Winter Banter 24-25

[LibertyBell]

Some horrible person made this youtube video (I saw it years ago and not about to look for it now) in which he put a mouse and a giant centipede in a jar together and the little mouse looked so scared, as if his eyes were about to pop out of his head.  I would have locked that guy in a room with about 1000 of those nasty creatures.

 

[etudiant]

5 hours ago, LibertyBell said:

Meanwhile I'm trying to figure out ways to keep these giant carpenter bees out that enter my house every Spring.

I don't hurt them or anything. I just close the door and leave for an hour or two; when I come back, they're always gone.  They must be smart enough to know how to leave on their own.

 

Check your soffits, these bees were boring holes there and building their homes around my eaves. They are not colony minded, so each bee has its own hole. 

Al the end of a season, there are many holes.

[etudiant]

4 hours ago, Sundog said:

 

How do you feel about those 3 inch centipedes that like to live in the home?

They are a nuisance, but they do eat the various smaller creatures often found around the house, such as silverfish.

They are otherwise harmless, unlike their 8" plus tropical counterparts, which have a nasty bite.

[Sundog]

51 minutes ago, etudiant said:

They are a nuisance, but they do eat the various smaller creatures often found around the house, such as silverfish.

They are otherwise harmless, unlike their 8" plus tropical counterparts, which have a nasty bite.

I seem to have too many in my house for being a solitary predator.

Right around now or April I start to see them again and they peak in September before they pretty much disappear again around late October. 

They're also hideous looking. 

[etudiant]

44 minutes ago, Sundog said:

I seem to have too many in my house for being a solitary predator.

Right around now or April I start to see them again and they peak in September before they pretty much disappear again around late October. 

They're also hideous looking. 

Agree that they are really off putting to most of us. But they have their place, hopefully not in the kitchen or dining room.

They like dark spaces and they prey on other arthropods, spiders, roaches etc. If you get a surge of them in spring, it may be because your house is the best place for finding food, they may be getting rid of creepy crawlies you do not know about. However, if your garden and basement are damp, your house may simply be their lifeboat. They do not flourish when things are wet. 

[FPizz]

2 hours ago, Sundog said:

I seem to have too many in my house for being a solitary predator.

Right around now or April I start to see them again and they peak in September before they pretty much disappear again around late October. 

They're also hideous looking. 

I had a cave cricket in my house like 2 years ago.  It was terrifying lol

[Stormlover74]

3 minutes ago, FPizz said:

I had a cave cricket in my house like 2 years ago.  It was terrifying lol

Had those last year. They're freaky

[LibertyBell]

15 hours ago, etudiant said:

Check your soffits, these bees were boring holes there and building their homes around my eaves. They are not colony minded, so each bee has its own hole. 

Al the end of a season, there are many holes.

omg this is horrible.  I noticed these are solitary bees or they exist in pairs.  They first come to drink water from my gutters and somehow make it inside.  They're not attracted to any particular flower that I need to get rid of, are they?

 

[LibertyBell]

11 hours ago, FPizz said:

I had a cave cricket in my house like 2 years ago.  It was terrifying lol

Where do they come from? I don't think we have any caves around here.

I had a cricket in my house a few years ago, what's the difference between a regular cricket and a cave cricket?

 

[LibertyBell]

15 hours ago, etudiant said:

They are a nuisance, but they do eat the various smaller creatures often found around the house, such as silverfish.

They are otherwise harmless, unlike their 8" plus tropical counterparts, which have a nasty bite.

those tropical ones, OMG

I hope those don't come inside, I've seen them on my trips, but they were always outside and look like snakes.

I only see maybe one every 2-3 years but when I do, it's usually at night and don't get much sleep that night.

 

[FPizz]

1 hour ago, LibertyBell said:

Where do they come from? I don't think we have any caves around here.

I had a cricket in my house a few years ago, what's the difference between a regular cricket and a cave cricket?

 

Cave crickets are huge.

 

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhaphidophoridae

 

[LibertyBell]

5 hours ago, FPizz said:

Cave crickets are huge.

 

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhaphidophoridae

 

wow I'm glad I haven't seen one of those!

[etudiant]

11 hours ago, LibertyBell said:

omg this is horrible.  I noticed these are solitary bees or they exist in pairs.  They first come to drink water from my gutters and somehow make it inside.  They're not attracted to any particular flower that I need to get rid of, are they?

 

They don't do pairs, the females do all the work, the males are off duty once they have mated.

If you have standing water in your gutters, that is a problem, free water and nearby nest space, just takes a bit of digging. Food wise, they are not particular, think tree blossoms are preferred, more of them than the garden plants.

[etudiant]

11 hours ago, LibertyBell said:

those tropical ones, OMG

I hope those don't come inside, I've seen them on my trips, but they were always outside and look like snakes.

I only see maybe one every 2-3 years but when I do, it's usually at night and don't get much sleep that night.

 

Afaik, they are not attracted to household life, too little food.

But they do like trees, often find good sized meals there. I know people who had scolopenders drop on them, very unpleasant experience even disregarding the pain. 

[etudiant]

4 hours ago, LibertyBell said:

wow I'm glad I haven't seen one of those!

They are harmless, plus they don't make noise.

Still, you might worry if you have some rare tapestries stored in a damp basement, these guys will eat anything.

[LibertyBell]

12 hours ago, etudiant said:

Afaik, they are not attracted to household life, too little food.

But they do like trees, often find good sized meals there. I know people who had scolopenders drop on them, very unpleasant experience even disregarding the pain. 

These are prehistoric creatures, one of the first to walk on land (after amphibians.)  In ancient times these were even larger-- what a horror show.  I think animals were much larger back then because the oxygen content of the air was higher.

What do they eat?

[LibertyBell]

12 hours ago, etudiant said:

They are harmless, plus they don't make noise.

Still, you might worry if you have some rare tapestries stored in a damp basement, these guys will eat anything.

The generic crickets are very annoyingly noisy though it's been said you can gauge the temperature by timing the interval between their chirps.

 

[LibertyBell]

12 hours ago, etudiant said:

They don't do pairs, the females do all the work, the males are off duty once they have mated.

If you have standing water in your gutters, that is a problem, free water and nearby nest space, just takes a bit of digging. Food wise, they are not particular, think tree blossoms are preferred, more of them than the garden plants.

Yes I'm worried about it right now as we're getting more frequent rains.  I had my entire roof and drainage system replaced a few years ago, but it's still happening.

 

[etudiant]

1 hour ago, LibertyBell said:

These are prehistoric creatures, one of the first to walk on land (after amphibians.)  In ancient times these were even larger-- what a horror show.  I think animals were much larger back then because the oxygen content of the air was higher.

What do they eat?

Anything that they can catch, mostly other insects and spiders, but also worms and small lizards. Their poison helps dissolve the tissues of their prey, so it is easy to ingest.

I'd guess the big ones will take small mammals as well, although shrews predate them.

[etudiant]

2 hours ago, LibertyBell said:

Yes I'm worried about it right now as we're getting more frequent rains.  I had my entire roof and drainage system replaced a few years ago, but it's still happening.

 

Your gutters need realignement so they drain properly. That is not a big job, but should have been done when your roof was replaced.

You just have to make sure they slope down towards the downspouts, just a little is all it takes.

Usually the gutters have supports that screw into the fascia below the roof. Bending those appropriately will normally be enough to fix the problem.

Note that the problem often arises when snow and ice accumulate in the gutters. That adds considerable weight, which distorts the initial installation.

[STORMANLI]

The rule was 1/4" downward pitch for every 10 feet of gutter.

[Dark Star]

So is this pending Alaskan eruption being overblown?   (pun intended)

[LibertyBell]

3 hours ago, etudiant said:

Your gutters need realignement so they drain properly. That is not a big job, but should have been done when your roof was replaced.

You just have to make sure they slope down towards the downspouts, just a little is all it takes.

Usually the gutters have supports that screw into the fascia below the roof. Bending those appropriately will normally be enough to fix the problem.

Note that the problem often arises when snow and ice accumulate in the gutters. That adds considerable weight, which distorts the initial installation.

I think this is what happened!  Everything was fine in 2020 when the roof was redone and the gutters were installed.  

[LongBeachSurfFreak]

2 hours ago, Dark Star said:

So is this pending Alaskan eruption being overblown?   (pun intended)

Looks to be a rather small VEI 4 eruption of a side vent with a recurrence time of 50 years or so. Cool to watch but a very small climate effect. The main cone has a recurrence time of something like 5,000 years and I would think would be much larger VEI 5 or 6.

[forkyfork]

it's cute seeing people on edge about a possible warm day in march