Dear Bug Girl....

[bug_girl]

Worst. Roommate. Ever.

I know. She's completely unreasonable.
She also doesn't like the assorted dead small animals i have stored in the freezer until the next visit to the museum. I mean, it's just a woodpecker, a ground squirrel, and 10 or 15 vials and baggies of insects. It's in a cardboard box.......so they won't get crushed by any stray Lean Cuisine.

 

[Benguin]

Squirrel kebabs. yummy.

 

[richardm]

I've got a question. Whenever I'm walking outside, bees start to chase me. After walking about a kilometer, I'll have about 6 bees following me, and that number will slowly increase. They fly around my head, land in my hair and on my neck, and are pretty annoying. I can outrun them, but I tire first, and then they're back to bugging )) me. Why would they do that, and how can I stop them?

Could it be that you wash your clothes with washing powder that contains an optical whitener? Sometimes these fluoresce and might resemble the same cues that flowers give off.

 

[Oleron]

Freaky bug story, ending in a question...

I was lying in bed the other night when I heard a distinct squeaking noise, followed by a scratching noise.
I immediately thought of mice and leapt out of bed, arming myself with one of my wifes slippers (you didn't expect me to use one of my own did you?)

I hunted for a few minutes but the noise had stopped and I was about to give up when the noise restarted - it seemed to be coming from some sheets of paper that had fallen down the side of the bedside table.

I shuffled through the paper, fully expecting a mouse to come charging out but nothing happened. One of the sheets of paper had curled in on itself when it fell, forming a cone shape. Inside the cone was a beetle about half an inch long and pure black.

The scratching noise was simply the beetle running across the paper surface, amplified by the 'megaphone'- shaped paper. But what about the squeaking noise? I didn't think beetles could squeak, except maybe those big scary critters in the Amazon or something. This was just an ordinary beetle, as far as I know.
Anyway I stood on it and went back to bed.

Can beetles squeak (no Paul McCartney jokes please) or was I imagining it?

 

[exarch]

Originally posted by Wiseman
I've got a question. Whenever I'm walking outside, bees start to chase me. After walking about a kilometer, I'll have about 6 bees following me, and that number will slowly increase. They fly around my head, land in my hair and on my neck, and are pretty annoying. I can outrun them, but I tire first, and then they're back to bugging )) me. Why would they do that, and how can I stop them?

Stop using fruit-scented shampoo ?

Actually, there's a very funny commercial on TV here about a woman sitting at a table outside a cafe, and she has to keep chasing away a wasp circling around her mouth. The commercial is for fruit-flavored condoms

[/Derail]

 

[bug_girl]

Squirrel kebabs. yummy.

no, the squirrel is not for eating. I no longer live in Texas
After the first spring thaw, i usually have several birds and small mammals under the snow. I save them and take them to a museum at a local small college. They either add them to their collection or use them to train students for exhibits.

 

[bug_girl]

Freaky bug story, ending in a question...
Inside the cone was a beetle about half an inch long and pure black.
But what about the squeaking noise? I didn't think beetles could squeak, except maybe those big scary critters in the Amazon or something. This was just an ordinary beetle, as far as I know.
Anyway I stood on it and went back to bed.

Can beetles squeak (no Paul McCartney jokes please) or was I imagining it?

Yes, several beetles squeak. Was your beetle shiny, like black patent leather shoes, by any chance?

 

[Dragonrock]

no, the squirrel is not for eating. I no longer live in Texas

Hey! I resemble that remark! Every Texan knows that the only roadkill that's fer eatin' is armadillo.

 

[Oleron]

Yes, several beetles squeak. Was your beetle shiny, like black patent leather shoes, by any chance?

Yes, a shiny wee critter.

(Hope you're not going to tell me it was a floorboard-eating beetle and my whole house is about to collapse!)

 

[bug_girl]

oops, wait a minute. when you said "wee critter" it made me look at your location, which is slightly out of my home range.
I was thinking you had one of these:

http://www.fcps.k12.va.us/StratfordLandingES/Ecology/mpages/patent-leather_beetle.htm

which are harmless, since while they may come into a building in lumber, they rarely set up a colony. And they do squeak

I have no clue what squeaky irish beetles there might be.