Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with insects

I, for one, welcome your answers.

Behemoth — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 09:29:16 -0800

We all know about Them! What are other examples of sci-fi stories (serious or otherwise, well-known or otherwise) featuring insects (ants or otherwise, giant or otherwise) terrorizing, enslaving, or endangering humanity?

Save me from things with more than four legs!

dayintoday — Sat, 12 Dec 2009 15:28:59 -0800

What is the least buggy place to live in the USA? In the world? For the sake of this question, "bugs" applies to anything with more than four legs that walks on land (i.e. spiders count but lobsters do not).

What part of the United States is the best for someone afraid of bugs in general? What part of the world?

Consider that a place with gigantoid centipedes that occasionally enter the home is MORE scary than a place with loads of tiny gnats and flies that rarely come inside.

(Note: I'm not looking for ways to prevent bugs in my home or anything like that. This is just a for-fun/out-of-curiosity thing. Personal experiences would be great!)

Freaky Bright Orange Spider!

senador — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 16:54:56 -0800

I have a picture of this spider with a bright orange body. I was hoping someone out there could identify it. http://picasaweb.google.com/senador1/OrangeSpider#

I need to kill one pest while protecting another.

mecran01 — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 09:43:25 -0800

We have spiders and pill bugs in our basement. I want to spray for them, but I also have pet rats that I like to let wander around on occasion, and don't want them to get sick. Is there a natural bug spray that is rodent safe? (I know, our basement sounds like a fun place) My nine-year-old is sleeping on the couch until I take care of the bugs. I also need to figure out how all of the pill bugs are getting into our basement bathroom.

Do I have bed bugs?!

prior — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 15:20:29 -0800

Could a bed bug have made this bite? Forgive me for asking another long bug-related question. My girlfriend's apartment building has been having problems with bed bugs--there is definitely an infestation in one of the units, and though an inspector came and cleared my gf's apartment, I slept there on Tuesday night and woke up with what I believed were bed bug bites on my back and hands. They're in the typical bed bug bite formation of threes, don't really hurt or itch, etc.

I went home from work on weds. and took some precautions against spreading the bugs to my apt--washed and heat-dried all the clothes I'd worn in her house, as well as my comforter, sheets, pillow cases, etc. I went to sleep that night and woke up bite-free.

My gf slept over at my place last night, and though I know the likelihood that she brought bed bugs into my place on her clothes is low, she could have brought them in her bag, I suppose. Anyway, she left, and I went about my sick day, reading in bed, and at some point looked down at my hand, which was suddenly itching and swelling up, to see this bite.

It's not anything like the other bites--it's swollen, raised, white, the size of a dime, and has a "trail" of raised swelling more like a spider bite's. Sorry the picture quality isn't good.

Anyway, could this be a bed bug bite? Do they ever manifest as described above? Can't find any info online to affirm or deny. Any advice/info/encouragement appreciated.

What kind of bug is this?

zembla3 — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 16:51:36 -0800

What kind of bug is this, and how do I rid my apartment of it? The pictures make it look browner than it actually is - it's grayish brown and somewhat translucent. It's about the diameter of a nickel in length. Is it some kind of larva? I just moved into a gut-renovated apartment building in Brooklyn (the building had been abandoned for years), and I've been dismayed to find a few of these wandering around. Should I have my management company call an exterminator, or is there an easier way to rid the apartment of this bug?

Name this bug, please!

jeanmari — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 17:29:37 -0800

I can't seem to identify these bugs. Help! At first, I panicked when these swarmed next to our house today because I immediately assumed that they were termites. But they definitely have ant-shaped bodies (with a defined waist), unlike a termite. Their bodies are a little over .25 inches long. Their wings are paper-y white.

When my neighbor pointed them out to me, they were swarming out from under our outside A/C unit (or pretty close to it). They were thickly carpeting the ground and crawling over everything. (Ugh, I just shudder thinking this.) I thought they might be leafcutters, but nothing I've read about leafcutters implies they would be this far north. I've also not seen anything swarm like this and we've lived in this house for 6 years. The weather was especially humid today and we live in Chicago, if that helps.

I captured two in my daughter's bug jar just in case I can't identify them from the internet. But they are walking around so quickly, I can't get a good photo of them.

Am I overreacting to a yellow jacket sting?

fiercecupcake — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 06:41:13 -0800

Is this yellow jacket sting normal? I have a doctor's appointment for later today. I'm not sure if I'm overreacting. I know my histamine response is! Pics and I had never been stung by anything before. I got stung on the back of the calf on Sunday, mid-morning. That makes today Day 3 (Day 2, Day 1), and the itching is unbearable and there is still a lot of swelling and inflammation. My dad got stung 5 times and his itch, but are getting better. My wife got stung 4 times and hers are almost gone (even one on her thumb). Mine just seems to get worse and worse.

I read this bee sting thread, but I know yellow jackets are supposed to be worse. The swelling extends about 1 inch from the sting site on all sides, and then the inflammation spreads about 6 inches down my leg. What's the worst that can happen? What will the doctor do? Am I better off just taking a bunch of Benadryl and toughing it out, or is my leg gonna fall off?

(Possibly useful information: I'm the girl who gets eaten alive by all bugs, no matter how much DEET I have on, and swell up around the bites and itch for days. I've spent at least half of every recent vacation in a Benadryl haze. Chiggers, mosquitoes, no-see-ums -- they ALL love me!)

What are these bugs?

srboisvert — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 03:16:26 -0800

What are these bugs [1,2,3] that are currently climbing all over my window bird feeder? They were not there just a moment ago when I put some bird seed in. Then boom. An infestation.

For scale the seeds are sunflower hearts and the bugs are about 3-4mm.

Stupid caterpillars. Indoor edition.

dayintoday — Sat, 05 Sep 2009 07:17:01 -0800

What is this caterpillar and why is it in my house? In recent days, there have been two caterpillars climbing up the walls inside my house. They are slightly over an inch long, whitish-tan in color (ecru? off-white? eggshell? bisque?) and very skinny. They have a tiny bit of brown on the head area.

More important than "what the heck are these things?" is "why the heck are they inside the house?" When the boyf and I saw the first one, we figured it had just come in on us after some work outside. But then we saw the second one a couple of days later and are starting to wonder if we're going to have some kind of Terrifying Moth Infestation.

Any ideas, in as un-terrifying language as possible?

(Oh, we live in Western Massachusetts.)

Tiny Tiny Shoe-eaters?

crookedneighbor — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 13:22:38 -0800

This morning there were tiny insects crawling over the soles of my leather boots. What are they and should I get the flamethrower? I have a pair of suede shoes with leather soles that I love. This morning, when I got them from the closet, there were maybe a dozen tiny tiny insects crawling over the soles. The insects were beetle shaped, whitish, and very small (less than a millimeter long).

Are they some kind of shoe termite? Moth-spawn? Should I be afraid for my sweaters?

I live in NYC if that matters.

What's biting us?

Blackwatch — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 04:39:41 -0800

What's biting us?! I live on the east coast of Scotland and, for the last few weeks, my wife and I have been falling victim to some mysterious biting insects.

We generally discover the red, raised bites first thing in the morning, with the legs and arms favourite biting sites.

I've checked for bed bugs and we don't have them. Work colleagues and friends are also being bitten, so it seems as if it's 'something in the air'!

Any ideas as to what's biting us - and how we can combat them?

What is causing this and how do we stop it? (kill it. kill it with fire?)

exlotuseater — Tue, 18 Aug 2009 21:07:52 -0800

Help identify possible source or cause of these bites! My SO has been getting some raised / swollen areas on her heel / foot, and one on her pinky finger, beginning four days ago. We believe they are bites, but the source eludes us. She's extremely sensitive to tactile stimuli, so ordinarily she would notice say, a mosquito or similar. At first we suspected the dreaded--shhhh!--bedbug but these bites are occurring during the day, and an exhaustive search (including stripping the bed and laundering everything) turned up nothing.

The bites are extremely itchy at first, swell quickly like a mosquito bite, then recede, except in one case, in which the bite receded somewhat, then blistered, filling with clear liquid (lymph? plasma?).

The size of the bites vary, but they generally range from 5-15 mm in diameter, and the high point of the swelling is perhaps 3 or 4 mm.

Pictures here and here here.

We have an indoor cat, who hasn't been particularly itchy or scratchy--we combed her today, also turned up nothing. If it were fleas, we would see them. Likewise with bedbugs or spiders (but which, under different circumstances, would fit certain diagnostic criteria for bites of this nature).

I vacuumed the other day, and we have regular high-traffic wall-to-wall carpet, which I just crawled over with a high-powered flashlight, literally prying apart the nap to examine. Nothing.

Interestingly, she has gotten several "bites" like this recently, I have been in all the same places, and I have not received a single one. She does not use any skin lotion or any attractant we can identify (no perfume, etc).

She just brushed against the shower curtain five minutes ago, and the one on her pinky "reactivated" and is now itchy again.

We live in a rented condo, have been here for four years, and nothing like this has happened in the past.

We are in upstate New York.

Yellowjacket Protective Suit?

Danf — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 13:34:32 -0800

Does anyone have experience with bee-wasp suits? I need, this week, to get my hand on a bee suit which will be good for being around yellowjackets (wasps).

It's one of my jobs to deal with yellowjacket nests around schools, and, while I have a standard bee suit (pith helmet, netting, etc.), I have been getting stung, either from the insects getting into the suit, or through the fabric.

My googling has been iffy on this, so I wonder if anyone has experience with this, and can point me to a suit that I can get my hands on this week.

Thanks.

What's with all these friggin hornets?

pilibeen — Sun, 09 Aug 2009 18:12:25 -0800

Why would there be all these dead & dying hornets in my apartment, after a weekend away? So I just got back from a weekend away (Friday am - Sunday pm), and I walk in the door to a floor full of dead hornets. They are isolated to one small section of the house, near the cat food table. The ones that aren't seemingly dead are very lethargic and easy to kill/flush. What's the deal? Why the sudden influx? If there was a nest which hatched?, why are they all suddenly dead or nearly dead?

Should I be worried about anything else happening? Another invasion?

Please help me understand the madness. I apologize if this is somehow obvious.

Help me avoid the Darwin Awards shortlist

Beardman — Mon, 03 Aug 2009 09:36:58 -0800

How can one safely convince a teeming mass of bees to vacate a crack in the exterior wall of a brick building, so that the crack can be filled in? We finally figured out why there are so many bees on our deck lately. It seems that a colony has very recently taken up residence in a couple of cracks/holes in the brick wall near our deck. Obviously the crack needs to be filled in after the bees are flushed out, but that's as blithe as saying that the road needs to be paved after all the landmines have been disarmed. How DO I flush out the bees without getting stung a million times? (I'm not allergic, but still.)

Bonus problem: the cracks are easily accessible without a ladder, but only from a landing on the edge of a second-story drop. So a hit n' run maneuver wouldn't be smart, as the running part could easily turn into a plummeting part.

Please tell me it was just an insect that sampled our nectarines.

kdern — Sat, 11 Jul 2009 09:07:56 -0800

Please tell me it was just an insect that sampled our nectarines. We left two nectarines on the kitchen counter last night and woke up to find this. Please tell me a bug could have done this, that it wasn't something larger.

We live in St. Louis, MO, in a house that's about 60 years old, so we do find bugs occasionally. We're due for an exterminator visit anyway.

I did find a caterpillar in another room last night, but I think it's unrelated. He didn't look hungry.

P.S. I placed them on the paper towel for the photo. They were right on the counter, and some small bits of nectarine skin were laying beside them.

Reeeeeeee... Reeeeeeeeeeeeeee...

shimmerstory — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 18:38:43 -0800

How do we make crickets hate our yard so they will hop away and shut up? For about 2-3 months during the hottest, most humid parts of the summer where I live in Georgia, we have these loud, screeching crickets that scream "Reeeeeeee... reeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee" all night long. These aren't the tree frogs or other night insect noises that may be commonplace in most southern areas. (My parents live 20 minutes away from us, and they do not have these loud crickets at their home, but they are in a neighborhood and we're practically on a farm.) These spastic crickets are so loud that we can hear them over the television or our white noise machine. It sounds almost like a traffic whistle, over and over. It is driving us insane.

Is there anything we can spray or sprinkle in our yard to make them not want to be here? Or any other kinds of repellents or remedies? Any suggestions are very much appreciated.

How do I figure out how scorpions are invading my bathroom fixture.

snoelle — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 14:52:50 -0800

Help me figure out how these scorpions are getting inside the bathroom light fixture. We moved into this house about 6 years ago. We have 2 1/2 baths in the house. In the downstairs bathroom off the master bathroom, we keep getting scorpions in the bathroom globe. The scorpion will be alive a couple of days, and then die, because it can't get out of the glass globe. So I take down the globe, clean it out real well, and put it back up. Maybe within 3-5 days, another scorpion is back in the globe and the process repeats again. There has never been more than one at a time in the globe.

When we moved into the home, we had a few scorpions, and bugs, but we hired an exterminator who treats the house monthly. Since we have had the exterminator, there have been no problems within the home.

So help me solve this mysterious entry route to the bathroom globe. No other fixtures are affected. The house is a brick house, and all outside areas are sealed, at least all I can see, but some how they keep coming back one at a time.

Where did these dead ants come from?

LolaGeek — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 06:50:10 -0800

Where are these dead ants coming from? And how can I keep them from showing up in my house? Last year I noticed that a lot of dead ants were turning up on my living room windowsill and the floor in front of the window. They were just regular sized black ants (less than 1/4" long, not sure exactly how big), they all had wings, and when I saw them they were either dead or dying. I cleaned them up when I saw them, put an ant trap by the window and eventually they went away.

For the last few weeks I've noticed the same type of dead or dying ants on the floor of my front bedroom (directly above the living room). They don't seem to be around the windows at all. I just notice some little black thing in the carpet and bend down to see that it's an ant. I haven't seen any downstairs in the living room so far.

There is no food in the areas I've found the ants. They don't seem to be going to or from anywhere. They just appear, and they're always dead or close to it. Any ideas where they're coming from, how I can keep them out of the house, or if they're a sign of some worse problem?

Dust off and nuke the site from orbit?

IanMorr — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 06:50:13 -0800

What kind of bug is this? I live in Houston. These guys are hanging out on my tomatoes and peppers and like to dive bomb me when I water, but don't seem to be doing any harm, so I'm inclined to leave them be. Earlier this year there were lots of smaller orangey ones with them that couldn't fly, but I haven't seen any of them recently.

If there's any reason to get rid of them, what are some good non-chemical ways to do so?

What are these bugs coming out at night and why do they die so fast?

rintako — Thu, 21 May 2009 23:47:50 -0800

What are these bugs coming out at night and why do they die so fast? At night usually past 12PM, these bugs about 3-5 times the size of fruit flies come out of no where and start flying insanely, mostly gravitated towards my lamp. After a couple of minutes of this, I'll hear a plop and look at my desk to see them upside down as if they're struggling to survive or something, and then they die.

What are these bugs, why do I have them, and why are they dying so fast?

Have they landed?

dpcoffin — Wed, 20 May 2009 11:30:41 -0800

Weird-bug-filter? What's THIS? Spotted in my neighbor's garage; not there yesterday, she says… A spider that came to a bad end after loosing 3 legs?

invasion of the brown specks

apostrophe — Sat, 28 Mar 2009 10:43:56 -0800

Can you help me identify some teeny-tiny bugs that just invaded my kitchen cupboard? This is in the SF Bay Area. This morning I awoke to find a bunch of these little guys crawling around my kitchen cupboard. They are so tiny so the photo is not very detailed. I tried zooming way in and my camera is just not up to the task. I've searched online and there are plenty of images of termites and carpet beetles, but they are the close-up kind so I can't tell if these are the same. They are light brown and very interested in food. I mean, as opposed to wood, as far as I can tell. They only showed up in the one kitchen (food-storing) cupboard. Last fall we renovated our kitchen, painted all the cabinets, caulked them all thoroughly, so I suspect these are new guys and haven't had eggs lying in wait. But what do I know? We cleaned them all up and sprayed the cupboard with a vinegar solution. Please tell me this isn't some horrible thing where my walls are about to crumble away.

what can i cover my vents with?

waywardgirl — Sat, 01 Nov 2008 08:00:24 -0800

I want to cover the heating/air conditioning vents in my apartment with some kind of screen or fabric because they seem to serve as a portal for some really nasty, huge bugs that are walking right in. Can anyone recommend a good material for this that will still allow the air to come through, but will stop the bugs? I have had the apartment exterminated, but to no avail, I think the basement and the outside need to be exterminated as well, but the landlord will not allow it, so, that's not an option. So, I really just need recommendations for materials to cover the vents, because i know that is where the bugs are coming from. I have watched them.