The Coffee House

[snowbear]

do far, only earthworms and centpedes or millipedes. I’m not which; I didn’t look at them close enough. I’m more worried about snakes.

 

[limr]

The creepy crawlies are taking over up here. All this rain has created the perfect environment for slugs and earwigs. Gross! And destructive.

A few weeks ago, I saw baby preying mantises on my house. They have apparently been eating well because the one or two that I still see have gotten big! This was from this morning, right outside of my front door. She's about half a finger's length so far. Go, little mantis, go! Eat bugs to your heart's content!

 

[wobe]

A few weeks ago, I saw baby preying mantises on my house. They have apparently been eating well because the one or two that I still see have gotten big! This was from this morning, right outside of my front door. She's about half a finger's length so far. Go, little mantis, go! Eat bugs to your heart's content!

I understand they are quite keen on eating their suitors as well!

 

[SquarePeg]

A few weeks ago, I saw baby preying mantises on my house. They have apparently been eating well because the one or two that I still see have gotten big! This was from this morning, right outside of my front door. She's about half a finger's length so far. Go, little mantis, go! Eat bugs to your heart's content!

View attachment 267149

I saw one really small mantis on the underside of a leaf when I was checking for slugs a few weeks ago. Haven’t seen iany since then. But we have dozens of dragonflies circling all day eating the gnats and mosquitoes and spiderwebs galore in the garden. I saw a hilarious video recently of a woman using a small branch to clear spider webs in her garden and her husband asked if she was playing Harry Potter lol.

 

[smoke665]

do far, only earthworms and centpedes or millipedes. I’m not which; I didn’t look at them close enough. I’m more worried about snakes.

Any insect I can't identify is automatically classified as a Doknow. Don't know if it bites....Don't want to find out.

 

[smoke665]

saw a hilarious video recently of a woman using a small branch to clear spider webs in her garden and her husband asked if she was playing Harry Potter lol.

You've never seen me when I walk face first into a spider web in the woods. I have moves not normally possible by mere mortals.

 

[snowbear]

Removing spiders from the house if my job. Often they get picked up with a piece of paper and placed outside. Most insects and arachnids don't bother me but I will freak out if I see a cockroach or silverfish.

The things that bother me most don't have legs (and I'm not talking about fish).

 

[smoke665]

@snowbear snakes don't bother me much unless they surprise me, then I will exhibit some spastic moves.

I'm not fond of mice either. As a teen it was my job to slip into a tight space between grain bins and turn the unloading augers with a pipe wrench. Dad's big rear wouldn't fit...lucky me. Turning the auger generally brought out a bunch of mice who had taken up residence. The space was so tight you couldn't move, you could only hope one of the little buggers running all over your feet didn't decide to run up your pant leg.

 

[SquarePeg]

You've never seen me when I walk face first into a spider web in the woods. I have moves not normally possible by mere mortals.

We call that the spider web spasm.

Removing spiders from the house if my job. Often they get picked up with a piece of paper and placed outside. Most insects and arachnids don't bother me but I will freak out if I see a cockroach or silverfish.

The things that bother me most don't have legs (and I'm not talking about fish).

I don’t mind spiders as long as it’s not in the house.

 

[limr]

Spiders are fine as long as they are not in the house or if they are in the house, as long as they aren't too big. I will remove spiders from the house instead of killing them, unless it's too big and it moves fast, which means I am too scared to get close it to, so I end up killing it from afar with my homemade bug spray.

The exception are these, which is what I am pretty sure bit me, and it took literally 2 months for it to heal. They are very small, but they get killed instantly if I see one inside.

Cheiracanthium inclusum - Wikipedia

en.m.wikipedia.org

I don't mind mice at all - in fact, I quite like them a lot! I don't have mice now but in my last house, I would use human traps and relocate them. They're so damned cute!

Snakes don't bother me, either. I like having them in my yard. Usually garter snakes. They're cute and they eat bugs!

In other news, we had a metric s*** ton of rain yesterday, which honestly was quite lovely for me, but which has caused messes around the whole Hudson Valley. (All places north of NYC - Orange and Rockland counties are west of the river, Putnam to the east). At index 0.24, you will see the village of Cold Spring, which is a towm right on the Hudson and close to where I live. It's one of my favorite little river towns...well, it was before it was invaded and became 'Williamsburg North' (for those of you who may not get the reference, it been overrun with transplants from the super trendy, hipster Brooklyn neighborhood). The flooded tunnel goes under the train tracks for the MetroNorth commuter and Amtrak trains.

It's fine where I am - a few places near streams or ponds where water overflowed, but even those 'flooded' areas are basically just big puddles.

 

[SquarePeg]

I don’t think we’ve had more than 2 days in a row without rain since the beginning of June. It’s at the point now where it’s ruining many of the blooms in my garden. The grass looks good though. We don’t water our lawn and it’s usually dry and crunchy by now.

 

[SquarePeg]

Look what I found hiding in the bee balm - probably waiting to kill my hummingbirds!

 

[snowbear]

MANTIS!

I heard, today, that there is heavy flooding in VT, as well. We've been getting rain (glad - we're still in a deficit, I think) but not really heavy enough to send out the Swift-Water Rescue folks.

I think, if my grandfather W had lived longer (he died when I was about six) I would probably like snakes - he always had some kind of reptile in the apartment. I remember an iquana and a cayman.

We're watching the BBQ Brawl (I love you, Brookie).

 

[cgw]

Look what I found hiding in the bee balm - probably waiting to kill my hummingbirds!

View attachment 267157

And I always thought they just decapitated their husbands...

 

[snowbear]

And I always thought they just decapitated their husbands...

They do. That way the females don't have to be dragged through a nasty divorce from their good-for-only-one-thing husbands.