jimenato

Be careful - those roof wasps are very aggressive. I was on a roof last year with my mate fixing some tiles and one flew straight at me and stung me on the earlobe. I immediately started itching from my head from my toes and had to sit down for half an hour. The sting itself didn't actually hurt much but it had this weird effect on my whole body. My mate was getting a bit worried but after half an hour or so I was back to normal.

bil

There's a nice distinction. I fear tho that the distinction between the meanings there is being eroded to the point where they are becoming effectively synonyms.

There's a powerful isecticide spray like a small fire extinguisher, if you know what I mean. I forgot I had it to be honest. Next time I will give them a good blast of that.

jay01

Many thanks for the replies , as it was in the house I dispatched the one that had moved in and I will also deal with any of his friends or relatives as was mentioned it's bite may not be life threatening to humans but to the animals and small children I am not taking the chance, the flying thing is dealt with by using a swat to guide it back out of the window/door and briskly shut behind it so it gets the idea I do not want it .

Chiclanagir

We had a similar wasp but with the two joined bodies kept flying in to the kitchen every time it seemed to head for my >OH´s golf hats. I said he ought to check them and in one found a large mud nest on the inside of the hat. Now if he had put it on!

bil

He might have got some dirt in his hair. It's an ichneumon wasp, and I don't think they sting. It has a very long waist so the abdomen trails waayy behind. That's why it looks like two bodies.

Chiclanagir

Sounds like a song! I am afraid I don´t like any insect that flies. After a scary episode as a child when I got a pet mouse and hid it in the wardrobe. My mother found it and made me take it back to the pet shop but forgot about all the food and bedding which was still in the wardrobe. Woke up one night to the sound of fluttering and there were hundreds (well definitely felt like it) of giant elephant moths flying around my bedroom. I freaked out and still do.

bil

Giant elephant moths? What had you been smoking?

My daughter won't touch prawns. I like them a lot, and we were having a meal, and without thinking I stacked all the dozens of heads into a neat 'wall'. Apparantly the sight of all those eyes looking at her put her off for life....

megmet

It's the ants that freak me out after waking up one morning with my big toe hurting.....only to find a large carpenter ant was busy cutting a semi circle out of my nail, it took six months for it to grow back again.

fionamw

What's a carpenter ant? Is it a relation of the carpenter bee or is Spain's insect population strongly into woodwork? (which we knew already from the destructive powers of all things creepy crawly)

megmet

Take a look at this link, it tells you all about them...and no they are not anything to do with the carpenter bees which I find rather pretty.
http://www.extension.umn.edu/distrib...ng/dk1015.html

Chiclanagir

I was about 10 years old at the time - haven´t you seen elephant moths - google them. Very scary creatures especially in the middle of the night,

Domino

this all reminds me of my first visit to Singapore aged 17yrs + 1month.
my first night I woke up because of rustling noises - 2 chitchats (gecko's) running around the rafters of the room

the next morning i was told about the large snake that lived in the hole under a tree we had to pass every day ..............

megmet

I killed a snake on our terrace last week.....I don't mind it they stay amongst the olive trees, but if they venture near the house they have to go!

dunmovin

Snakes I don´t have a problem with as they help keep down the rat and mice population (maybe that´s because I lived in Hong Kong for a long time and regularly found cobras, pit vipers, banded kraits and the odd python in the garden) Here,we´ve had three vipers, a montpellier, an asp and one unkown species that dropped in through the cooker hood. Only one had to exterminate(it got too close to the dog). It´s the scrorpions and centipedes that freak me

with snakes, a commonn mistake is thinking that they can hear sound.... wrong. They are deaf, but feel vibration in the ground and want to avoid you as much as you want to avoid them. So if you think there is a snake nearby or hiding in a place you want to go, thump the ground with something. It will go away... try thumping the snake and it will do exactly what you don´t want it to do... defend itself

bil

Don't kill them. They have a hard enough life as it is, they do no harm, and they do a lot of good.