Bugs are cool.

Discussion in 'Animals & Pets' started by modernpaladin, Sep 12, 2019.

  1. modernpaladin

    modernpaladin Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    I just watched a wasp drag a spider twice its size roughly 40 feet down my sidewalk before laying eggs in it and flying away.

    I have no shortage of spiders, and while spiders I can identify as harmless don't bother me, many of the spiders here are 'suspect' Hobo spiders (as this wasp was carrying away) which may or may not be Hobo spiders (similar in appearance and venom to Brown Recluse) depending on features that can only be determined with a microscope. So this wasp and I are on the same team :)

    Jumping spiders are on this team with me as well. Jumping spiders hunt other spiders as much as they do other insects. The Hobo and the Widow (both common here) are slow, relatively uncoordinated spiders that rely on web and/or opportunity kills. They are perfect targets for the nimble, fast jumping spider. I commonly take jumping spiders into my house so they can hunt for me. A particularly large jumping spider with a distinctive white patch lived in my home for over a year. We named him Frank. Over the course of that year I found many dead spiders in and under the window he frequented, and I saved him once from drowning in the dog water bowl. Jumping spiders are not dangerous to humans, and never bite anyway since it's far easier to simply leap away from danger. They also seem quite intelligent (or at least bravely curious) in interaction with humans.

    Growing up in IN we were infested with house centipedes. They are fast, can get quite big, often emit audible screams when squished, and are generally the creepiest damn thing I've ever encountered. I hated them, mostly because they were everywhere. However, they were the reason we didn't have many spiders. They are voracious spider hunters. If I had known that at the time, I would not have squished them. They also seem particularly intelligent. One time I saw one run into the room I was sitting in. From 10 away, it recognized me as a threat even though I wasn't moving. Which seems to me pretty advanced for an insect. It stopped, 'crouched' (flattened out), and waited for several seconds before reversing course and disappearing around the door.

    Anyone else like bugs?
     
    Last edited: Sep 12, 2019
  2. perdidochas

    perdidochas Well-Known Member

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    I despise bugs. They creep me out. I'd much rather have spiders than centipedes any day, though.
     
  3. 557

    557 Well-Known Member

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    Yeh all life fascinated me. I like pretty much all spiders except recluse and widows. My wife had a wolf spider she was watching eat flies for several days last week until a daddy long legs ate it. I didn’t know they would eat wolf spiders.

    I grew up in the “desert” with scorpions. I’ve never been stung but a few people I know have. It made some of them cry.

    I don’t know how taxonomically correct we are being here but I love honey bees. It’s getting hard to keep colonies alive with all the pesticides and diseases/parasites but they are fun to watch. I have a glass sided observation hive my dad made for me when I was a kid. I should set it up. Did you know bees know the earth is round and did so before humans figured it out?
     
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  4. modernpaladin

    modernpaladin Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    I didn't know daddy long legs ate wolf spiders either. Thats cool!

    I helped (watched mostly) my dad keep bees. We had a hive in our backyard, and always had too much honey. I too am concerned regarding a future without bees. How did bees 'know' the earth was round? Do you mean they circumvented the globe before humans?
     
  5. 557

    557 Well-Known Member

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    I learned bees from my dad, too. I don’t have a colony right now because my last one died last winter. I still have plenty of honey for a while but someone local was selling honey for $70 a gallon the other day. Geeez. I think my dad charged $11 a gallon!

    The dance bees use to communicate the location of food sources to other workers in the hive is based on using the location of the sun as a reference point. Not too amazing I guess when the sun is up during the day but at night they continue to use the location of the sun as a reference point when it is on the other side of the earth. They know exactly where the sun is day and night and “understand” trigonometry enough to navigate and communicate locations as accurately as gps units.

    Evolutionary timelines show this ability developing before humans existed. Nobody knows how they know this.

    I agree pollination of many crops will suffer if we don’t figure out the problems plaguing honeybees.

    Your bit on spiders seeming to be able to interact with humans intrigues me. I don’t think we really understand how intelligent many animals are. Scientists tell us things that are not true sometimes I think. Just because they don’t have the experience observing behaviors. Most people don’t think it’s cool or exciting to sit and watch wasps lay eggs on spiders, etc. Gotta go shopping or watch a show on TV you know.. :)
     
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  6. FatBack

    FatBack Well-Known Member

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    I used to keep tarantulas and scorpions as a kid.
     
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  7. Adfundum

    Adfundum Moderator Staff Member Donor

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    The summer before last we had an unusually large number of mosquitoes. Apparently, one type was not native. It was aggressive and multiplied rapidly. Last summer there were hardly any mosquitoes at all. I'd read about some kind of experiment that limited the breeding ability of mosquitoes and wondered if that's what I saw being sprayed from some helicopters.

    And last summer we had a larger than normal bunch of spiders of all types. It got pretty annoying when each morning started with pulling webs off and cleaning webs from all around the house.

    There were also far fewer honey bees and what seemed to be way more yellow jackets and wood borers. My wife is allergic to bee stings, so she sprays everything down if she sees one. We had a some kind of parasite wasp that was eating other bugs, and I was happy to see them around. They got sprayed.
     

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