Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with creepycrawlies

What is this pseudo man eating ant?

Polychrome — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 06:21:35 -0800

What is this big insect in my apartment? Yesterday I found a huge, reddish insect in my bathroom. I reached over to get the bug spray but when I stood back up, it had disappeared. Now I am freaked out, can't find it again, and have no idea what it was.

I thought it might have been a queen red ant; it was about that size (maybe an inch long and half a centimeter wide), reddish colored, shiny, and from what I remember, had three bulbous body segments. I've done an image search in google for "big red ant" and mine didn't look quite like that; my bug's middle segment wasn't tiny, but its body segments were more uniform. It moved with moderate speed (I guess about par with a big ant's speed).

I'm in central Indiana and haven't seen any other insects in my apartment this summer aside from two earwig corpses. I've also spotted two small spiders. I'm going to put out ant traps this weekend anyway, but does anyone have any ideas what this might be? I'm close to blasting my apartment with bug bombs, but I have a cat and it would be a challenge to get her out of there for the day.

Is breeding mealworms as easy as it sounds?

Solomon — Mon, 05 May 2008 16:23:04 -0800

Mealworm breeding: what do I need to know? I'd like to have a go at breeding mealworms. I've never bred insects before, so I'm a little unsure of myself. I've read a few websites about it, but I figured I'd check the crowd here to see if they have any tips or experience.

The main thing I'm concerned about is the egg stage. Apparently they're very small, and the substrate needs to be cleaned out every couple of days - how will I manage to save the eggs between cleaning's?

Does anyone here have any advice or experience they'd like to share?

Cicadas in NY?

sgt.serenity — Sun, 25 Apr 2004 19:46:39 -0800

The cicada invasion , will it reach new york ?