Cicada

[Ozwynn]

ickyyyyy p i am afraid of bugs...especially BIG ones

you and my wife both.....

I'm not a big fan either, but I really hate yellow jackets and killer bees (never been stung by by a killer bee, but they killed one of my dogs on the ranch in AZ).I would 10 times rather deal with snakes than bees.

 

[Will]

Not all bees sting.

Carpenter bees, for instance. They like to buzz your head and make a lot of noise (and eat your rafters), but they don't have stingers.

Carpenter bees have stingers. I've killed millions of them with a wiffle ball bat over the years as my house is cedar and they love it. I've never been stung but I've hauled a lot of bodies away and they definately have stingers. Or at least one sex of them does. And they come after you when you swing at them though they don't really attack you. Wasp spray does nothing--you have to defeat them in single combat or jam a 3/8" dowel plug into the hole behind them.

 

[Will]

you and my wife both.....

I'm not a big fan either, but I really hate yellow jackets and killer bees (never been stung by by a killer bee, but they killed one of my dogs on the ranch in AZ).I would 10 times rather deal with snakes than bees.

I hate yellow jackets more than anything except maybe racoons. I just had one fly down the eck of my shirt while I was driving today. That was exciting. When I found the little bastard (after safely navigating my 21' truck through the school parking lot) he had a big chunk of my back in his mouth and some more of my giblets hanging off his stinger and he was still coming.

 

[MAKG]

You're right. Males are stingerless and females have (but seldom use) stingers.

Source: UKy entomology dept.:
http://www.ca.uky.edu/entomology/entfacts/ef611.asp

They aren't very aggressive at all, but they look (and sound) kinda scary.

As for yellow jackets, I've had one land on my arm and try to eat a mole. Hurt like a bastard.

 

[Will]

Hmm. They don't mention the wiffle bat in that article...

Weird.

 

[Ozwynn]

I hate yellow jackets more than anything except maybe racoons. I just had one fly down the eck of my shirt while I was driving today. That was exciting. When I found the little bastard (after safely navigating my 21' truck through the school parking lot) he had a big chunk of my back in his mouth and some more of my giblets hanging off his stinger and he was still coming.

As for yellow jackets, I've had one land on my arm and try to eat a mole. Hurt like a bastard.

I don't think I hate anything more than yellow jackets. I had to be life flighted because of a yellow Jacket. I was stung, started swelling immediately. my auto injector was at home. Tried driving myself to the hospital (closer than home). My heart stopped on the exit ramp to the Hospital ....... totalled my brand new (3 months old) 99 dakota. I had to be med evaced to Las Vegas.

 

[PARKINGLOT]

Wasp spray does nothing--you have to defeat them in single combat or jam a 3/8" dowel plug into the hole behind them.

 

[skippy]

i goy popped two years ago by yellow jackets while cutting grass,once under the arm ,once on the top tip of each ear.two months later i could still feel twinge on one ear. makg is right,it hurts pretty bad.waited till dark and treated their nest hole to 12 oz bottle of gas.no further activity.drt.

 

[Ozwynn]

waited till dark and treated their nest hole to 12 oz bottle of gas.no further activity.drt.

The old man did that 1 year, we had under ground fire for a week. Big nest.

I use Hairspray and a lighter to get the nests on the house or under the hood of the cars.

 

[exbass94]

Last summer I found out I'm allergic to bees. Got stung about 5 times, mostly on the legs after I came upon an underground nest. I just felt the stings and immediately knew they were bees. I ran about 50 yards away and I could hear them chasing me. Got stung again on the shoulder about 100 yards away. A few minutes later, I slowly started swelling. Drove home (really fast) and had my mom take me to the hospital. Had to lay in a hospital bed for about 4 hours with an IV in my arm.

 

[skippy]

bet that fire was fun,i didn;t lite it off,just had about 5 inch brown spot for a little while.i've had wasps try to take over the ranger a few times,even found the start of mud dobber nest on the cat convertor flange.they are everywhere this year,i carry the good spray on the truck as commercial roof top units and exhaust fans are another favorite hangout.

 

[Shoeboy]

I was fine with bugs up until a few years ago. I could have a 3 inch beetle walk across my foot and it wouldn't faze me aside from the "wtf?...cool!". Then I was camping with a huge bunch of family, and my extremly bright, but incredibly retarded cousin (he's at the top of all his classes and the top of his school), but he is just stupid in real life lessons, Like don't sit on wasp nests. I got stung 14 times in a period of about 3 seconds while I was running away at top speed. I was sent to hospital, and was told it was amazing that I didn't die because of the severaty of the sting/bite/whatever of these little bastards, after I was ok, I kicked my cousins ass, not for getting me stung 14+ times, but for not getting one damn sting/bite/whatever despite the fact that he was the one that sat on the nest. Now, I'm freaked of anything that buzzes, aside afids/fruit flys, they're just damn annoying.

 

[compleckz]

when i was a kid i woke up and my nose itched, i went to scratch (pick it) and i squashed a large ant in my nostril *not cool*..

i hated bugs before that, and i still hate them now.. im fine with small animals, snakes, anything.. bugs just freak me the **** out.

 

[ZMan]

It wouldn't be so bad if they didn't sit in the trees and scream day and night however, I am looking forward to the first frost to get rid of these stupid things. That said I am glad we don't have those beetles to mess with just Cicada's, grasshoppers and skeeters, and 2/3's of them are just an annoyance, some of the mosquitos however carry some pretty bad bugs themselves (West Nile Virus and others)

ugh I can't work in my shop past 8:30 with the doors open because of the dang mosquitoes, I should get the smoker out more often.

We had a bad Japanese beetle problem 6 or 7 years ago, bought the traps and we were catching 2-3 pounds of them over a weeks time, now I barely see any of them.

 

[Bill]

I live in an odd habitat -- very sandy dry soil in a moist coastal region, with high elevation plants (mainly ponderosa pine) at low elevation. So, some of these insects are endangered.

Ponderosa Pine is a low elevation pine. They grow all the way down to, and into the Sacramento Valley in some places. The big difference between here and the outer coastal ranges is it is a lot colder at night here than it is along the hillsides near the water. So, you only see them growing on hilltops high enough where the marine influence doesn't keep the winter nights balmy, or in sheltered valleys where cold air settles in at night and allows enough chilling hours to set fruit, and stratify the seeds so they can germinate. Very much like the requirements for many stone fruits. Pine seedlings also do much better in coarse soil than clay.

The other plants probably have similar requirements, or are a different species of a genus you have seen at higher elevations.

BTW, some silviculturalists want the Ponderosa Pines in the Santa Cruz Mts to be classified as a subspecies Pinus pondersa benthamiana, citing genetic isolation and a few unique traits. The USDA's counterclaim is that this group wants to get it on a protected list to prevent any future reopening of an abandoned sand pit near Felton.