Beware the walking stick

[red-beard]

I used to find these, fortunately dead, in the control panels and wiring raceways in Pakistan.

[pmax]

These are great for lower back injury.

[mattdavis11]

Originally Posted by red-beard

I hate these guys



Ugly ugly mole cricket

Kill them! With FIRE!!!

When I worked on the superintendents crew at a golf course, they were bad news on several greens. We would first spray the green with soapy water, wait until they came out of their hole, then mow them down. It was pretty fun actually.

[Starless]

We had these Meloe blister beetles destroying our garden one year. Nasty. Found out they release oily droplets of hemolymph from their joints if you mess with them. It contains canthariden, a poisonous chemical that causes blisters and painful swelling.

[Nostril Cheese]

(shudder)

[red-beard]

[mcaterino]

Jerusalem Cricket! Funny, enough, this is actually my photo, taken outside the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History, where I used to work.

Keep the awesome bugs coming!

Your friendly Pelican entomologist,
Mike

Originally Posted by Nostril Cheese

(shudder)

[masraum]

More critters from this weekend.

I assume the second and third are the same kind of caterpillar.




I'd love to know what's making these holes. I have several in a certain area of the yard. From what I've been able to find, Cicada's don't make holes like this with the pile of dirt, I assume, because they come from below. The pile of dirt seems to mostly be associated with things that dig from above. It's too small (and we're currently too dry) for it to be crawfish. I'm guessing it may be cicada killer wasps or maybe some sort of solitary ground bee. I'm not sure. I'm not seeing or hearing any cicadas, I don't think, so I wouldn't think it'd be the wasps since they probably come out when the cicadas are around. That's the tip of my pinky, so the hole's not very big.