Scary Critters – IOTW Report

Scary Critters

Sunday, 14 November 2021, 8:00 Claudia Uncategorized 15

Images from:

1) SNS (Spider) One of the less welcome tenants at my new house.
2) Tim (Bear) Bear by Goose Compound.
3) Truckbuddy (Assassin Bug) Been seeing a lot of these lately. It’s called a “wheel bug” because it has what looks like a gear stuck vertically in it’s back. About 1-1/2″ long. Wheel bugs are assassin bugs, and do bite but only if picked up. Reported to hurt quite a bit.
4) dry gulched (Preying Mantis)
5) Claudia (Bald-faced Hornet) The first summer in our house, I was tasked with the job of getting rid of two nests of hornets. With the aid of a friend, I tackled the extermination of these nasty stinging kamikazes. I joked that they were Murder Hornets and he said, “No, now they are Murdered Hornets”. 🐝 I’m invincible … bwahahaha.
6) NAAC (wolf) Taken in Yellowstone National Park.

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Thanks!

15 Comments on Scary Critters

  1. Wheel bugs also have a pretty nasty scent spray when they are disturbed. Found that out the hard way when trying to get one out of our bathroom. That bug stunk up the bathroom worse than the remnants of Enchilada Night.

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  3. @Claudia
    That looks like a European hornet. They are nasty creatures. They are very aggressive and they will gang up on you if they see you as a threat. They also work through the night, unlike other bees/hornets, so you don’t get an opportunity to kill the nest while they are all sleeping.
    You’re lucky you didn’t get into a real mess trying to kill them.
    I had a nest in the soffit of my house a few years back. I paid an exterminator who dressed up in a space suit to take care of them. They swarmed and attacked him like you wouldn’t believe.

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  4. We had a hornet nest like that at the gable. We’d pull it down and the next year it would be right back. We put up a bat house in that spot and the hornets went elsewhere.

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  5. Good morning Lady C.

    My wife made the acquaintace of this li’l lady shortly after we moved in to our new home that has a creek and small woods on it, so a bit buggier than where we came from. She’s about 5″ from the tip of one hairy leg to another, and that’s a laundry basket my wife was poised to empty that she’s perched on when she said howdy.

    My lady is a warrior woman however, not the “eek, a bug!” type at all (much like yourself, C, you Bane of Hornets you) and would normally crush unwanted intruding bugs like…well, like bugs, but she makes exceptions for spiders because she knows God made them to eat even MORE disagreable insects, so she merly removed the basket to the side porch next to the woods with it’s quiescent rider aboard, and encouraged her to decamp into the buggy smorgasbord of the creek area instead, then went back to the laundry.

    I did see her or one of her sisters on a tree outside later, but that was also where I saw a snake, but that’s a different story for another day..

    God bless,
    SNS

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  6. The preying mantis is the only one that is not scary unless you’re a fly or other small insect. My brothers and I had preying mantises in a terrarium as pets growing up and fed them flies and little bits of hamburger and such. I’ve always had a soft spot for preying mantises, they are one of the best insects ever except for maybe bumblebees.

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  7. @ Jethro NOVEMBER 14 2021 AT 8:38 AM

    I almost got Claudia hurt with that nest. I though she was talking about regular umbrella-nest wasps until she showed me one of the dead ones. !!!! NO!! Stop! Don’t do what I said to do! New plans!

    Totally different game, and yes, they are very aggressive. She even had another species of hornets at the same time on the property.

    So glad they didn’t attack her.

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  9. Truckbuddy –
    I know Assassin bugs can be a garden helper, but I would do a power spray on my property if they were all over the place. They could be the Kissing bug sub-species and there’s a 50% chance one carries Chagas disease that can infect you with a bite.

    Luckily, they are real prevalent in my area.

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  13. Dadof4

    The exterminator came right after that, found lots of them dead later. He sprays something that if they just walk over it kills them. Luckily my phone camera has a close up lens.

    TN Tuxedo

    I haven’t had the “pleasure” of the spray from a wheel bug, but my RV in particular attracts Stink Bugs, and I’ve been nailed by lots of them. 😵 Now I use a vacuum to get ’em.

    Great pics all! I like and saw a huge Preying Mantis this year too, unfortunately it fell victim to that same magic spray.

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  14. “saw a huge Preying Mantis this year too, unfortunately it fell victim to that same magic spray.”

    I have a moment or two like that every week.

    Last one was a half grown female garden spider. Quite beautiful spiders with an easily identifiable web pattern. I was flushing wasps out of an overhang and after a while saw her dead right below it about a foot off the ground.

    Sorry, bud, didn’t mean to kill you.

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