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Getting ready for bed. Head to the bathroom and sit on the pot. Look at my hands. Look at the cuff of the robe I've been wearing for an hour or so.... when an alien comes crawling out!?!!
Oh good god I damn near lost it but managed to hold still... only 'cause I did not know what I was facing/dealing with... It was still coming out from under the cuff! LONG and ugly and gross!
It finally showed it's end after a good minute of hyperventalation on hold- eeeeeeewwwwwww!
What is it!???! My cat went more ballistic than I did! She wanted to kill it and I wanteded her to as well, but only after I got a pic! so what is it?
and please disregard the floor: It IS clean, that is dead wax in grooves on a floor I do not yet have permission to replace. I plan on stripping it but didn't realize it was that bad until I took this pic!
-------------------- ~tough as nails yet nice as pie~ For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction - and sometimes a scar. "and don't threaten anyone with your pants today!" - Frog_Feathers daisys does Myspace Posts: 3206 | From: Molalla, OR | Registered: Jun 2004
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Eww! I've never seen anything lke that, but it almost looks like a type of centipede. That is seriously creepy.
-------------------- I really hate one-eyed flying purple people eaters! I mean, seriously! They're all like, "I like to eat people, I'm purple, I fly and I have one eye!"-We've Got Mail!
posted
way seriously creepy when it's coming out of your own sleeve and you can't do anything 'cause you don't know how much of it is in/out! eeeeewwww ick!
-------------------- ~tough as nails yet nice as pie~ For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction - and sometimes a scar. "and don't threaten anyone with your pants today!" - Frog_Feathers daisys does Myspace Posts: 3206 | From: Molalla, OR | Registered: Jun 2004
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I think it is a centipede- and I think it left the rest of its legs in your robe.
-------------------- "My Very Educated Mother Just Said Uh-oh! No...Pluto..."~ Steven Colbert Posts: 3256 | From: Somewhere in Ohio | Registered: Apr 2004
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It's an insect larva, but all my reference books are at work, but I'll try a few websites I know to try to find an ID.
Posts: 296 | From: Crawfordville, Florida | Registered: Dec 2005
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what a facinating site! I have not found this one yet; it looks like it might take me forever to do so and they are swamped themselves.
Thanks for the link though! Damn good thing that their 'Bug of the Month the Hickory Horned Devil' wasn't what crewled out of my robe. You might never have heard from me again, except by a tabloid article: "Oregon Woman Has Cow then Dies" yep.
-------------------- ~tough as nails yet nice as pie~ For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction - and sometimes a scar. "and don't threaten anyone with your pants today!" - Frog_Feathers daisys does Myspace Posts: 3206 | From: Molalla, OR | Registered: Jun 2004
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quote:Originally posted by daisyslegs: what a facinating site! I have not found this one yet; it looks like it might take me forever to do so and they are swamped themselves.
Thanks for the link though! Damn good thing that their 'Bug of the Month the Hickory Horned Devil' wasn't what crewled out of my robe. You might never have heard from me again, except by a tabloid article: "Oregon Woman Has Cow then Dies" yep.
"Whats that bug" is a great site - I identified three of my mystery bugs there - earwigs, house centipedes and the dobson fly.
Don't feel too bad about the floor - mine looks worse!
-------------------- So many books, so little time. Posts: 1192 | From: McDonough, Georgia | Registered: Nov 2005
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quote:Originally posted by daisyslegs: what a facinating site! I have not found this one yet; it looks like it might take me forever to do so and they are swamped themselves.
Thanks for the link though! Damn good thing that their 'Bug of the Month the Hickory Horned Devil' wasn't what crewled out of my robe. You might never have heard from me again, except by a tabloid article: "Oregon Woman Has Cow then Dies" yep.
A kid carried one to school a year or two back. I was walking out of a classroom, and they shoved it at me on a paperplate, saying, "Look what I found!" I did a wonderful job of keeping my composure.
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I don't know what your bug is, but I'm so glad that the link was posted because I can now confirm that the bug that I panicked over finding in the apartment last week was NOT, in fact, a cockroach. whew.
I wish I had been as calm and collected as you were and had thought to take a picture of the bug I had found. Sadly, my only reaction was to freak out, sit on my bed (far away from said bug), rock back and forth, repeating, "My bed is my island... a safe, safe island." Eventually I mustered up the courage to scoop it up on a paper and let it outside. And by "outside" I mean down the garbage chute.
Is it so wrong that I'm frightened by any living creature that has more legs than I do?
Posts: 88 | From: Ontario, Canada | Registered: May 2006
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posted
It is a beetle larvae, the body style is known as elateriform after the beetle family that provides the name, Elateridae. These are the common click beetles that can be found all over.
Posts: 296 | From: Crawfordville, Florida | Registered: Dec 2005
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quote:These are the common click beetles that can be found all over.
Ah, that made an old question pop into place for me. I saw a click beetle some years ago, but had no idea what it was. Scared the hell out of my mother's dogs.
-------------------- /Troberg Posts: 4360 | From: Borlänge, Sweden | Registered: Nov 2005
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I like click beetles, I used to play with them as a child (I was deprived, few toys). I'd never seen a larvae, though!
-------------------- I'll drive it ugly. You can't see the paint job when you're behind the wheel, anyway. Posts: 570 | From: Central Valley, California | Registered: Dec 2005
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I don't know if I have the courage to go through the whole site, but I did like the fact that such a site exists.
-------------------- Licorice of the Lord! This is classy stuff...Should I be wearing a tie? Or, at least, pants? ~I'mNotDedalus Posts: 975 | From: New Jersey | Registered: Jun 2005
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Daisy, I don't know if this will make you feel better, but I've discovered a two inch house centipede wandering around my bedroom.
I tried to scoop the critter up with a sheet of paper, but those suckers are fast and he is lost to the radiator now. Well, at least till nightfall, when he'll venture out to he nearest interesting thing in the house, which will probably be my head.
It wouldn't be so bad, but the little devils bite! If I wake up with him crawling on my face...yeah-it's not going to end well for either of us!
-------------------- "Are we talking misdemeanor trouble or squeal like a pig trouble?" Posts: 618 | From: Ann Arbor, Michigan | Registered: May 2006
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quote:Originally posted by Oceanic Aura: Daisy, I don't know if this will make you feel better, but I've discovered a two inch house centipede wandering around my bedroom.
I tried to scoop the critter up with a sheet of paper, but those suckers are fast and he is lost to the radiator now. Well, at least till nightfall, when he'll venture out to he nearest interesting thing in the house, which will probably be my head.
It wouldn't be so bad, but the little devils bite! If I wake up with him crawling on my face...yeah-it's not going to end well for either of us!
We get six inch centipedes (not house centipedes. they are only three inches!) and they are very poisonous. But it looks like we're winning the battle. No centipedes in the house this year -- Yay! (They don't come out in the winter so I'm hoping that's it for this year.)
Posts: 4922 | From: Kyoto, Japan | Registered: Sep 2005
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quote:Originally posted by RLobinske: It is a beetle larvae, the body style is known as elateriform after the beetle family that provides the name, Elateridae. These are the common click beetles that can be found all over.
The click beetle's larvae is actually the king mealworm - well known to reptile keepers. It's somewhat similar to daisys' bug, but mealworms have different legs and head and they aren't as long. I spent about an hour the other night trying to find her critter, with no luck (including about 45 minutes on "What's that Bug?")
quote:Originally posted by Oceanic Aura: Daisy, I don't know if this will make you feel better, but I've discovered a two inch house centipede wandering around my bedroom.
Easy solution:
Douse said room in gasoline. Apply match.
-------------------- "The little local company I buy from has CHEAP shipping and I have met their goats." (snapdragonfly)
"And that's one lost erection I'll never get back! You hear me Dan! I'm owed an erection!" (I'mNotDedalus) Posts: 2658 | From: California | Registered: Jul 2005
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quote:Originally posted by Ganzfeld: We get six inch centipedes (not house centipedes. they are only three inches!) and they are very poisonous. But it looks like we're winning the battle. No centipedes in the house this year -- Yay! (They don't come out in the winter so I'm hoping that's it for this year.)
Six inches?! Now that really is scary! Seriously, I'm not a girly-girl about too many things, but I really, really don't like centipedes. Roaches? Fine. Spiders? Love 'em. Beetles? Cool. Millipededs? I've kept them as pets. Centipedes? Arghhhh...get it away, get it away!
I don't like to kill things, but I shoud have taken a shoe to that monster when I had the chance!
-------------------- "Are we talking misdemeanor trouble or squeal like a pig trouble?" Posts: 618 | From: Ann Arbor, Michigan | Registered: May 2006
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quote:Originally posted by Oceanic Aura: Daisy, I don't know if this will make you feel better, but I've discovered a two inch house centipede wandering around my bedroom.
Easy solution:
Douse said room in gasoline. Apply match.
That is my solution to finding nasty creepy bugs and spiders in my house. In any room of my house.
Edited to add: Don't bother telling me how beneficial spiders and snakes are to the environment. I don't care. There's only five kinds of both; big, little, live, dead, and rubber. I don't like any of them, and will immediately start shrieking loudly when confronted with any of the above examples.
Ms. 'going to stop reading this thread now, getting a little freaked out' K
-------------------- Beware corporate zombies! They will purchase your brain on E-Bay! Posts: 2310 | From: California | Registered: Jul 2003
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OK, this looks like the perfect thread for my little experience with DS#1 this past week. Thursday evening, just before bed, he shows me his hand, says he thinks a skeeter bit it, and it's really really itchy. The area is red, so I put some diaper ointment on it (all out of hydrocortisone) and send him to bed. He says nothing the next morning before school. After dinner, he shows me his hand, says it still itches. About 1/3 of the back of his hand is red and inflamed, very hot to the touch. I remind him not to scratch it and try to call the Dr. Of course it's friday night and both doctors have messages on their phones saying that the other one is the on-cal Dr. for the weekend.
I had to wait for DH to get home, then take DS to the ER (at 11 pm). They check it, think it's a localized reaction, but mark off the area in case it's cellulitis and put him on an antibiotic. We now have to keep an eye on him around bugs, since no one thinks it was a skeeter that bit him, probably a spider but, since my dad is highly allergic to yellowjackets, we have to watch for another reaction and if one happens, may to start keeping the epipen on hand.
By Sunday, the redness and swelling were gone, only the original bite was there (his poor little hand was so swollenat first, I couldn't even feel a bite bump). And the little dots they used to mark the redness, which were in permanent marker!
Slight rant: the nurse who took his vitals took me to task for not having benadryl cream on hand. Excuse me, but I'm allergic to it and the pediatrician told me when the kids were babies not to apply it to them until they were older, in case they reacted as well. So I've NEVER kept it on hand (and this is the first thing we've had that hydrocortisone didn't work for). She was the only one who seemed to think that was strange, the PA and pediatrician both seemed fine with it.
But we found a benadryl that comes in a chapstick-like tube, so I can apply and just have someone else rub it in if necessary, so now we're all set (now watch, I'll never need it again!).
Poor budsy, now he's REALLY gonna freak around bugs!
-------------------- Like every good third-in-a-series it contains a whole load of ewoks, ‘Clubber’ Lang, whey-faced Sophia Coppola, Sean Connery as the Pirate Captain’s estranged dad, a crappy CGI alien, and Richard Pryor on a donkey. -- Gideon Defoe Posts: 2211 | From: Harford County, MD | Registered: Oct 2005
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posted
I think a site like "what's that bag" should have a "find the bug" feature. It would ask you about leg thickness, leg placement, color, size, body shape, etc. It would be like those "guess what I am thinking" websites that narrow things down by asking various questions. Once you're done, it would give you pictures of certain types of bug that match your description. It would be a lot easier than clicking through a few hundred pictures to find the right one.
-------------------- See, if I tell you about it, it won't be a mystery. It'll just be a fact, an ugly, moist fact, squatting on your brain like an octopus. And you don't want an octopus squatting on your brain, do you, son? -- Stan Smith, American Dad Posts: 980 | From: Virginia | Registered: Dec 2005
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Jockolatta North : Your son's swollen bite sounds similar to my reaction to mosquito bites.
I always get a hard, hot, red lump a bit larger than a golf ball, but recently the reaction has been getting worse. The last time I was bit, once on my finger, once on the opposite arm, the swelling was so bad that I looked like Popeye for a few days and could actually see and feel the accumulated fluid vibrate under my skin if I tapped it. Benadryl and hydrocortisone helped a little bit.
My doctor prescribed an Epi-Pen just in case the reactions keep progressing (I also have asthma and a history of allergic reactions). It might not be a bad idea to ask for one to keep on hand for your son.
I always thought it would stink to be allergic to bees or wasps, but I never dreamed I'd have to fear mosquitos so much. The damned things are unavoidable (and you can't really see them coming move out of the way) and so far I haven't found a repellent that works at all. Still, I keep going outside without being too afraid of the insect kingdom--and so should your little guy. Posts: 64 | From: New Jersey | Registered: Mar 2006
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quote:Originally posted by Oceanic Aura: Daisy, I don't know if this will make you feel better, but I've discovered a two inch house centipede wandering around my bedroom.
Ugh. We have those too.
My grandfather loved to tell us about the huge centipedes (or were they millipedes?) that he encountered during WWII in the South Pacific. Supposedly the bite was toxic and excruciating. It makes the two inch variety seem not so hideous to me, though I still shriek instinctively when one runs across the floor.
The nastiest type of "bug" I've ever had the misfortune of meeting would have to be the sun spiders we had in Colorado. As large, fast, and hairy as mice, they never failed to give me the creepy-crawlies for days after so much as seeing one. I spent an entire night unable to sleep after one scurried over me as I laid in bed.
And I like spiders in general.
Posts: 64 | From: New Jersey | Registered: Mar 2006
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quote:Originally posted by RLobinske: It is a beetle larvae, the body style is known as elateriform after the beetle family that provides the name, Elateridae. These are the common click beetles that can be found all over.
The click beetle's larvae is actually the king mealworm - well known to reptile keepers. It's somewhat similar to daisys' bug, but mealworms have different legs and head and they aren't as long. I spent about an hour the other night trying to find her critter, with no luck (including about 45 minutes on "What's that Bug?")
The King Mealworm is one species of click beetle. The Elateridae is the name of an entire beetle family that includes hundreds of species of click beetles, many of which have the elateriform body plan that the example shows (lower image here shows the body type the OP posted. But, not all Elateridae share that larval body form. I could've worded my response better, I meant to point out the beetle family that provided the larval form name and it sounds much more like a firm ID than I intended. I work mainly with mosquitoes, so there is still room for an ID error on my part. I've seen similar larval forms for aquatic beetles, but I doubt if that is the case above.
ETA added link.
Posts: 296 | From: Crawfordville, Florida | Registered: Dec 2005
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quote:Originally posted by TallGeekyGirl: I think a site like "what's that bag" should have a "find the bug" feature. It would ask you about leg thickness, leg placement, color, size, body shape, etc. It would be like those "guess what I am thinking" websites that narrow things down by asking various questions. Once you're done, it would give you pictures of certain types of bug that match your description. It would be a lot easier than clicking through a few hundred pictures to find the right one.
Basically, a dichotomous key, which is what is used professionally for identification. A good idea, the main problem is how large the key would grow. Depending on the geographic area you write a key for, you will be dealing with literally hundreds of thousands of species. Keys to order and family might be more feasible, if somebody is motivated to make it.
Posts: 296 | From: Crawfordville, Florida | Registered: Dec 2005
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If so, how cool! My local university offers a few entomology courses that I might find time for in a year or two.
Oh, and Frozen Charlotte, I'm guessing it was a centipede. Millipedes are very gentle, and don't bite. Sometimes they have mildy toxic secretions, but really, they're great!
-------------------- "Are we talking misdemeanor trouble or squeal like a pig trouble?" Posts: 618 | From: Ann Arbor, Michigan | Registered: May 2006
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You mean they wont let me tromp off to the Amazon with only a couple of classes under my belt, and discover new and exotic species?!
Bummer.
-------------------- "Are we talking misdemeanor trouble or squeal like a pig trouble?" Posts: 618 | From: Ann Arbor, Michigan | Registered: May 2006
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quote:Originally posted by Oceanic Aura: You mean they wont let me tromp off to the Amazon with only a couple of classes under my belt, and discover new and exotic species?!
Bummer.
Actually...many nations in the tropics require permits to collect insects and take them out of the country.
Posts: 296 | From: Crawfordville, Florida | Registered: Dec 2005
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quote:Originally posted by RLobinske: The King Mealworm is one species of click beetle. The Elateridae is the name of an entire beetle family that includes hundreds of species of click beetles, many of which have the elateriform body plan that the example shows (lower image here shows the body type the OP posted. But, not all Elateridae share that larval body form. I could've worded my response better, I meant to point out the beetle family that provided the larval form name and it sounds much more like a firm ID than I intended. I work mainly with mosquitoes, so there is still room for an ID error on my part. I've seen similar larval forms for aquatic beetles, but I doubt if that is the case above.
ETA added link.
Ah, I see, the second form does look similar, although the head is different. I looked through literally (literally ) hundreds of pictures without finding even that much. All of the pics of "click beetle" larvae were of the first form. (I used to have reptiles, I'm quite familiar with that one. I wouldn't mind a bit if I never have to handle another one.)
Also, where daisyslegs lives isn't all that far from a river (you can't really get very far from any kind of water around here) so to say it may be from an aquatic species isn't too out of the question, in my completely unprofessional opinion.
The head shape is what is really nagging at me. It seems familiar, but I can't place it.
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There can be a lot of variation within a family over the apparence of larvae, so the differences can be expected. You can literally produce large books dedicated to just the identification of the larvae from one insect family. It is possible to be any of the beetles that produce elateriform larvae and not necessarily be a click beetle. Beetles are notorious for the the large number of species and incredible diversity. To get a firm ID, you'd likely need to have a beetle expert sit down with the specimen and examine it under a microscope while checking references.
Posts: 296 | From: Crawfordville, Florida | Registered: Dec 2005
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quote:Originally posted by Oceanic Aura: Daisy, I don't know if this will make you feel better, but I've discovered a two inch house centipede wandering around my bedroom.
I nearly passed out when I saw that picture! That one looks even creepier than the OP's, in my opinion.
-------------------- I really hate one-eyed flying purple people eaters! I mean, seriously! They're all like, "I like to eat people, I'm purple, I fly and I have one eye!"-We've Got Mail!
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