Originally Posted by Jerseygirl (Post 5048194)

Cicadas are blind...or almost blind...so they fly into you....ewwwwwwwwwwwwwww.

Originally Posted by Silly Sod (Post 5048182)

Truly amazing. I saw a doco on this years ago when I was a kid and have always remembered it. It helped towards me becoming an athiest and getting to grips with the idea of the 'biological imperative'. Now I am amazed that it is about to happen all around me. I will fu/ckin cringe when it happens lol, but I am going to be mailing home and telling everyone. I also saw one about a gang of big crabs in OZ or somehere. Don't fancy that!! :)

Originally Posted by Jerseygirl (Post 5048216)

I hate things that jump...crickets, jumping spiders, frogs. Praying Mantis also freak me out...they are huge..around 6" long. The worse thing is the way they can spin their head around. :blink:

Originally Posted by Adnams (Post 5048226)

Dadddy long legs!!! yeek yeek yeek

Originally Posted by Silly Sod (Post 5047360)

Help Michiganders!!!

I have just killed the biggest bee type creature I have ever seen in my life. It was in our yard when I pulled up and almost flew in the car widow. It seemed pissed right off by the car and kept dive bombing it. I ran away leaving the keys in the car. I had to attack it with a broom and it took some killing.

It is about an inch long dead, alive it looked as big as my thumb. I have googled it and am wondering if it could be a queen yellowjacket? A site I found said they tend to be half inch long while the queen is almost an inch (this is an inch at least). What I am wondering is - and this may sound dumb but I have a total phobia of bees and especially wasps and even more especially dinosaur sized wasps!!! - is there any way it's buddies could know it is dead and start looking for revenge or something, I mean like, do they give of any distress chemicals and stuff. I am sitting here shivering and imagining them crawling all over the house.

Anyway, anyone had experience of these gargangtuan monster insects and am I right to be fearful?

Originally Posted by TouristTrap (Post 5048373)

Y'all are such scaredy cats.

Come and live down here in Florida and face down your first Palmetto bug and then come and cry to me. Pfffffffttttttttttttt

Originally Posted by Adnams (Post 5047474)

Well do you have the devil black wasps? We get these great big enormous things here which look like a wasp but are the size of small childs arm I kid ye not and are all black. They are evil, the devils sporn.
We call them the stealth wasps. And all they ever do is fly straight at you. What the hell are those things?

Originally Posted by dinosaur (Post 5050123)

Those'll probably be some type of solitary wasp - we have them all over (am also in CT). My wife wants to kill them thinking they'll attack the kids, but the entomologist comes out in me when I see them - they're passive and pretty beneficial to the garden.
Would love to see one of these one day...

Originally Posted by Jerseygirl (Post 5048234)

The ones I call daddy long legs are really called crane flies. My husband calls those spiders with the tiny bodies and very long, thin legs daddy long legs.

Originally Posted by Jerseygirl (Post 5050148)

We often see what looks like a large wasp...about an inch long...but it's dark brown all over. Does anyone know what it is?