Yikes.

Tarantula Hawks

Ack! And, Ick!

When practical jokes go horribly, horribly wrong.

It's kind of long, but you can skip to 5:20.

From Scootersville!

Camel Spider

Audio NSFW

Today In - 'Useless Info'

'Crickets chirp at different rates depending on their species and the temperature of their environment.

Most species chirp at higher rates the higher the temperature is (approx. 60 chirps a minute at 13°C in one common species; each species has its own rate).

The relationship between temperature and the rate of chirping is known as Dolbear's Law.

In fact, according to this law, it is possible to calculate the temperature in Fahrenheit by adding 40 to the number of chirps produced in 15 seconds by the snowy tree cricket common in the United States.'

Crickets

Good to know.

Sucks to be a flea: Vacuums destroy itchy bugs

Study shows housekeeper's tool takes fleas on a one-way whirlwind trip

'Many a housekeeper has long wondered if vacuuming is sufficient to get rid of fleas. Finally, a study shows vacuuming is indeed an effective weapon.

Experiments conducted by Ohio State University researchers on the cat flea (Ctenocephalides felis)—the most common type of flea plaguing companion animals, such as dogs and cats, and humans—showed that vacuuming killed fleas in all stages of life.

Fleas have multiple life stages: Adults suck the blood of their host and females lay eggs on them. The eggs roll off onto the floor, furniture or pet bedding and hatch two to 14 days later. The insects go through three larval stages, the last of which spins into a cocoon to protect the pupa stage. New adults typically emerge within a week or two.

The OSU study, partially funded by the Royal Appliance Manufacturing Co. and detailed in a recent issue of the journal Entomologica Experimentalis et Applicata, involved vacuuming up groups of 100 adult fleas at a time, as well as groups of 50 pupae and 50 larvae, from a tightly woven kitchen-type carpet.

Six tests on the adult fleas killed an average of 96 percent of adult fleas, and the three tests of pupae and one test of larvae resulted in the deaths of all the fleas.

Study team member Glen Needham and his colleagues are researching non-toxic ways to kill insects, because though bug bombs have sent fleas on the run, the fleas could develop resistance to these chemicals.

Needham thinks that the brushes, fans and powerful air currents of vacuum cleaners are what's responsible for killing the itchy insects. Needham and his colleagues have suggested that the vacuum brushes wear away the cuticle, a waxy outer layer on fleas and most insects that holds water in and keeps them hydrated. Without this protective layer, the adults, larvae and pupae probably dry up and die, Needham said.

"We didn't do a post-mortem, so we don't know for sure," Needham added. "But it appears that the physical abuse they took caused them to perish."

Though the study used only one model of upright vacuum, Needham says that most vacuums will probably wipe out the insects.

"No matter what vacuum a flea gets sucked into, it's probably a one-way trip," he said.'

Lovely

New crippling virus spreading worldwide

Scientists link rise of mosquito-borned Chikungunya to global warming

'WASHINGTON - A new virus called the Chikungunya virus, which causes painful and sometimes crippling symptoms, has spread to several new countries in the past year because it has found a new species of mosquito to carry it, researchers said on Friday.

A single mutation allowed the virus to infect the Asian tiger mosquito — which itself is spreading to many more countries in Europe and North America, the researchers said.

“This mutation increases the potential for Chikungunya virus to permanently extend its range into Europe and the Americas,” Stephen Higgs and colleagues at the University of Texas Medical Branch wrote in their report, published in the Public Library of Science journal PLoS Pathogens.

This is especially true if average temperatures continue to rise with global warming, they wrote. The virus caused outbreaks in India and Italy this year.'

Reminds me of a dream I had once.

There were these huge mutant scorpions on Earth and occasionally people would have to defend themselves against them. They mostly kept to themselves, but occasionally one would wander in to a city and cause havoc. It reminded me of Starship Troopers, but set in today's world.

Scientists find fossil of super-sized bug

Sea scorpion, which measured 8 feet long, was once world's biggest bug

'LONDON - This was a bug that you'd have to look up to and definitely couldn't step on.

British scientists have stumbled across a fossilized claw, part of an ancient sea scorpion, that is of such large proportion it would make the entire creature the biggest bug ever.

How big? Bigger than you, about 2.5 meters, or 8 feet, long.

The discovery in 390-million-year-old rocks also suggests that spiders, insects, crabs and similar creatures were much larger in the past than previously thought, said Simon Braddy, a paleontologist from the University of Bristol and one of the study's three authors.

"This is an amazing discovery," Braddy said Tuesday.

"We have known for some time that the fossil record yields monster millipedes, super-sized scorpions, colossal cockroaches and jumbo dragonflies. But we never realized until now just how big some of these ancient creepy-crawlies were," he said.

The research found a type of sea scorpion that was almost half a meter longer than previous estimates and the largest one ever to have evolved.

The study, published online Tuesday in the Royal Society's journal Biology Letters, also means that before this sea scorpion became extinct it was much longer than today's average man is tall.

Prof. Jeorg W. Schneider, a paleontologist at Freiberg Mining Academy in southeastern Germany, praised the study, saying it provides new information about how big the ancient scorpions became.

"These 2.5-meter ones were the last of the giant scorpions," said Schneider, who was not involved in the study. "These scorpions were dominant for millions of years because they didn't have natural enemies. Eventually they were wiped out by large fish with jaws and teeth."

Braddy's partner paleontologist Markus Poschmann found the claw fossil several years ago in a quarry near Prum, Germany, that probably had once been an ancient estuary or swamp.

"I was loosening pieces of rock with a hammer and chisel when I suddenly realized there was a dark patch of organic matter on a freshly removed slab. After some cleaning I could identify this as a small part of a large claw," said Poschmann, another author of the study.

"Although I did not know if it was more complete or not, I decided to try and get it out. The pieces had to be cleaned separately, dried and then glued back together. It was then put into a white plaster jacket to stabilize it," he said.

Eurypterids, or ancient sea scorpions, are believed to be the extinct aquatic ancestors of today's scorpions and possibly all arachnids, a class of joint-legged, invertebrate animals, including spiders, scorpions, mites and ticks.

In an interview, Braddy said the fossil was from a Jaekelopterus Rhenaniae, a kind of scorpion that lived only in Germany for about 10 million years, about 400 million years ago.

He said some geologists believe that gigantic sea scorpions evolved due to higher levels of oxygen in the atmosphere in the past. Others suspect they evolved in an "arms race" alongside their likely prey, fish that had armor on their outer bodies.

Braddy said the sea scorpions also were cannibals that fought and ate one other, so it helped to be as big as they could be.

"The competition between this scorpion and its prey was probably like a nuclear standoff, an effort to have the biggest weapon," he said. "Hundreds of millions of years ago, these sea scorpions had the upper hand over vertebrates — backboned animals like ourselves."

That competition ended a long time ago.

But Braddy said the next time you swat a fly or squish a spider at home "think about the insects that lived long ago. You wouldn't want to swat one of those."'

Why I hate being stung by a bee.

This picture [it's pretty grody so be warned] is why I try to avoid being stung.

I'm not allergic, but I always develop a fever when I do get stung.

Super Grody

Definitely not for the squeamish.

A woman gets a maggot removed from her head.

Ick.

Larvae take up residence on man's head

'CARBONDALE (AP) - One doctor thought the bleeding, strange bumps on Aaron Dallas' head might have been a gnat bite.

A specialist thought it was shingles, though both doctors held out the possibility that it was something far more disturbing.

Then the bumps started moving.

A doctor found five bot fly larvae living on Dallas' head, near the top of his skull that a few weeks after a mosquito apparently placed them there, had become active.

"I'd put my hand back there and feel them moving. I thought it was blood coursing through my head," said Dallas.

"I could hear them. I actually thought I was going crazy."

Dallas said he likely received the larval infestation while on a trip to Belize this summer.

Adult bot flies are hairy and look like bees, without bristles. One type, dermatobia hominis, attacks livestock, deer, and humans.

Mosquitoes, stable flies and other insects are used by female bot flies to carry their eggs to the host, where in this case it was Dallas.

"It was weird and traumatic," said Dallas, of Carbondale. "I would get this pain that would drop me to my knees."

After a specialist told him he may have shingles, Dallas tried different creams and salves. But the pain got worse, so Dallas returned to Dr. Kimball Spence.

"When I saw him again, it was pretty obvious something else was going on," said Spence, who could see the spots moving on Dallas' head. "There's an open pit. You see a little activity, not necessarily the larvae, but a fluctuation of the fluid in the pit," Spence said.

The parasites, which were living in a pit 2- to 3- millimeters wide, were removed Thursday. His wife teases him about it now.

"It's much funnier to everyone else," Dallas said. "It makes my stomach turn over. It was cruel."

Spence said bot fly infections are fairly routine in parts of Central and South America.'

Spider Spider on the wall....

Teen claims spiders alerted her to fire

'HEMLOCK, Mich. (AP) - A woman who hates spiders is crediting them with helping save her from a house fire.

Danielle Vigue, 18, says she awoke early Tuesday to find spiders in her room, and started killing them. When more showed up, she says she went across the hall and got into bed with her 15-year-old sister, Lauren.

"At first there were five, they were all around the light fixture," Danielle Vigue told The Saginaw News. "I hate spiders, they freak me out."

A fire, the newspaper said, apparently was smoldering in the attic of the home about 90 miles northwest of Detroit.

A few hours later, Vigue's 48-year-old mother, Debra, and 8-year-old sister, Shelby, smelled smoke, and flames greeted the family when they opened the door to the room Danielle Vigue had earlier left.

"I will never kill another spider again," she told WNEM-TV in Saginaw.

Richland Township Fire Chief Gary Wade, a 30-year veteran of the Saginaw County department, was surprised by Vigue's story.

"I've never heard of spiders saving someone from a fire before," Wade said.'

Grody.

They make my skin crawl.

Swarms of cicadas emerging in Midwest

Billions expected after spending the past 17 years underground

'CHICAGO - Coming soon: Brood XIII. It sounds like a bad horror movie. But it’s actually the name of the billions of cicadas expected to emerge this month in parts of the Midwest after spending 17 years underground.

The red-eyed, shrimp-sized, flying insects don’t bite or sting. But they are known for mating calls that produce a din that can overpower ringing telephones, lawn mowers and power tools.

Brood XIII is expected across northern Illinois, and in parts of Iowa, Wisconsin, Michigan and Indiana. Cicadas live only about 30 days as adults, and their main goal is mating.
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They don’t harm humans, although they are clumsy and might fly into people. Birds, squirrels and pets, especially dogs, love to eat them, and they are high in protein.

“They’re going to have quite a meal. It’s going to be like Thanksgiving for them,” said Tom Tiddens, supervisor for plant health care at the Chicago Botanic Garden.

They are periodical cicadas, which are only found in the eastern half of North America. The annual, or dog-day cicadas, that appear every summer are common around the world.

The last massive emergence of periodical cicadas was in 2004, when Brood X emerged after 17 years underground in parts of 15 Eastern states. Some broods emerge after 13 years.'

Good thing humans don't do that.

Researchers discover spider 'chastity belt'

Male spiders break off part of genitalia in female to deter other suitors

'BERLIN - A new study by German scientists of spiders' copulation techniques found that males leave part of their sex organ inside their female partner as a sort of "chastity belt" to deter rivals.

"By breaking off parts of their intromittent organs inside a virgin female, males can reduce sperm competition and thereby increase their paternity success," the Bonn University researchers wrote in the journal Behavioral Ecology.

After setting the tone by shaking the female's web, the male has only seconds to have sex before the larger female kills him. In over 80 percent of cases, the tip of the male's genital organ breaks off inside the female.'