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Scary Insects & Other arthropods
Shoshin
No one in particularNowhere Special Veteran
Many Kiwis are terrified of the humble weta
However despite their fearsome appearance they are quite harmless...I personally find them quite attractive insects (but then I'm somewhat weird )
"Basic entomology can be interesting ad fun
But finding out how insects live is not for everyone
Some people have a phobia about things that creep and crawl
But if they took time out to study them...they would have no fear at all !"
What gives you nightmares ie, what makes your skin crawl ?
Um I'm reminded of a book by Pema Chodron "The Places that Scare You: A Guide to Fearlessness in Difficult Times"
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I don't mind bugs as long as they can't kill me. Scorpions and millipedes (the really big ones) and Madagascar Hissing Cockroaches aren't my favorites. Despite that I will have conversations with spiders that join me in the shower, I will scream and run from hornets as well. I am not a big fan of moths, especially the every-10-year cycle of tent caterpillars with their accompanying moths. I avoid killing all of them as much as I can. But am thankful I do not have to deal with scorpions, millipedes, or even roaches. There are some plusses to living in a climate where it's below freezing for half the year ?? I quite like reptiles and snakes. But again, ours won't kill anyone!
@Shoshin. This year we had a great many more than usual tarantulas. Big ones as well. With a new addition of bats. No increase in rattlesnakes or scorpions.
I'm jealous ....I miss Oz with all its poisonous deadly creepy crawlies
Here in Aotearoa, we don't really have any dangerous creatures ie, highly poisonous spiders or snakes...
The other day a couple of spiders were guarding the cup rack and the microwave. Thanks guys. The most fearsome critter around here is bipedal ...
I realise this is a stock picture (found it in 'images' but am curious to know what those creamy-mustard-yellow oval things on its side, are... eggs? parasites? weird.....
Not sure what they are...But I think the weta species is a tree weta...
NZ Wetas
Not a big fan of insects... I tend to resort to the Buddhist trick of giving them names... the other day I was clearing growth in my mother's orchard and this little bitty spider descended from above, graceful as a ballet dancer. It stopped and looked at me, but in the end must have decided I wasn't good material to spin a web onto because it climbed back up.
But big insects like tarantulas and hornets and scorpions give me the heeby-jeebies. Snakes I'm not so bothered by, except if I know they are exceptionally poisonous.
But here in Europe we don't have any of them. The most dangerous thing might be a deer wandering loose from the nature reserve.
You might find this "link" of interest @Kerome
Except for the occasional cockroach in the street, there were no bugs in my big city childhood life.
Homes in Argentina get a monthly desinfection and that keeps all creepy-crawlies out of households.
It was on coming to live in the Swiss countryside that I had my first -some of them downright terrifying- runs-in with the biggest spiders I have ever seen outside horror films.
Just once, I killed one huge offender who shocked the hell out of me as she hid in the towel that I grabbed to dry myself after a shower.
I felt so, so awfully bad, since I reasoned that my personal phobia was no excuse to take the life of a sentient being, that I learned how to use the glass-paper technique to safely get them out of the house.
After 18 years, I simply catch them with naked hands.
Fears are obstacles made to be overcome.
The closest I've come to wildlife here where I live, is nearly running over a muntjac deer yesterday evening, while driving along a rural road....
Earlier on this evening as I was preparing to sit, I almost squashed this little fellow...
A shield bug....So I placed it onto one of my incense holders and let it pay homage to the Buddha before letting it go...
It's just occurred to me... "incense" holder and "smelly" stink bug (another name for the shield bug) see the link ?
In Oz I remember driving in the bush and seeing heaps of kangaroos grazing along the side of the road, sadly many a dead one I saw, after they were hit by a passing vehicle...Most or the vehicles that travelled along bush roads had "Roo bars" attached to the front....
Where I live people are scared of chip-grabbing seagulls.
and rightly so. Those damn things are a menace!
Honestly...? No. one is delectably divine, the other positively putrid....
Living in a wilderness area, we have tons of animals we deal with. But when you get to know them, it's not so hard. Lots of people are afraid and want to shoot them, thankfully most of the time it's illegal. We have black bears, wolves, coyotes, deer, lots of eagles that'll steal your pets off their leashes, lynx, the occasional mountain lion/cougar, and plenty of biting bugs and ticks. But nothing lethal, thankfully. Living with the bears and wolves is pretty easy. The funny thing is, in 25 years of driving, the only time I have hit any animals was in the city. I hit a deer at an interstate exchange in the middle of Fargo, ND and I hit another deer in Duluth, MN. Nothing here where we see dozens of them in our yard every day. The deer here must be smarter about looking for cars
Once this year and once last year I had one swoop down on me and take a bite out of my herring sandwich... they ARE a menace!
My son had a nugget stole from his hand by a seagull and then the gull crapped on my ex-mother in laws head
People feed them too much. They will stay away when they aren't habituated to people. Which is true for most animals. People habituate/train them and then get mad when they don't know what is appropriate. I know someone who feeds bears, and then gets mad when the bears come for the bird feeders, as if the bears are supposed to know the difference! We have gulls here but they don't bother anyone because no one feeds them. I do know someone who was attacked by an owl who tried to get her shiny earrings and got his talon stuck in the earring.
At the mention of seagulls I found the story about Sammy on BBC. It was a cute animal story. Sammy shop lifted crisps to share with other birds. Now as to the myth that bird poop on your head will help grow hair. Jonathan Livingston Poopgull scored a direct hit. My hair growth pattern didn't change at all.
For many people rats tend to spark fear, well imagine coming face to face with the African Giant Rat
At the moment they are being trained to sniff out mines, and there was even talk of using them to seek out survivors who get buried under rubble after natural disasters, however they soon dropped this idea due to people ingrained fear of rats... They are also using them as a food source...
http://www.pukish.com/creepiest-and-terrifying-bugs/
In Asia you can find what is called rice rat in contrast to urban rat. Rice rats are found in agricultural areas. Sliced rat with peanut sauce is tasty. Not sure I'd enjoy rat w/o the sauce.
Australia's real National Anthem:
^^you call THAT "little," @sho> @SpinyNorman said:
A couple of months ago, I was attacked -read harassed and ATTACKED- by two pigeons while sitting on the terrace of a café with a slice of loafcake.
It looked so much like a scene out of Hitchcock's "Birds," that people pulled out their cellphones and taped me.
Those birds were real bullies and relentless.
They would not give up until I took a piece of the cake and threw it metres away.
The scene was repeated ad nauseum with every poor soul who dared sit on the terrace with the coveted treat...
Talking about aggressive begging, I used to walk on the Penine Way in England, and the sheep up there would rush up and grab sandwiches out your hand. The sheep in Wales were more devious about it.
When my ex and I were dating, we used to go to a popular restaurant that had a large patio out back, and there was a prominent sign that said Do Not Feed the Birds. I said nuts to that, and paid the price. Pretty soon, a really ugly messed up bird showed up with bent feathers and looking sorta ill. Yuck!
The other day I came across a swarm of bees on my path. Rather than go back I decided to walk placidly through them. I don't walk around ants, unless I spot them.
I am interested in introducing a naga (river dragon) as an ace river predator to our local wildlife. I wonder if cayman would be acceptable as nagas are hard to come by ... ?
My local river is the warmest in the UK but cayman would still be considered invasive. Would keep the invasive dog species on their toes.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cuvier%27s_dwarf_caiman
Maybe an eagle owl population would be more realistic [lobster rambles off into the sunset ...] ?
https://www.rspb.org.uk/our-work/our-positions-and-campaigns/positions/species/nonnative/eagleowls.aspx
I've been having an encounter with moths in my sock drawer... will have to consider how to artfully cleanse them.
Buy nylons.
Sorted.
According to the Smithsonian .......At any time, it is estimated that there are some 10 quintillion (10,000,000,000,000,000,000) individual insects alive.
https://www.si.edu/Encyclopedia_SI/nmnh/buginfo/bugnos.htm
Somebody somewhere is eating bugs for dinner tonight......
Mmmm - grasshoppers! I used to eat those when I was young - very tasty.
I am actually looking forward to the day when I can try some....
We sell insects for birdfeeders, cheap. (Or 'cheep' even.....)
We sell packaged insects for human consumption. Cost doubles.
Go figure....
If one eats muesli, one is more than likely munching on eggs and pupae of insects that feed on stored products such as cereal grains...
"Insects in Your Food & Pantry"
One in four members of the animal kingdom is a beatle beetle "coleoptera"
"Yeah yeah yeah"
Unless they process those eyesore bugs into some sort of appetizing pâté I am soooooo not going to eat them?
My father would not eat prawns (considered them sea insects)
Insects as nutrition interests me. I consider it rather disrespectful to destroy the beauty of insects or fish, to make them more palatable/acceptable. Leave the head I say ...
OM MANI PEME YUM
Arachnophobia
"The fear of spiders can be treated by any of the general techniques suggested for specific phobias.
The first line of treatment is systematic desensitization – also known as exposure therapy – which was first described by South African psychiatrist Joseph Wolpe.[9] In addition, beta blockers, serotonin reuptake inhibitors and sedatives are used in the treatment of phobias.[10]
Before engaging in systematic desensitization it is common to train the individual with arachnophobia in relaxation techniques, which will help keep the patient calm. Systematic desensitization can be done in vivo (with live spiders) or by getting the individual to imagine situations involving spiders, then modelling interaction with spiders for the person affected and eventually interacting with real spiders. This technique can be effective in just one session.[11] The discovery of the implication of N-methyl-D-aspartate in fear and fear extinction[12] has led to the use of D-cycloserine—originally developed as an antibiotic—to augment the results of therapy.[13]
Recent advances in technology have enabled the use of virtual or augmented reality spiders for use in therapy. These techniques have proven to be effective"
There are around 46,000 species of spider (some arachnologists think there are more )... The fangs of most are not strong or big enough to pierce human skin...Yet the sight of them can send a shiver down the spines of many people....
In some parts of Asia they eat baked/deepfried tarantulas...
Now that's what I call scary....
I had a cat who ate spiders, but she always left the legs for some reason.