| Bugs are freakin' awesome.
Posted: 7/10/2009 10:13:12 AM | My back yard has been infested with gigantic dragonflies. I took these pictures a while ago. I have no idea where some of the colours came from, they only showed up on the camera image - to my eye, these were plain, dark brown dragonflies.
http://upload.0x1011.org/files/bigbug.jpg
http://upload.0x1011.org/files/rlybigbug.jpg
Nature is so awesome sometimes. | |
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| Bugs are freakin' awesome.
Posted: 7/10/2009 3:32:47 PM | Darnit, I'm doing something wrong, I can't see the pictures and I'd love to. 
Nature rocks! Some of it grosses me out, some of it scares me to death, but most of it is absolutely beautiful! | |
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| Bugs are freakin' awesome.
Posted: 7/10/2009 6:19:32 PM | I do like dragonflies, butterflies, and ladybugs. The iridescence of the dragonfly wings are beautiful but they have to be seen in a certain light. I also like praying mantises.
I admit that they are amazing creatures and I like watching the science shows about them. But, I still don't want them on me or in my house.
My son does macro photography and has a lot of very cool photos of different bugs.
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| Bugs are freakin' awesome.
Posted: 7/10/2009 7:15:02 PM | bugs, spiders and creepy crawlies are neat, except when they catch me off gaurd (like on my body or really close).
I had brought in a bunch of plants from my balcony and the next day I was on the couch when I spotted a big fat green catapillar beside me, about and inch and a half long and almost as fat as a dime in diameter. Took a couple seconds to un-freak out, then I took him downstairs and outside. | |
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| Bugs are freakin' awesome.
Posted: 7/10/2009 7:43:25 PM | I totally get that. I have a pet garter snake in my garden and my kat, Frank Sinatra, likes to play with it. Back to bugs....I love bees but I had to plug up a hole in the bricks once I found out they were hornets and they were stinging Sinatra in the eye. It took awhile to figure that out. I love all bugs. When I see a spider in the house I escort it outside. My son called me in to his dad's place to spy the biggest moth we have ever seen. It was as big as a small bat. Beautiful...a peacock feather design on it. My son has even eaten chocolate covered beetles, ants and worms at the insectarium. I am not sure about that one for myself though...LOL.  | |
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| Bugs are freakin' awesome.
Posted: 7/10/2009 8:37:20 PM | actualizing,
Was the moth green with "eye spots" on its wings? If so, it was a Luna Moth. It is so cool to get to see those and they ARE huge. | |
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| Bugs are freakin' awesome.
Posted: 7/10/2009 11:34:38 PM | Bugs are freakin' awesome? Man you don't have my job. I've been out in the brush kinda surveying and I've had just about enough of them dang bugs. Got a tick bite so big it looked like a third boob. Had a spider bite swell up like golf ball, saw him do it. Big flies, small flies, biting flies and about 14 breads of nats. I swear flies aim for your eyes and ears. Walked through a bees nest, didn't get stung but thats the fastest I've ran in years. Inch worms, slugs, ants and little green things. Mosquitoes sucked a quart of blood out of me the other day. I get back to my Motorhome and litteraly shake out my clothes and do a tick check before gettin in the shower.
Don't get me wrong I love my job, but bugs suck. Now in my opinion its Mammals are freakin' awesome, other than a bear that had me a little spooked.
Did see a cool dragon fly the other day, it was trying to mate with another dragon fly, should've took a picture. | |
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| Bugs are freakin' awesome.
Posted: 7/10/2009 11:58:22 PM | You know those pictures come up quick and they are big, good pics too. I need to learn that trick.
Something else about bugs. Y'all ever heard that the number of bees has been going down dramaticly? I got a theory. Simply look at the front of my truck. I couldn't imagine the number of bees and other bugs that are killed daily by vehicles. How fast do those things reproduce anyhow. | |
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| Bugs are freakin' awesome.
Posted: 7/11/2009 12:59:18 AM | | I have seen all kinds of dragon-flys. Green and blue are the most "common" one's I see, but have seen pink, purple, brown, gold, etc. Not just "hints" of these colors. I mean neon-bright. To the naked eye. Awesome stuff! | |
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| Bugs are freakin' awesome.
Posted: 7/11/2009 7:41:39 AM | Yeah...my daughter is a bug freak. She took a bottle of tent catapillars home in a jar...which had the air holes just a bit too big. You know how many caterpillars there are in one of those small tents? Anyhow's....her room was filled with the buggers. Her mother was none too pleased...so the rule now is "No Bugs in the House!"
All kinds of odd ones out there...formt he small to the large. They inhabit a wide range of territory too. | |
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| Bugs are freakin' awesome.
Posted: 7/11/2009 11:07:30 AM | I do admit that bugs can be awful also. While visiting the Australian outback I could NOT step outside without at least a hundred flies on you trying to get into my eyes, ears and mouth. They were searching for moisture. Had to buy a fly net that is worn over the whole head down to the shoulders under the hat, which needs to be worn so not to get sun stroke. It got so I didn't step out of my vehicle unless I had both on. Not a good fashion statement.
I've also had spider bites that were pretty tough. Went to the hospital for one that had left a huge swelling on my whole shin. The doctor asked me if I'd been bitten by a snake! But with antibiotics, I was fine. Thank goodness it wasn't a black widow or brown recluse.
My uncle, a real joker, used to call Dragonflies, Darning Needles and when I was young he'd warn me by saying, "Be careful, they'll sew up your lips." I believed him! LOL
But, we would not have plants nor other animals without bugs. If we lose the bees we are going to be in serious trouble since they pollinate most of our food plants. | |
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| Bugs are freakin' awesome.
Posted: 7/11/2009 6:07:00 PM | Was the moth green with "eye spots" on its wings? If so, it was a Luna Moth. It is so cool to get to see those and they ARE huge.
THANKS SO MUCH STARSSTUFF!! I saw a luna moth!!! That's so freakin' awesome! You are brilliant. I can't wait to tell my son!!! Yes, it was greenish with eye spots on its wings and it was huge!!! Wow!!!
Oh and OP....those pics you took are AWESOME!!! I love them!!! DOUBLE WOW!! | |
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| Bugs are freakin' awesome.
Posted: 7/11/2009 7:53:58 PM |
Bugs are freakin' awesome? Man you don't have my job. I've been out in the brush kinda surveying and I've had just about enough of them dang bugs. Got a tick bite so big it looked like a third boob. Had a spider bite swell up like golf ball, saw him do it. Big flies, small flies, biting flies and about 14 breads of nats. I swear flies aim for your eyes and ears. Walked through a bees nest, didn't get stung but thats the fastest I've ran in years. Inch worms, slugs, ants and little green things. Mosquitoes sucked a quart of blood out of me the other day. I get back to my Motorhome and litteraly shake out my clothes and do a tick check before gettin in the shower.
When I lived in Africa as a child, I became host to some kind of fly larvae a few times. That was pretty gross. However I certainly didn't mind the three shots of whiskey I got every time it happened to dull the pain. | |
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| Bugs are freakin' awesome.
Posted: 7/11/2009 8:06:58 PM | Dragonflies are neat. Excellent pics! Those don't look too giant compared to some I've seen.
Today I saved a few beetles from drowning in the pool. Some I was too late. Shame is, they have a tendency to end up back in there anyway. I have tons of mosquito bites lately so you won't see me saving any mosquitoes, but generally speaking I do love nature and if I find something inside will try to put it outside, where it belongs. Hate it when a bug or a lizard just won't cooperate though.
I noticed the flies love it when we barbecue so gotta watch out for them getting in the house... as I've noticed they love the fresh doggie poopie too. I bet they have pretty colors too, though, under the camera lens. | |
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| Bugs are freakin' awesome.
Posted: 7/11/2009 9:00:18 PM | I love nature and that includes bats and rodents and snakes and bugs of all kinds, they just facinate me but it's hard not to love a dragonfly!
I'll kill a bug especially a fly, flea tick or roach but even a spider(LOVE spiders) if it's where it shouldn't be.
I'm on day shift now, so the little critters are seen much less by me. I miss y kangaroo rat that would jump on my boot toes and sit and stare at me until I bent down to give it some seeds. He started out grabbing and running to hide his seeds, now he sits in my hand and eats until he's full and then he packs off the rest to his hole. No one else who gets posted at this spot has seen him so tame and he comes when I call, it's just amazing how much intelligence and personality is packed into something so small. | |
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| Bugs are freakin' awesome.
Posted: 7/11/2009 9:15:58 PM | | and to all those who attract mosquitos and flies, I use a zinc heavy ointment that I get in Mexico and discovered that it also repelled all kinds of biting bugs, it wasn't the zinc, though, it was the oil of sassafrass in it. I think sassafras is still banned in the states from way back when sarsasparilla root farmers were battling with sassassfras root farmers for profits in root beer. Sarsasparilla farmers lobbied best and won. To y knowledge, there's nothing toxic about sassasfras. Mosquitos cloud around you but don't land. I was at a creek with my kids in OK and people were slapping themselves and spraying DEET and other crap on their skin to no avail and finally the kids and I had the creek to ourselves. The mosquitos were so thick that fish were jumping out to bite them but we were never touched, and the zinc kept us from being sunburnt, too. | |
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| Bugs are freakin' awesome.
Posted: 7/12/2009 6:47:25 AM | | I'm going to look for something like that but doesn't zinc leave a thick white coating on the skin? I get bit when taking my dog out and I hate using the chemicals. I remember hearing Avon skin-so-soft is a repellent as well, but I don't have that either. | |
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| Bugs are freakin' awesome.
Posted: 7/12/2009 7:54:48 AM | Saw a dragonfly embedded in amber for sale on that e-bay site. Lots of bugs there.
I was paddling a canoe one fine day and got a bunch of weeds up. There was a "stick" about 4 inches long clinging to it...a bug. I almost freaked, never having seen anything like it. I once saw a "land crab" in the driveway. And a huge housefly...thought it was a rubber joke one until it flew off. Found out later it was a "Texas fly" released by the gov't in droves to help keep the regular fly population down. They couldn't survive the Canadian winter and died off the first year, as they were supposed to. Anyone remember a couple years back when they released a lot of lady bugs that sucked blood? Those were freaky!
We've seen green, blue and large grey coloured dragon flies around here. Even a rose coloured species.
I've seen guys swiping those large "butterfly nets" in the long weeds in the ditches and coming up with all kinds of specimens around here. | |
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| Bugs are freakin' awesome.
Posted: 7/12/2009 1:03:42 PM | I love nature. Lived in Northern Ontario for 5 years and when black fly season came there would be literally hundreds of dragonflies in the yard eating them.You could stand outside and the dragonflies would buzz around you eating them right in front of your face.Many would land on you and you could see them clipping the wings and such just like scissors.I think they were introduced in volume some years ago to combat some type of japanese beetle that was introduced to combat ladybugs and so on.LOL | |
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| Bugs are freakin' awesome.
Posted: 7/12/2009 6:58:56 PM | | Yes, Nature is pretty cool. I wonder how many people know that both leeches and maggots are commonly used today [and raised] specifically for medical purposes? They are simply BETTER for helping bloodflow and cleaning wounds than anything man can come up with. And if I were to tell you how many mosquitos just ONE draagonfly could eat... hard to believe. And roaches, like alligators, horshoe crabs and many other creatures, have not changed much in millions of years simply becasuse they are so well designed for their mission. Of course roaches can and do adapt relatively quickly to man's latest and greatest poisons. Simply amazing how loud one tree can get when bugs [katydids?] are in their mating period. And what about Locusts - the sheer numbers are another bug "miracle" when they swarm. | |
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| Bugs are freakin' awesome.
Posted: 7/12/2009 7:07:44 PM | read a "laugh novel" about an exterminator who cross bred various bugs to eat roaches, and started an "all natural" extermination service. (Of course some folks took it wrong and tried to hire him as a hitman...which is where the laugh parts come in.) But it was interesting.
Wonder if the "ant farm" is still something kids would be interested in? I know one of mine would be....stupid butterflies were whinging around my head today as I was berry picking. Wish they'd bugger off at times...I didn't call them! When I do, I expect them to show up in droves...as usual! | |
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| Bugs are freakin' awesome.
Posted: 7/12/2009 9:00:43 PM |
I get bit when taking my dog out and I hate using the chemicals. I remember hearing Avon skin-so-soft is a repellent as well, but I don't have that either.
Hallie: I read somewhere that if you put a few of those scented dryer sheets in your pockets and on your person that the mosquitoes and other biting insects will stay away from you. You could try that....just a suggestion.
I, personally, take garlic pills and for some reason, when I take them regularly, the bugs stay away from me. LOL (at least people don't...ha ha)
~~Beth~~ | |
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| Bugs are freakin' awesome.
Posted: 7/12/2009 9:59:24 PM | | Beth, thanks for the suggestion, I don't buy the scented dryer sheets but maybe I should. I did hear eating garlic or taking the capsules repels but I do eat a lot of garlic and that doesn't seem to "deter" those pesky skeeters. | |
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| Bugs are freakin' awesome.
Posted: 7/13/2009 4:51:17 PM | | Wear white.Black flies and mosquitoes don't like it.They love black, blue and other dark clours.Also they love scents like perfume,deodorant,soap etc.So if you're camping or cottaging wear white and stay away from scents.I use to cut down the brush at the cottage we had right in the middle of black fly season and i've tried everything from bounce sheets,skin so soft,muskol and none of it really works where it made a difference.I guess after getting bit so much i just got use to it. | |
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