild fear of spiders and usually asks me to confirm that a particular species won't bite before he plays with it.

[LadyShea]

What is the US banana spiders habitat? My folks had a large spider that built a web across their driveway, which was like 12 feet from tree to tree...sounds like it might be one of thse. They are creepy looking thats for sure.

[dave_a]

What is the US banana spiders habitat? My folks had a large spider that built a web across their driveway, which was like 12 feet from tree to tree...sounds like it might be one of thse. They are creepy looking thats for sure.

Don't really know, but the only place I have ever seen them were in grassy fields. Prairie type settings. The webs were usually 2-3' in diameter, never saw one 12' across.

[JoeP]

London's Natural History Museum has taken custody of 100 flesh-eating beetles which will be used to strip animal carcasses down to bare bones (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/3597928.stm)

http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/media/images/39997000/jpg/_39997988_beetle2_nhm_203.jpg

This picture is just great. Alien, The Silence of the Lambs and Metamorphosis all rolled into one.

"The larvae will eat the most and when the group is established they will get through about two to four kg of flesh a week."

[Roland98]

What is the US banana spiders habitat? My folks had a large spider that built a web across their driveway, which was like 12 feet from tree to tree...sounds like it might be one of thse. They are creepy looking thats for sure.

That one I linked earlier was at some place down in Florida, so it wouldn't surprise me if they're distributed throughout the south.

We had one giant web at the corner of our house once (went from the house to a tree about 6-7 feet away) but never saw the spider that made it. Probably best for me. :) Spiders only freak me out when they startle me (and as such, it's probably damn good I wasn't a marine with dantonac. I'd likely still be having nightmares.)

[viscousmemories]

Spiders only freak me out when they startle me
Oh? So you wouldn't have minded being one of those girls that had to lie in a glass coffin with only a bikini, goggles and nose clip while covered with crickets and over 500 live tarantulas I saw on Fear Factor? :D

[Goliath]

Oh dear... This is going to be the shortest active thread ever for Goliath, I suspect.

Yep...nothing like good ol' fashioned nightmare fuel to make me scramble for the "Ignore This Post" command...

Thanks a ton, folks! :woopdedo: :D

[Roland98]

Oh? So you wouldn't have minded being one of those girls that had to lie in a glass coffin with only a bikini, goggles and nose clip while covered with crickets and over 500 live tarantulas I saw on Fear Factor? :D

Well, I don't know that I'd go that far. Though the thought of me in a bikini on national TV makes me more squeamish than the thought of tarantulas, really. I used to want one for a pet when I was a kid after playing with one at school.

[livius drusus]

Yep...nothing like good ol' fashioned nightmare fuel to make me scramble for the "Ignore This Post" command...

I admit I've made some use of that feature myself in this thread. JoeP's latest was just far enough past the rising gorge line, ya know?

[viscousmemories]

Well, I don't know that I'd go that far. Though the thought of me in a bikini on national TV makes me more squeamish than the thought of tarantulas, really. I used to want one for a pet when I was a kid after playing with one at school.
A pet bikini? Sounds like fun. :D

[catalyst]

That one I linked earlier was at some place down in Florida, so it wouldn't surprise me if they're distributed throughout the south.



Yep. Had one create a web several feet across at my previous place. Never seen one at my house, though.

Several at work, and it is surprising considering the chemical saturated environment. Or not, perhaps.

[copiae]

You know, I've always considered cockroaches to be kinda... well... cool?

Ok, I know its wierd, and I do end up killing it, usually by stepping on it with my shoe, or squishing it with a broom, simply because if they are allowed to survive, they will breed, and take over my house. But they are pretty cool nonetheless... They always remind me of the Terminator. One time, I squished a cockroach, but the phone rang, so I answered the phone before picking up and disposing of the bug. When I got back, not only was the quite-dead cockroach alive again, but it was trying to walk with its remaining legs. My heart went out to it, before I squished it again and disposed of it.

Another time, I was hunting a cockroach in the kitchen, and I had it cornered. I was just about to kill it when suddenly, it flew away! I was speechless for a few seconds, disbelieving what I saw, before rediscovering it in the dining room, and killing it.

I feel the same sort of way about most insects, with the notable exception of spiders. Spiders, I do not like at all, and I will kill one the second I see it. Urgh.

[JoeP]

I admit I've made some use of that feature myself in this thread. JoeP's latest was just far enough past the rising gorge line, ya know?
Why thank you :D

[Corona688]

Imagine pitch blackness and then feeling those legs wrapped around your face and the web clinging to your entire head and part of the torso. You thrash about screaming, but can never be sure it's off you. Good chance it will bite your face before you can get it off.

If it happens to you it's horrible, but when it happens to others it's downright hilarious. Funny how that works. Um... are these things poisonous?

[dave_a]

Um... are these things poisonous?

No. A person could theoretically have an allergic reaction I suppose, but they aren't poisonous. Now the habus (snakes) in Okinawa are incredibly poisonous and we had lots of run ins with those, but nobody ever got bit. Thankfully they prefer to run away given the chance.

[Gawen]

I work with cockroaches every day. Well, I don't work with them...they're just there. I love it when a citizen woman gets interested in what I'm doing in front of her house...just before I open a manhole to the sewer system.

"Is there a problem?"
"No Ma'am, I'm just doing an inspection."
"I've always wondered where our waste goes."

*I'm sticking the pick into the 200 pound manhole lid slot and getting ready to lift it*..."Would you care to see?"
"Ok"...*she gets close and I lift the lid*

As usual, in the older sections of town, somewhere between 20 and 500 cockroaches scurry from the sunlight and fresh air. And as usual, this brings a most hilarious expression of ghastly fright pon the woman's face. Sometimes it's difficult to remain with a straight face when a few of the roaches that were clinging to the underside of the lid drop off and scurry about the pavement. The Roach Dance is funny.

Then there's the one time we had a sewer stop. Something got caught in the main and sewage backed up into the upstream manhole, whereupon it was strong enough to dislodge the lid and spew raw sewage into the street. Well, I had to open the next manhole up stream to see how high the sewage was getting. Residents were just coming home from work and school and were quite interested in what was going on. (It was quite a mess....literally)
I opened that lid and probably a 1000 roaches crawled, flew or skittered out onto the pavement. That was fun.

And then there's always going INTO a manhole....where roaches will hide from the light anywhere they can. Like up pant legs and shirt sleeves. That's why we wear protective gear and masks with pumped outside air. But they still crawl all over you...and the face mask.

Word of caution. Roaches carry disease. Always wash after handling.

Oh...and shall I tell you about the time a mate threw a pizza box into the truck that was full of red ants, but missed? Or maybe the time the same guy threw a garbage bag and it split open throwing about 2 pounds of maggots in my face? (back when I worked in Solid Waste)

Bugs can be fun.

[Gawen]

Boy...can I stop a thread....or can't I?...*laffin*

[livius drusus]

It's hard to post when you're curled up in fetal position keening, you know Gawen. :freezing:

[pzmyers]

Most of my work with roaches has been on an individual basis, not en masse. Up close and personal, with a microscope. I've made a few explode, which is fun.

One time it was an accident. The lab assistant screwed up and failed to add the salts to the Ringer's solution, so all day long I was sitting there wondering why I had to keep flushing this bug's guts with water--it was because it was distilled water, and the tissues were just soaking it up and soaking it up and swelling, until after several hours it just ruptured and spewed fluids all over.

Another time it was a collaboration with a lab that was breeding pest-control nematodes. They crawl up the roach's anus (there's an unpleasant lifestyle for you) and proliferate madly until the insect pops and splatters more nematodes all over the place.

It always amazes me how tough roaches are. There they are, on the verge of an internal catastrophic failure, and they just keep on functioning without a hint of a problem--I've even been recording from their nervous systems, and you don't see any particular signs of distress. Then, suddenly, they stop with antennae cocked quizzically, and boom, they're dead and in pieces.

[D. Scarlatti]

Jeez, pz. Don't you ever find yourself asking, "I got a doctorate for this?" I have to admire your dedication to philosophical objectivity.

[pzmyers]

Jeez, pz. Don't you ever find yourself asking, "I got a doctorate for this?"

Never.

Although I sometimes do ask myself, "I get paid to do this?"

And then I giggle in reply. Giggle like a giddy little girl.

[Roland98]

giddy little girl.

Damn liv and vm and their self-selection of titles....

[viscousmemories]

Damn liv and vm and their self-selection of titles....
:D

[viscousmemories]

Okay now that was just fucked. up.

I go into the living room and this giant spider goes scurrying out from under the chair. Brown. Bigger than any spider I've ever seen in real life. Not a tarantula or anything, but bigger than anything I've seen.

So I get the instant-death roach spray and find the thing hiding under the edge of the couch (I don't think it could fit under!!) and soak it, and it goes strutting off! I chase it across the room to the fireplace area and literally saturate it on the marble there, and it's still crawling around!

Finally I grabbed the fireplace shovel and it met it's maker. Where the hell am I?! :fuming:

[LadyShea]

Thanks for the nightmare fodder gawen, much appreciated!

VM, maybe you should find a website on the crawlies likely to be spotted in your area and what their Kryptonite is. A death spray resistant enormous spider is as wrong as quantifying maggots in pounds. Oh, and remember what I said about Orkin ;)

[viscousmemories]

:D Good point.

I wish I had thought to grab the digital camera before the shovel. I could've posted a pic here for someone to identify it before I bashed it to death. Hmm... the body is still pretty much intact though, but for the lack of guts...

[Roland98]

Finally I grabbed the fireplace shovel and it met it's maker. Where the hell am I?! :fuming:

Didn't I try to warn you? Didn't I?

[viscousmemories]

Didn't I try to warn you? Didn't I?
Did you?! Why the hell don't I listen to you?!

[Goliath]

Why am I stupid enough to keep coming back to this thread?

Will I ever sleep again?

<shudder>

[D. Scarlatti]

Could be worse, you could have exploding nematodes* making a bee-line for your anus.

* Whatever the hell they are.

[Roland98]

Did you?!

Toldja they had some big 'uns. (http://www.freethought-forum.com/forum/showpost.php?p=4371&postcount=2)

Why the hell don't I listen to you?!

No idea. You already admitted I'm always right. :D

[viscousmemories]

Toldja they had some big 'uns. (http://www.freethought-forum.com/forum/showpost.php?p=4371&postcount=2)
Oho! But you said insects, not arachnids. :P

No idea. You already admitted I'm always right. :D
And not gonna try denying it now. :yup:

[viscousmemories]

:D Good point.

I wish I had thought to grab the digital camera before the shovel. I could've posted a pic here for someone to identify it before I bashed it to death. Hmm... the body is still pretty much intact though, but for the lack of guts...
http://www.freethought-forum.com/images/spider.jpg

Okay, as promised here is the bashed corpse. Can anyone identify this guy?

[Roland98]

What is the scale? Is the body like the size of a quarter? Bigger/smaller? Looks rather like a tarantula but it could just be the resolution of the pic that makes it look kind of fuzzy.

[viscousmemories]

What is the scale? Is the body like the size of a quarter? Bigger/smaller? Looks rather like a tarantula but it could just be the resolution of the pic that makes it look kind of fuzzy.
Oh, sorry. Good point. Um, no it's not nearly that big. It's probably the size of a dime, tops. :) After spending some time on various spider pages last night *shudder* I'm leaning toward calling it a wolf spider or southern home spider. Although another possibility is the brown recluse. I think. :eek:

[Roland98]

This one, identified as a huntsman, has similar color and markings, but is bigger than yours. Don't know their size range, though.

http://www.rochedalss.eq.edu.au/IMG_2317_small.JPG

http://www.freethought-forum.com/images/spider.jpg

[dave_a]

Oh, sorry. Good point. Um, no it's not nearly that big. It's probably the size of a dime, tops. :) After spending some time on various spider pages last night *shudder* I'm leaning toward calling it a wolf spider or southern home spider. Although another possibility is the brown recluse. I think. :eek:

I would call it a wolf spider, but that's what I call all smallish, fuzzy brown spiders.

In any event it's harmless unless you have an allergy to them. The brown recluse has a distinctive violin shaped marking on it and doesn't look fuzzy like wolf spiders do

http://ohioline.osu.edu/hyg-fact/2000/images/2061_2.jpg

[viscousmemories]

This one, identified as a huntsman, has similar color and markings, but is bigger than yours. Don't know their size range, though.
Well mine was bigger before I mashed it. :D

Seriously it was at least as big as a quarter, maybe nearing half-dollar size when it's legs weren't curled up and it's guts expunged. So that may be it. Except that one's body looks lower to the ground than the one I saw. But then I was freaking out. Next time I'll be more scientfic and try to get a picture before mashing it.

The brown recluse has a distinctive violin shaped marking on it and doesn't look fuzzy like wolf spiders do
Ah, I knew that about the violin shape but didn't know that about the fuzzy. Yeah mine was definitely fuzzy looking, so that's good to know.

Thanks.

[Roland98]

Seriously it was at least as big as a quarter, maybe nearing half-dollar size when it's legs weren't curled up and it's guts expunged. So that may be it. Except that one's body looks lower to the ground than the one I saw. But then I was freaking out. Next time I'll be more scientfic and try to get a picture before mashing it.

That one is on a wall, not on the ground. It may raise up more when it's on the floor.

Either way, I'm glad they don't grow 'em that big out in Iowa. :)

[JoeP]

Word of caution. Roaches carry disease. Always wash after handling.
Presumably OK if they're cooked?

[JoeP]

http://www.freethought-forum.com/images/spider.jpg

Okay, as promised here is the bashed corpse. Can anyone identify this guy?
Pete "Legs" McCrutchem, the infamous "East End butcher", finally getting the treatment he doled out to over 70 victims of turf wars in the 50s and 60s.

[Gawen]

Word of caution. Roaches carry disease. Always wash after handling.
Presumably OK if they're cooked?Ya know...I was fine with this thread until....

I can take the buggers crawlin on me. I can take spiders. But not in the house, mind you.

But sheesh....to think of eating a cockroach....even a cooked one....makes me nauseous to the extreme.

[viscousmemories]

But sheesh....to think of eating a cockroach....even a cooked one....makes me nauseous to the extreme.
Don't ever watch Fear Factor, then. They routinely make people eat cockroaches. Alive!

[Gawen]

But sheesh....to think of eating a cockroach....even a cooked one....makes me nauseous to the extreme.
Don't ever watch Fear Factor, then. They routinely make people eat cockroaches. Alive! I know...and I have to look away. Ya just gotta be around them in their natural habitat which doubles as a fair portion of my work environment. I'll never eat a cockroach. Ever.

[LianaLi]

You know, the only down side to living an apartment by yourself? You have to kill the uglie, creepy, crawlie, flying cockaroaches by yourself. If your sense of humor enjoys absurd hysterics, then picture this. A 5 ft 4 in filipino woman screaming while she tries to get close enough to a roach to kill it. In my defense, I had just opened my porch door to go out for a second when the thing flew into me. I jumped back, screaming, and then had to try and kill it while having a screaming fit. It's damn hard to smash a two inch long roach while your hand is shaking. It eventually met a very rough, pounding end.

If that's not funny enough for you, then read what happened (http://www.livejournal.com/users/lianali/16801.html) when I tried to take a bath once. Nothing more disconcerting than being naked in the bath, turning on the faucet, and having one of those ugly buggers come crawling up out of the drain to join you. I have a classic, hollywood B-horror flick scream when surprized. The sound brought my temporary roomie running, and probably made the neighbors wonder who just got killed.


I can't decide which I hate worse, the squish/crunch when as they're smashed, cleaning up the ugly, oozing yellow guts, or finding the dead roach bodies my cat leaves for me because she obviously thinks I'm not eating enough, and need to consume the ugly buggers. Or maybe its having to move the dead bodies while they're covered in voracious ants trying to get in a last meal, before I throw the carass away. It's a toss up. The next man I bring into my life is going to be required to do the roach killing. No question about it, no siree bob. He's killing the uglies for me, or he goes.

-Li

[JoeP]

I can't decide which I hate worse, the squish/crunch when as they're smashed, cleaning up the ugly, oozing yellow guts, or finding the dead roach bodies my cat leaves for me because she obviously thinks I'm not eating enough, and need to consume the ugly buggers. Or maybe its having to move the dead bodies while they're covered in voracious ants trying to get in a last meal, before I throw the carass away. It's a toss up.

-Li
Hmm. Tough one. I'll go for the smeared stinking guts. :eww: :yuck:

[Corona688]

Could be worse, you could have exploding nematodes* making a bee-line for your anus.

* Whatever the hell they are. flatworms. Leeches are a kind of nematode, I think.

[lpetrich]

Leeches are annelids (segmented worms), not nematodes. They are most closely related to earthworms, and the two are less-closely related to polychaetes (mostly marine worms).

For more, see the Tree of Life page (more technical) (http://www.tolweb.org/tree?group=Annelida&contgroup=Bilateria) or the UCMP page (less technical) (http://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/annelida/annelida.html) on them.

I don't have any horrific adventures with domestic arthropods to relate, though I feel some regret for having killed some wasps that had come inside my apartment in Ithaca, NY during the fall. They were, I now suspect, queens looking for a place to spend the winter.

But I remember when a squirrel got inside my apartment there. I chased it around, hoping that it would go out the door, but it didn't -- it just went from one end of the apartment to the other. So I devised a plan to direct that pesky rodent to the exit. I put some boxes in a line across my apartment, in the squirrel's path. They were not very big boxes, and I did not expect my scheme to succeed. But it did; the squirrel refused to climb on them or jump over them, and it ran out the apartment door. But it was in the hallway, and I chased it up to the floor above, despite the apartment-building door being open. As I approached the squirrel, I expected it to run past me, but instead, it made a jump down to the apartment door's floor level and ran off. As I had wanted it to.

[pzmyers]

Leeches are annelids (segmented worms), not nematodes. They are most closely related to earthworms, and the two are less-closely related to polychaetes (mostly marine worms).

Right. Nematodes are distinctly different and easily recognized...and you'll usually only see them through a microscope.

Here. Check out the nematode porn (http://pharyngula.org/index/weblog/worm_porn/).

[dave_a]

hmmm, a buddy just sent me these pics and I figured y'all might appreciate them. His buddy was bitten on the thumb by a brown recluse spider and he has a pic taken every day since the bite to show how it progresses. I will just post the day 3 and day 9 pics (day 9 is the last day pics were taken).
http://www.freethought-forum.com/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=91&stc=1
http://www.freethought-forum.com/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=92&stc=1

[JoeP]

dantonac, does your buddy have a larger scan of that? It's not big enough to set as a wallpaper

[dave_a]

dantonac, does your buddy have a larger scan of that? It's not big enough to set as a wallpaper

If you seriously want it as a wallpaper, I will ask him if he has a larger one. It's a buddy of a buddy, so I can't promise anything.

[JoeP]

:eww: serious: :no2:

[Ymir's blood]

I once trapped a mouse using the old 'box supported by a stick* with a string tied to it' trick. There was some rice underneath the box as bait.

:nethen: <-Like this, except for being a mouse and with the apparatus described above. (and below)

:mousecheese: <- substitute rice for the cheese.


*actually a pencil

[godfry n. glad]

I'm fascinated by bugs...arthropods and arachnids and whatever...but I don't like them on me.

The dragonfly is not only beautiful, but beneficial as well. They are voracious consumers of mosquitoes.

The spiders are also beneficial. They are consumers of all sorts of insect critters. That's why I try to move cooperative spiders outside when I find them around my place (well, actually, they get quite a lengthy reprieve, as I'm a half-fast housecleaner).

This year, I've had little to no annoyance from that crasher of outdoor parties and picnics, the yellowjacket. They're omnivorous and really, really like the smell of meat. They can be real pests. Anyway, no real problems this year. Well, just last week, I was sitting on my front porch and noticed that my young dogwood tree in the front yard had a sizeable object (about the size of my head) lodged in the upper branches. A closer look revealed it to be a paper wasp nest...a wasp hive. A couple of things clicked.... First, over the past couple of years, I'd noticed that when sitting on my back balcony, the wasps come and go with great frequency to my house. I was curious in that there were fair numbers of them, but they never bothered me. They'd come, land on my siding, hang for a while, then fly off. It occurred to me finally that these were paper wasps and they were busily gathering fiber from my natural eastern white cedar siding to make paper. Wasps are polishing my house, as I understand it. They had no interest in me; they had no interest in entering the house; they had no interest in human food (unlike the pestiferous yellowjackets). Initially freaked by the presence of the wasps, I relaxed into it. It became interesting to watch, once I figured what was going on. I wondered where they were building their nest. Well, I found out.

Are paper wasps predators of yellowjackets? Or, do they just compete for the similar food supplies? I'd guess that the paper wasps have displaced the usual yellowjackets. I'm comfortable with that....as it now stands.

godfry

[JoeP]

I once trapped a mouse using the old 'box supported by a stick* with a string tied to it' trick. There was some rice underneath the box as bait.

:nethen: <-Like this, except for being a mouse and with the apparatus described above. (and below)

:mousecheese: <- substitute rice for the cheese.


*actually a pencil
So there was no net; no chicken and no cheese; and you are not yellow and entirely round? These are not the smilies you are looking for.

[Ymir's blood]

Look sir, smilies!


So there was no net; no chicken and no cheese; and you are not yellow and entirely round? These are not the smilies you are looking for.
These aren't the smilies we are looking for.

:trooper: :trooper:

[Shake]

Down in MS and SC, they weren't even always real roaches. The damned palmetto bugs, which looked very similar, hell, may be related for all I know.

In one of my many dorm rooms in Biloxi, MS, I came into my room to see the bug (roach/palmetto, whatever) scurry from the center of the room directly under the toe of my combat boot. Ooh! Bad choice of hiding place, Mr. Bug! *squish*

I like Liana's story of bug killing! Combat boots, especially the steel-toed variety, make excellent weapons against such critters. Plenty of weight behind them.

[Shake]

OK, two things:

1. dantonac, I think I've seen those pictures before (the gross thumb ones)

2. Coincidence? Today in Yahoo!'s news photos comes a US banana spider:

http://us.news2.yimg.com/us.yimg.com/p/ap/20041026/capt.flpc20110261446.the_web_flpc201.jpg

[Godless Dave]

I can't get a real sense of proportion from the picture. Just how gigantic is your pretty princess? In any case, I can't help but agree with your reverent appreciation for her: she is magnificent.And most importantly, she eats mosquitoes.

I like bats for the same reason.

[Shake]

Ah, yes. Bats are also cool!

Don't dragonflies also eat mosquitos?

[Socratoad]

Yes indeed dragonflies do eat mosquitoes.


But but , is no one going to put in a good word for the hard working dedicated mosquito? :(


Scorpions are nice .... now before someone starts bitching, please be informed that scorpions have always expressed favourable opinions of all posters here at FF :beaugest:

[Godless Dave]

Don't dragonflies also eat mosquitos?
Er, yes, I believe that was the point of my post.

[Socratoad]

Don't dragonflies also eat mosquitos?
Er, yes, I believe that was the point of my post.

Yes Dogless, I understood that ....... but didja know bats eat dragonflies :(