Late last night I started to take a shower and I found one of these horrid-looking very big things
staring me in the face when I happened to look at the shower curtain. Dang!!
Slipping and sliding, screaming and cussing (of course my husband was asleep and couldn’t hear me because of all the fans and the air-conditioner), trying to figure out what to do—I finally got out of the shower and got the bug to run down into the bathtub and smashed it with Kleenex. It was running really fast. The floor was all wet from the shower because I was so freaked I forgot to turn it off and I was dripping. I smashed it again because it was still wiggling. I was just about to smash it with my shoe, but I didn’t want my shoe to get all wet. One of its giant feelers came off in the tub, I bet that feeler was two inches long. Forget about the shower making me relax. Now I not only have to inspect my shower cap and towel for earwigs but I have to look for these things too.
Anyway, I found a neat website that helps to identify bugs and has really good pictures (just in case Rod Sprague isn’t around):
Hey you guys–these are your friends!
The common house centipede eats lots and lots of roaches, silverfish, and any other bugs it can catch. They won’t hurt you-they keep your house pest population down. And they’re not monsters, they’re quite benign to creatures larger than themselves (you, for instance)–also NOT poisonous…
… xsquid, 25 January, 2007 - 1:58pm
So I wonder if they eat earwigs? I guess I won’t kill the next one I find.
It took a lot of looking but at that website I was even able
to find out what this bug is that I’ve been finding on my plants.
I’ve never been able to find anything that helped me identify it.
That was going to be the real test of the website.
It’s a nymph of a planthopper, Acanalonia bivittata. I found it by searching on the word “fluff”!
I guess I will see if I can find some adults just to be sure.
It might explain at least one of the problems with my plants.
Okay, I guess I might be pushing the envelope of “boring” here. Sorry .
Hi Cynth - I’ve been killing these things for years in my house. I don’t care how many other critters they eat. The more they eat the BIGGER they get! That is just not acceptable. I’ve killed some of these things up to three inches long (and I live in the Northeast!).
I (being the husband and father, a.k.a. he-who-fixes-broken-things-and-kills-wiggly-crawly-things) am responsible for protecting my brood, and these things, once found in the light of day (or lamp of night) will not escape my shoe, or closest magazine, etc. I totally sympathize. I kill lots of buggies, but I get the willies every time I squash one of these. I think the “ick” factor is directly proportional to the number of legs. And besides, they remind me of this critter from Monsters, Inc.:
I hate insects and especially arachnids. It’s my only phobia (although mild). Speaking of, how would you like finding one of these in your house? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OeNggIGSKH8
When I first moved into this dump, there were plastic matts on the carpet just inside the front and back doors. The first few nights were a bit restless for me as I got used to all the new night noises, figuring out what they were, and determining whether they were benign or of serious concern. One night I was up and about when I was accosted by this strange rustling/rattling noise. It would stop as soon as I turned on the lights. In the silence of a residential neighbourhood at 2:00 am, the sound was alarmingly loud. It took me quite a while of turning the lights on and off and hunting around until I finally looked down at my feet to discover a centipede going back and forth over this stupid plastic matt. I got rid of the matt and slept soundly after that.
No way. Wait till Lamby and Caroluna find this thread!
BIGGER!!! Oh geez. I never thought of that Eeeek! Bigger than what seems giant already. Not acceptable? I totally agree. I mean you have to have some size limit or you could really lose your mind. Maybe I won’t see any more of them. That would really be the best thing.
I’ve watched that video many times now since you gave the link. Is the Bolivia Bug real? That is really, really big . Could it be a toy? That fur looks sort of like polyester, but you never know with insects. I found this one:
but the website is in Dutch, I believe, so I’m not sure what it is saying about it. I like the part at the end of the video when the woman’s voice says “Don’t touch it.” Like I would have to be told not to touch a giant caterpillar !
Well, I’m glad you could sleep soundly. The idea of a bug being big enough to make enough noise to keep a person awake, just that idea alone, is enough to keep me awake tonight . I mean, the centipede was still going back and forth, right? Removing the mat just made it quiet. How could you sleep knowing it was doing that? I guess you could think of it as guarding the door from other insects. I would have to really make some adjustments in my attitude to deal with these giant centipedes on any regular basis.
I was thinking he meant there were fertile grounds here for your imaginations. I know Lamby was growing some really poisonous creature in her house and then you probably have covered some horrific insects while doing home schooling.
It’s good to know I’m not alone .
Why are you picking on moths? Also, if earwigs get into your house I can assure that there are such vast numbers of them in my yard that squashing them will not affect their population numbers in any way. In fact, I really think there may be TOO MANY EARWIGS in the world. They fall on our heads when we open the door! I do appreciate your feeling that insects can be beneficial. Earwigs are beneficial to the soil, but I still think there are more than necessary once they start eating your plants to the point of destruction and you start finding them in your shower cap .
Glad I live in the UK…we only get big house spiders indoors in the Autumn (I quite like those!)
Your variety of “big game” would give me the screaming ab-dabs!
At the moment, it’s soooo wet over here, we’ve got slugs (big, slimy orange ones), at least 4.5 inches long! YUK!!! I sliiiiiid on one on the garden path yesterday. Not nice.
I have seen banana slugs out in British Columbia at 5-6". That’s some serious goosh when you step on one of those. I can well imagine Cass getting a few yards out of one.
Earwigs (along with lots of other garden nasties) can easily be trapped in a beer trap. You need a container with very steep sides, at least 10-12" tall. Bury it half way. Fill about a quarter full with beer (something cheap and tasteless that you wouldn’t drink yourself, like American beer). This will attract all manner of slugs, earwigs, and other creepy crawlies, who enter the trap drawn by the scent of the beer, but can’t get out and drown. Empty and reset as required.
Puss Caterpillar refers to cat-like form of caterpillar, perhaps. Asp refers to sting of caterpillar, is a local name used in Texas…Larvae to 30 mm.
30 mm is about one inch and a quarter. That’s a decent sized caterpillar but not huge. So what’s that black object in the video, like a table leg or something? it would have to be less than an inch across???
This is quite a mystery!!!
I had a medical entomology class with lots of ickies, but I don’t remember talking about this one.
I forgive you in turn. I imagine you haven’t sampled many of our beers. Here in San Diego, we have our fair share of regional breweries, including Karl Strauss, Stone Brewery and Gordon Biersch. A Canadian buddy of mine came down to San Diego last year and loved Biersch, he even took some back with him to Canada. And, man, this guy could drink.
I think the Bolivian Bug is a wonderful joke. The Bolivian Bug is crawling on the sidewalk—you can see the divisions in the cement. The black thing must be a post of some kind. I think the Bolivian Bug is at the very least one foot long. You can hear the traffic in the background too.
Puss caterpillars. The caterpillar at the left is fully grown;
the one at right is still developing, note the recently shed
(and still urticaceous) skin beside the larva.
These are videos of Puss caterpillars, Megalopyge opercularis–
"It is a Puss Caterpillar (Megalopyge opercularis) and the advice heard on the video of “Don’t touch it!” is VERY valid!
The puss caterpillar is considered to be near the top of the list of stinging caterpillars in terms of the severity of its sting.
These caterpillars have been called by several names, including puss caterpillar, wooly slugs, opossum bugs, tree asps, and, in Mexico, el perrito (little dog)."-------This person seems to think the one in the video is real, as do many others. This picture looks the most like the video, but it still looks quite different. This caterpillar is not crawling on a sidewalk. Those are floor tiles. The difference in the size of the Bolivia Bug and this caterpillar is huge.
Okay, so these don’t seem to be from Bolivia. What if there is a species that is just like the Bolivia Bug? Well, so far I have not been able to find it. I found a seemingly serious link for a site about Bolivia and here is what they said:
I have found absolutely no reference to the Bolivia Bug caterpillar which does not lead back to the video. I have found no picture that looks like the one in the video. I may be wrong and I think I am in the minority judging by what I have read, but I think it is a prank. I searched Snopes and there is nothing there. It will be interesting to see if more evidence presents itself one way or the other.
What fantastic catterpillars! I’ve never come accross them before. They’re beautiful (apart from the fact that they can sting!)…can’t call them wooly slugs 'though…slugs are just yyyyeeeauchhh!! (especially the orange and grey ones…OOooooo..my skin has gone all creepy, just thinking of them!)
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It took me quite a while of turning the lights on and off and hunting around until I finally looked down at my feet to discover a centipede going back and forth over this stupid plastic matt. I got rid of the matt and slept soundly after that.
I would imagine I’d have to inspect something else as well.. but you weren’t wearing them at the time. 
It would have scared the ummhum out of me. 
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