About two plus years ago the word was "crazy ants" around here north of Htown..... yes i facilitated some of their "feeding routines"......the latest was a roach carcass and a walking stick....both pulled down the hole by the 'community' by less than two minutes at the most.....Mutha Nature ROCKS!!!
Yes I have other things on my plate like pester Stamps.....
Coolest one I've seen this year was a Cicada Killer dragging one to its burrow.
There was a kick ass banana spider in a bush along side hole 5 at my local Frisbee golf course. I'd grab a grass hopper on my way over and toss it to it. Stayed there for at least a month then one day it was gone.
I've got funnel spiders living on my porch, it's fun to watch them hunt.
We have orb weavers too, they're super cool looking. My neighbor has one almost 6 inches tip to tip chilling on his camper.
I'm waiting to see more wheel bugs
Only saw this one, but where there's one there should be plenty.
We had a new one for me - a fishing spider. It has tiny hairs that make it waterproof and it hunts bugs on the water. We've seen a couple in our creek this year the largest of which was impressively huge. It made my ship wolf spider look small. I didn't get a pic of it but here's the shop wolf spider:
I'm a little weird in that I love spiders. Not like I want to cuddle them and touch them, but I've found that they are just amazing critters that just wanna chill out. They don't attack, and poisonous spiders don't randomly bite you unless provoked. So fascinating to watch.
Insects and the like are all over. Most people find them distasteful or just don't slow down enough to notice them. My wife, however. She photographs insects constantly.
She's gotten some photos used (with permission) in a research paper and had photos put into some kind of Vermont wildlife atlas thing.
Here are a few of the latest:
I'm not saying my wife has a large forehead, but she's complained on more than once about cicadas and preying mantises bouncing off of it.
Karacticus said:I'm not saying my wife has a large forehead, but she's complained on more than once about cicadas and preying mantises bouncing off of it.
BWaHahahaaaa!!!!
Saw my first stink bug of the year.
berkeley stink bugs.
I don't get out enough. We've got some cool ones around here though. Scorpions are everywhere, little brown ones usually less than 2". Large tan spiders everyone calls sun spiders. Small bodies with big powerful legs. Sometimes as large as tarantula. We have them too. Found on once at my buddy's place that had a gnarly scar on its back and was missing 3 legs. Somehow still thriving. Stink bugs and crickets this time of year. Those ones get into work pretty often, they're poisoned by the time they get in, sort of dead already but they don't know it.
Wife used to take pictures of spiders. I'll see if I can dig a few up and post them.
I was picking the last of our beans when one of them clamped down on my thumb. Turns out it was a Praying Mantis rather than a green bean. The next bush had another one only in brown. I moved them both to a tree on the porch. They were still there the next day.
I also frequently hang out with about 100,000 bees.
Not really a direct encounter, but about 10 years ago, we had am infestation of mosquitos that made life miserable. I was racing a late model at the time, and I would go out to Tom's acreage to help load the car on Friday nights. It was awful, and we would open the trailer Saturday morning at the track to let them out...
Them, one early August evening, a flock of dragonflies showed up. And I mean a berkeleying squadron of huge blue helicopter bugs, and the mosquito infestation was over.
I've always liked dragonflies.
Streetwiseguy said:Not really a direct encounter, but about 10 years ago, we had am infestation of mosquitos that made life miserable. I was racing a late model at the time, and I would go out to Tom's acreage to help load the car on Friday nights. It was awful, and we would open the trailer Saturday morning at the track to let them out...
Them, one early August evening, a flock of dragonflies showed up. And I mean a berkeleying squadron of huge blue helicopter bugs, and the mosquito infestation was over.
I've always liked dragonflies.
In at least some parts of the South, years ago,folk called dragon flies "skeeter hawks".
Dragonflies are amazing. I once saw some dragonflies working together to herd a cluster of small flying insects into a stationary ball about eight feet off the ground. They would then take turns feeding, each in turn slashing through the balled up insects. It continued for several minutes after I first noticed.
When when predatory fish like sailfish do this, it's called "balling the bait."
It was amazing to see this kind of sophisticated and cooperative behavior from insects.
I'm even sympathetic to hymenopterans... the stingy bee types.
It hurt my heart to spray a hive of bald-faced hornets on my house this year, but they're just dicks. They built a massive nest just above and beside my front door and after the 4th sting while I was walking to the van, I figured it was war. I didn't like it, but they got the spray.
Beside the house there is a large ground nest of yellowjackets. I don't hang out over there other than mowing it. So far I've mowed over it twice and they haven't stung, they just swarm for a bit, so they can stay.
The hornets:
I like spiders. I had a resident wolf spider that lived in my bedroom that would hang out at the top of the wall next to the ceiling.
Instead of yellow jackets and hornets, our common nest building wasps are paper wasps. By comparison, they're not very aggressive, but if you threaten them enough they'll still swarm you. A single sting from one individual is usually all though.
They like to build their nests in protected places like under the eaves of houses and under cars. It's common to encounter them in junkyards here. I got one in my T-shirt once, got three stings before I could get the shirt off.
I don't seek them out, but if they're a threat I have always sprayed them without remorse. After reading Curtis's post, I won't have the same attitude, but I still don't want them on my house. My wife got stung by one last month.
M2Pilot said:Streetwiseguy said:Not really a direct encounter, but about 10 years ago, we had am infestation of mosquitos that made life miserable. I was racing a late model at the time, and I would go out to Tom's acreage to help load the car on Friday nights. It was awful, and we would open the trailer Saturday morning at the track to let them out...
Them, one early August evening, a flock of dragonflies showed up. And I mean a berkeleying squadron of huge blue helicopter bugs, and the mosquito infestation was over.
I've always liked dragonflies.
In at least some parts of the South, years ago,folk called dragon flies "skeeter hawks".
Yes! I grew up in South Louisiana. We always called them Mosquito Hawks. These were the days before mosquito spraying so we had millions of mosquitos and thousands of Mosquito Hawks flying around. If you have ever watched Mosquito Hawks swooping and catching mosquitos in mid-air you would know why the name stuck. They are my favorite insect. (Spiders are my least favorite.)
The first time I heard a Mosquito Hawk called a Dragon Fly was from some Yankee who didn't know any better.
This guy was hanging out on our porch last weekend.
Here in Atlanta we now have Golden Orb Weaver spiders. For years I only knew of them in South Georgia. This on is medium size, I've seen them with nearly a 5" leg span down on Jekyll Island. Everyone has been going nuts about the new invasive Joro spiders, but these native orb weavers migrating north is far more fascinating to me.
This one was in the trees above my house, there's probably 20 more at least. I'd consider her "medium" size.
A few weeks ago I went out to close up the chickens and came about 6 inches from walking face first into a giant spider that had made a web across the barn tot he well pump hydrant. This was amazing to me, as this is a clear span of about 6 feet, across nothing but yard and some weeds. I was able to duck under the web to get to the chickens. The web, in the night with my LED light shining on it, was truely beautiful. And the big spider chilling in it.
I've grown more accepting of bugs as I get older, and try to let them chill. But if they get in the house, and are a nuisance or danger, then they got to go. One thing we have around here that I attack without remorse are the huge European Hornets, aka 'Cicadae Killers'. They make nests near the lilac bushes and bite/ sting like evil little monsters. They seem to be attracted to bright lights at night; I built a box with two 4' LED tubes that attracts them, then they fly into a dish of antifreeze and die.
Also, spotted lanternflies seem to be getting invasive. If you see these suckers, pretty though they may be, kill them as quickly and gruesomely as possible.
already dead, just doesn't know it yet. This one has been crawling around all morning.
I saw this one in daylight yesterday.
So I didn't put my face in this early in the morning.
In reply to volvoclearinghouse :
We just had training at work about how much damage the spotted lanternflies are doing in PA. Even though it's not an issue here in Florida our main campus is in Carlisle PA and it's a big big problem up there.
Oh. I got a couple at my uncles place in north Georgia from my 2020 challenge trip.
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