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since the original version of this topic seems to have been deleted (several years ago), I had to start a new version to show you all this:

260232310_c42967ae83.jpg

I'm sure you're all gratified now.

(What were those things with the long whispy legs that we chattered on about back in the original topic? Does anyone remember?)

Mycroft: "My brother has the brain of a scientist or a philosopher, yet he elects to be a detective. What might we deduce about his heart?"

John: "I don't know."

Mycroft: "Neither do I. But initially he wanted to be a pirate."

Mission_banner5.JPG

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No, but thanks. I originally started this topic several years ago and we were talking about these centipede-like things that have long whispy legs that hang out in dark places. Their legs are really fragile and when you pick them up (to take them outside - I always take insects outside), their legs often break off because they're so delicate. Maybe they were centipedes, but it seems to me they were called something else...

Mycroft: "My brother has the brain of a scientist or a philosopher, yet he elects to be a detective. What might we deduce about his heart?"

John: "I don't know."

Mycroft: "Neither do I. But initially he wanted to be a pirate."

Mission_banner5.JPG

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We found a praying mantis in our bathtub when I was a kid. We did the noble thing and caught the poor confused creature and released it into the wild. A few weeks later, we started finding thousands upon thousands of baby mantis' (mantices?) in the same bathroom. Coincidence? I think not.

Oh, how beautiful it used to be

Just you and me, far beyond the sea

-Nightwish

Alice Mason, Crewe of the Archangel

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Next you'll be suggesting we should squish spiders.

Spider1.jpg

Mycroft: "My brother has the brain of a scientist or a philosopher, yet he elects to be a detective. What might we deduce about his heart?"

John: "I don't know."

Mycroft: "Neither do I. But initially he wanted to be a pirate."

Mission_banner5.JPG

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"Daddy Longlegs"? "Galliknippers"? "Mosquito Hawks"? I wasn't in on the original conversation but you have me intrigued.

"In the end, it's not the gold that sets our sails,

'Tis freedom and the promise of a better life

That raises our black flags."

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They look like this:

HouseCentipede7lr.jpg

According to my quick web search they're House Centipedes, but I could swear we came up with another name for them. This pic came from this page, which has a really interesting article about the creatures, which notes:

Their long legs allow house centipedes to run fast, making them good predators as they pursue cockroaches, silverfish and other household prey. They pounce on an insect, wrapping it in all those long legs, almost like ensnaring it in a net.

All centipedes use poison fangs to subdue their prey, but no one has ever been known to be bitten by a house centipede.

and

House centipedes are harmless to you and your family. In fact, they're your allies, providing free pest control.

If you just find it too freaky and don't want it in your home anyway, just cover it with a glass, slip a piece of cardboard underneath it, then take it outside and release it. To keep it from returning, use a dehumidifier to dry out your house. That will make it an inhospitable place to house centipedes.

Voila! Everything you need to know about our friend the House Centipede. Although I'm pretty sure they have another name...

800px-HouseCentipedeCloseup.jpg

Mycroft: "My brother has the brain of a scientist or a philosopher, yet he elects to be a detective. What might we deduce about his heart?"

John: "I don't know."

Mycroft: "Neither do I. But initially he wanted to be a pirate."

Mission_banner5.JPG

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My wife is the same way about spiders. I keep trying to assure her that 99.9% of all spiders are helpful - they clean your house of vile little creatures that actually do damage. But, she wants everyone she finds out of the house or dead.

Hmmm, now there's an interesting slogan - "Out of the House or Dead!"

"In the end, it's not the gold that sets our sails,

'Tis freedom and the promise of a better life

That raises our black flags."

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When we were working on a haunted house for Halloween one year, we painted an advertising sign and put it up on the side that read, "If you lived here, you'd already be dead by now. Jaycees Haunted House Opening Oct __." I don't know if it actually worked as an advertisement, but I thought it was a funny parody. (That's what counts, right?)

Mycroft: "My brother has the brain of a scientist or a philosopher, yet he elects to be a detective. What might we deduce about his heart?"

John: "I don't know."

Mycroft: "Neither do I. But initially he wanted to be a pirate."

Mission_banner5.JPG

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Bringing humor to the table is ALWAYS a plus; ask any woman and she will tell you she loves someone who "makes her laugh." The problem with that is I'm always wondering what they are laughing AT!

"In the end, it's not the gold that sets our sails,

'Tis freedom and the promise of a better life

That raises our black flags."

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I hate those centipedes, too. I used to smack them and throw them in my fish tank. I hated the way the legs would still wiggle after they were supposed to be dead. Then I read up on them and discovered they kill alot of nasty pests like fleas. I still don't like them, but I've reached a detant and kill them only when they violate my personal space.

highres_6845035.jpeg

Craig Browne

Captain

Half Moon Marauders

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I always thought it was kind of sad when I broke one of their legs off and it kept moving - but then I was trying to take them outside, not squash 'em...

winter_butterfly.jpg

Mycroft: "My brother has the brain of a scientist or a philosopher, yet he elects to be a detective. What might we deduce about his heart?"

John: "I don't know."

Mycroft: "Neither do I. But initially he wanted to be a pirate."

Mission_banner5.JPG

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I use rubber bands on spiders...it helps my accuracy!

When I was living in Fort Sam Houston (Army brat, remember), we had a severe mosquito problem. Big buggers, they were...set off the air raid sirens all the time (you could see them some 10 miles off, as they began to swarm into San Antonio), and some of them made off with half the duplex in which we were living at the time...not *our* half of it, of course. For all I know, that hole in the ground is still there...

This is, of course, absolutely true.

For a given value of true, that is...

Edited by Capn Bob

Damn, thats sharp!

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Ah! The Texas mosquito!

I remember back when I was a kid and we were down at the beach, on the Bolivar Peninsula, we used to talk about the fact that only the males make noise and only the females bite. You could tell, of course, when one had landed on you just by the weight of the things. Eight or ten pounds they were - the size of small dogs with these huge, billowing wings. I remember hitting one with buckshot from a 20 gauge - it hesitated for a moment and then headed off for a Volkswagen that was motoring by.

"In the end, it's not the gold that sets our sails,

'Tis freedom and the promise of a better life

That raises our black flags."

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Yeah, shotguns don't really do much for Texas mosquitos...when we were in Fort Sam, they were starting to use ground-to-air missles...

They also tried to breed with the Hueys, but I wasn't allowed to see that. My father was a helicoptor mechanic, and it was hard work, getting all the...mosquito love out of the choppers...

Ah! The Texas mosquito!

I remember back when I was a kid and we were down at the beach, on the Bolivar Peninsula, we used to talk about the fact that only the males make noise and only the females bite. You could tell, of course, when one had landed on you just by the weight of the things. Eight or ten pounds they were - the size of small dogs with these huge, billowing wings. I remember hitting one with buckshot from a 20 gauge - it hesitated for a moment and then headed off for a Volkswagen that was motoring by.

Damn, thats sharp!

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  • 2 weeks later...

sorry fellas never been to texas but they cant possibly have anything on our skeeters here in tidewater been "buggin" our ancestors since columbus...the f-22s at langley afb have to have an armed escort till they get movin...

Here at metal wackers forge.....um....well... we wack metal.

http://www.colonialseaport.org/

http://www.creweofthearchangel.com/

http://www.blackbeardscrew.org/

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sorry fellas never been to texas but they cant possibly have anything on our skeeters here in tidewater been "buggin" our ancestors since columbus...the f-22s at langley afb have to have an armed escort till they get movin...

I must agree. After going barefoot in the area for a weekend, my ankles looked like they belonged to a plague victem. I still bear the scars after a year in frozen northern waters. I'm surprised I don't have encephalitis.

highres_6845035.jpeg

Craig Browne

Captain

Half Moon Marauders

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Me dad always warned me about the chiggers and such in the backwoods of Charlottesville, Virginia, behind our house. There was some construction/excavation work being done there, and we'd go out looking for "devils dice", a suitably piratical name for iron pyrite in cube form.

Ye can see what Devils Dice look like here...

http://www.greatsouth.net/minerals/p-M821.html

And at no extra charge!

Edited by Capn Bob

Damn, thats sharp!

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Oh God! MISSION!

Ye just HAD t' show that damned bloody spider, didn't ye! :::growls and scowls::: That deserves havin' an Iratus bug released upon ye!

YES! ALL SPIDERS MUST DIE!!!! No exceptions! Spiders are th' spawn of th' devil! PERIOD!

Alas, can't remember the original topics. Sorry.

But I still want t' sick an Iratus bug on Mission for posting that pictures of a nasty, freakin' ugly spider! :D

~Lady B

Tempt Fate! an' toss 't all t' Hell!"

"I'm completely innocent of whatever crime I've committed."

The one, the only,... the infamous!

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