Insect appreciation thread - You WILL love the bugs

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Favorite insect order

  • Thysanura (silverfish)

    Votes: 1 0.6%

  • Odonata (dragonflies)

    Votes: 27 17.2%

  • Ephemeroptera (mayflies)

    Votes: 1 0.6%

  • Blattodea (roaches and termites)

    Votes: 2 1.3%

  • Mantodea (mantis)

    Votes: 25 15.9%

  • Orthoptera (crickets, katydids, locusts etc.)

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • Dermaptera (earwigs)

    Votes: 3 1.9%

  • Phasmatodea (stick and leaf insects)

    Votes: 2 1.3%

  • Hemiptera (true bugs and cicadas)

    Votes: 7 4.5%

  • Psocodea (bark lice and true lice)

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • Siphonaptera (fleas)

    Votes: 1 0.6%

  • Mecoptera (scorpionflies)

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • Trichoptera (caddisflies)

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • Lepidoptera (butterflies and moths)

    Votes: 24 15.3%

  • Diptera (flies and mosquitoes)

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • Thysanoptera (thrips)

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • Hymenoptera (wasps, sawflies, bees and ants)

    Votes: 31 19.7%

  • Coleoptera (beetles)

    Votes: 29 18.5%

  • Neuroptera (lacewings)

    Votes: 1 0.6%

  • Other

    Votes: 3 1.9%
  • Total voters
    157
Android raptor said:
How long will it take until the termites need more space, assuming all goes well? And how long will it take for their offspring to reach adulthood?
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It might require a fairly long time: colony growth appears to be exponential and is extremely slow initially. It might take three or four years for them to outgrow their setup. Remember they can eat the cotton in their vials so for a while they'll just carve out new chambers on their own. As for the second question, it should also take about a month. However they should be functionally mature before that since termite nymphs start working before their terminal molt, as soon as they're large enough and the gut protozoa are ready.
 
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Android raptor said:
Exceptionally based and roach-pilled. Do the parents do anything to care for the babies?
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The babies cannot digest wood (or cotton, in this case) so the parents have to feed them with pre-digested meals for a while. This is also how they transmit the gut protozoa needed for proper digestion, and once those are established the young become autonomous.
 
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My mother in-law gave me money to get a nice ant farm for son, but I think she wanted me to get a gigantic traditional ant farm where you just get a bunch of sad workers to make tunnels until they die. So, now I have a nice one from tarheel ants. I've had it for awhile and my husband keeps bugging me to get it going but locally we pretty much only have those fucking Argentine ants. People selling ants within a 50 mile radius all seem to have desert varieties and for one reason or another I'm just not into it. Wish I could find someone selling something found at higher elevation that hibernates.
 
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Lady Bizness said:
My mother in-law gave me money to get a nice ant farm for son, but I think she wanted me to get a gigantic traditional ant farm where you just get a bunch of sad workers to make tunnels until they die. So, now I have a nice one from tarheel ants. I've had it for awhile and my husband keeps bugging me to get it going but locally we pretty much only have those fucking Argentine ants. People selling ants within a 50 mile radius all seem to have desert varieties and for one reason or another I'm just not into it. Wish I could find someone selling something found at higher elevation that hibernates.
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Watch out, there are laws against shipping queens across state lines (if you live in the US) so if you want one, you have to find someone who sells locally.
You don't really need to buy ants though. If there's mountains near where you live, you could organize a hike and have it coincide with some species' swarming season.
Also, remember that ants won't move into large nests when the colony is still small.
 
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Crex Crex said:
Watch out, there are laws against shipping queens across state lines (if you live in the US) so if you want one, you have to find someone who sells locally.
You don't really need to buy ants though. If there's mountains near where you live, you could organize a hike and have it coincide with some species' swarming season.
Also, remember that ants won't move into large nests when the colony is still small.
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There's an ant trading website and I've only been looking at sellers in state. Long drive from mountains but we do go anyway - so hard to coordinate with swarming season though, partially because it's difficult to figure out when those are!
 
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This has been a big year for wasps, one of my work sites was positively infested but it was pretty fun to watch the vicious little shit-lords hunting and killing. Quite impressive to watch them intercept a horse-fly in mid-air bite its head off and then fly off with the headless corpse once it stopped twitching.

Unfortunately I did not get any useable video of any of them carrying the bodies away or the moment of decapitation but you can see the removed head off to the side in this photo.
wasp-photo.jpg
DeutscheKatze said:
got no soße for this one, maybe someone knows from what it is. mtg art?? idk
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Sorry for such a late answer but that picture is definitely from Pathfinder. The artist they use has a pretty distinct art style. Probably taken from this book?

@Crex Crex, sorry if this is annoying but may I ask but how are things working out with the termites? I was rather invested.
 
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سلیمان عثمان said:
@Crex Crex, sorry if this is annoying but may I ask but how are things working out with the termites? I was rather invested.
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Unfortunately, they died. Pretty bummed out about since I was very close to having them start a colony. The nymphs died first followed by the royals. I think it might have been due to them getting stuck in condensed water in the vial, but I'm not sure.

However I'm still quite optimistic since I've been getting better and better results each year. Two years ago I couldn't even get them to lay eggs, last year they managed to lay, and this year I got the eggs to hatch. I think I have now figured out the ideal setup and moisture needed, so next year will hopefully be successful. I think I will experiment with using both cotton and woodchips as a substrate (in theory, the woodchips should be even better).

There is a second, larger and rarer species of termite that will have it'd nuptial flights very soon in october. I might try to catch those instead of waiting until next may.
 
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There was a Sphinx moth the other week one morning. My phone's camera sucks and I'm too damn short so no good close-up of it.
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I also couldn't get a good picture of two gray praying mantises I came across on a walk just chilling on the chain-link fence. Really sucked the camera couldn't focus, they were pretty cool.
 
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