Wapsi Square Forum

So to save you going to the trouble of certain responses to the question i'm about to ask - i already know it's a big ugly bug.
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What is this thing?

(I failed to get actual dimensions - though i suppose i could do some math on the original images, but i'm lazy. However, i'm pretty sure it's over two inches - maybe two-and-a-half - from the tip of that lower leg to that higher antenna.)

It freaked the girls out.

AnotherFairportfan wrote:So to save you going to the trouble of certain responses to the question i'm about to ask - i already know it's a big ugly bug.
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What is this thing?

(I failed to get actual dimensions - though i suppose i could do some math on the original images, but i'm lazy. However, i'm pretty sure it's over two inches - maybe two-and-a-half - from the tip of that lower leg to that higher antenna.)

It freaked the girls out.

A Leaf-footed bug, family Coreidae, subfamily Coreinae, from what I found on the interwebs. They are around my place in Texas, some call them "stink bugs". Not having squashed one or had other unpleasant encounter, I cannot vouch for the "stink" name. They are interesting looking, like something out of Starship Troopers!

I thought of stink bugs, but what we normally call "stink bug" around here is a lot smaller and a different shape.

As to the name - they love blackberries when they're ripe, and if you're picking blackberries and don't carefully examine each one before you put it in your mouth...

He (or she) probably feels the same way about us.

"Yes, I know it's a big ugly bald ape. I didn't get the actual dimensions, but it looked a little less than two meters tall. Does anyone know what it is, though?"

"It's a Homo sapiens. They're all over the place. Some call em humans. Don't irritate them, they might step on you."

"The things will eat anything. I once saw one eat a chunk of rotten milk! Can you imagine how they taste?"

"Eeewww."

"Meh. They probably feel about the same about us."

I'm not sure what happened, I wrote a post here earlier but I guess I only hit preview and not submit?
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Hansontoons wrote:They are around my place in Texas, some call them "stink bugs". Not having squashed one or had other unpleasant encounter, I cannot vouch for the "stink" name.

Yeah, who knows if they really stink or not. People aren't always accurate in their naming. It annoys me when they call cockroaches "waterbugs". Here is a picture I took of a real water bug that was in a hotel swimming pool in Mexico a few years ago.

This is more or less what we refer to as a stink bug 'round here ("'round here" being SC, GA and AL, at least):



They run 1/2 to 1 inch, usually.

(I think this fellow may be a "brown marmorated stink bug", which is apparently an invasive species that only hit this country about 1990 - while they're apparently becoming a serious nuisance as they spread, i can promise you we had stink bugs before 1990, also.)

That looks a lot like the stink bugs in central Illinois, too. I dunno how the by ugly bug is a stink bug too. Must be a wide range of species in that family or genus.

I remember from the Golden insect guide we had as kids that there are native stinkbugs, but am not sure I've ever seen one.

Brown marmorated stink bugs, I've seen. Probably are a few lurking in the corners here right now. They're everywhere.

It's worse outside of town. Some people can sweep them off the porch like snow after the crops are harvested.

Typeminer wrote:Brown marmorated stink bugs, I've seen.

Pesky in quantity, I don't doubt... but what a wonderful name!

There ought to be something we could do with the idea of murmering marmorated stinkbugs marinating marmots in Marmite, but I'm not sure what.

Dave wrote:

Typeminer wrote:Brown marmorated stink bugs, I've seen.

Pesky in quantity, I don't doubt... but what a wonderful name!

There ought to be something we could do with the idea of murmering marmorated stinkbugs marinating marmots in Marmite, but I'm not sure what.

[padawan]There is much I have yet to learn, master.[/padawan] the best I could come up with was the beginnings of a mammary pun or something.

I pulled a great big ol' fat grey tick off the neighbor's dog yesterday. (She acts like she'd rather be 'our' dog...)

I had it in the bottom of a stainless steel bowl while I doused it w/ 91% alcohol, which didn't seem to phase it.

So I went and got the 151 proof stuff; that did the trick alright.

Trouble is, now that I go to upload the picture off of the phone, it's all catywampus and cant find it in the folder...

Yeah, 151'll do that.

TazManiac wrote:I pulled a great big ol' fat grey tick off the neighbor's dog yesterday. (She acts like she'd rather be 'our' dog...)

I had it in the bottom of a stainless steel bowl while I doused it w/ 91% alcohol, which didn't seem to phase it.

So I went and got the 151 proof stuff; that did the trick alright.

Trouble is, now that I go to upload the picture off of the phone, it's all catywampus and cant find it in the folder...

Uh - 151 proof is only 75% alcohol.

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In case you're interested - proof (properly "gunpowder proof") was assessed by soaking black powder with the alcoholic beverage in question and setting light to it.

If it burned steadily and quietly with a clear blue flame, that was 100 proof - 50% alcohol.

So 91% alcohol would be 182 proof.

Y'know what also works at killing tics? A microwave. Or fire. Or a hammer. Or a car battery and some jumper cables.

Why use alcohol?

GlytchMeister wrote:Y'know what also works at killing tics? A microwave. Or fire. Or a hammer. Or a car battery and some jumper cables.

Why use alcohol?

Have you ever tried fitting a whole dog in a microwave?

shadowinthelight wrote:

GlytchMeister wrote:Y'know what also works at killing tics? A microwave. Or fire. Or a hammer. Or a car battery and some jumper cables.

Why use alcohol?

Have you ever tried fitting a whole dog in a microwave?

TazManiac wrote:I had it in the bottom of a stainless steel bowl while I doused it w/ 91% alcohol, which didn't seem to phase it.

Sounds like he already had the tick removed...

Unless the 91% was rubbing alcohol, and the 151 was booze. Different alcohols act differently.

Whaaaa, I had pictures and everything, ...

Damn Tick was huge, and grey (shudder).

I poured Rubbing Alcohol over it, it's label says 91%. (When purchased I was looking for the highest 'proof' I could get from the chain drug store...).

The drinking Alcohol was some nasty ol' Trader Vic's 151 proof, which I understand proof = a scale of 200 percent...
The tick was in the plain stuff of higher concentration still wiggeling it's legs. Unsatisfied I pour a jigger's worth on top of it and the resulting concoction was enough to make it stop moving.

By early AM it had been pickled, but I left it outside in the hot sun all day and everything evaporated. Then my buddy tossed the darkened and reduced in size corpse in the compost pile. "Aw, man, I was going to cut it open!..."

Frack. Cell phone dumped the picture gallery during data rescue operations...