THE BUG/INSECT ID THREAD

[Bugaboo]

Show me a picture of a little buggy and tell me what state/province/country/planet you are in when you took the picture and I will do my best to tell you what it is.

 

[Mourning Dove]

Well I've got some oleander aphids on my butterflyweed plants. I'm each day I'm checking the plants and spot-spraying the bugs with pyrethrins (pesticide based on chrysanthemum flowers) so they don't take over my plants like they did last year. SHOW NO MERCY.

 

[Ruin]

I have an autistic spider in my bedroom. Every night around ten he runs up and down the wall for about half an hour for some reason. He's light green with brown stripes on his legs. I can't find him in my insect/spider guide.

 

[Bugaboo]

I have an autistic spider in my bedroom. Every night around ten he runs up and down the wall for about half an hour for some reason. He's light green with brown stripes on his legs. I can't find him in my insect/spider guide.

I also have an insect/spider guide book, but the thing about books is they can't list every insect and spider. If you tell me your general location I can try to get an ID on the little guy.
But from just your desricption, it sounds like a green lynx spider which has a bright light green body. I have my doubts about this ID because of the fact that Green Lynx Spiders are most at home in a garden so why is it in a house? Do you ever see it jump? Green Lynx Spiders are good jumpers

Fun facts: Spiders are able to move their legs not because of little spider muscles, but because each leg is powered by hydraulics! This is why the spider curls up it's legs when it dies, it looses hydraulic pressure.
Spiders can only handle an exclusivly liquid diet, they inject vemon into their prey and liquify it's insides and suck them out. Because of the liquid diet, spiders poop liquid like birds and a tarantula will often have violent little squit shits I have to clean off the tank wall.

 

[Bugaboo]

Well I've got some oleander aphids on my butterflyweed plants. I'm each day I'm checking the plants and spot-spraying the bugs with pyrethrins (pesticide based on chrysanthemum flowers) so they don't take over my plants like they did last year. SHOW NO MERCY.

View attachment 40644

Doube post but, if you want to control aphids maybe try getting ladybugs or a praying mantis eggsac from a local garden store (it might be too late in the season though) unless your milkweed is to attract monarchs to lay eggs because lady bugs and mantids will hurt monarch caterpillars

 

[Android raptor]

Since I'm more about roaches than butterflies and moths, what do you think this little guy is?

This was taken late September of last year near Atlanta, GA.

 

[Mourning Dove]

Doube post but, if you want to control aphids maybe try getting ladybugs or a praying mantis eggsac from a local garden store (it might be too late in the season though) unless your milkweed is to attract monarchs to lay eggs because lady bugs and mantids will hurt monarch caterpillars

I tried buying ladybugs from a nursery last year to control aphids, but it didn't work as well as spraying the aphids with pyrethrins. I consider pyrethrins some of the "lesser evil" of insecticides since they break down in UV radiation. I'm also spot spraying for aphids rather than spraying down the whole plants because I don't want to hurt ALL the bugs living on the plants. Because I have seen a couple of mantids, ladybugs, and lacewings on my plants (but not as many as I have aphids).

 

[Ruin]

I also have an insect/spider guide book, but the thing about books is they can't list every insect and spider. If you tell me your general location I can try to get an ID on the little guy.
But from just your desricption, it sounds like a green lynx spider which has a bright light green body. I have my doubts about this ID because of the fact that Green Lynx Spiders are most at home in a garden so why is it in a house? Do you ever see it jump? Green Lynx Spiders are good jumpers

Fun facts: Spiders are able to move their legs not because of little spider muscles, but because each leg is powered by hydraulics! This is why the spider curls up it's legs when it dies, it looses hydraulic pressure.
Spiders can only handle an exclusivly liquid diet, they inject vemon into their prey and liquify it's insides and suck them out. Because of the liquid diet, spiders poop liquid like birds and a tarantula will often have violent little squit shits I have to clean off the tank wall.

Yea he jumps pretty well.

 

[Bugaboo]

Since I'm more about roaches than butterflies and moths, what do you think this little guy is?

This was taken late September of last year near Atlanta, GA.

That's a straight up caterpillar, they can be harder to ID because there is generally more information on their adult selves than their baby selves.
Anyway, this is what I think it is

The Gulf Fritillary
And here they are fucking

Spoiler: Scientifically Safe For Work, Tell Your Boss You Are Learning

Even though the little caterpillar has spikes if you touch them it will not sting you like many caterpillars with spines

 

[Android raptor]

Thanks! I hope it made it to adulthood because those are some pretty butterflies!

Speaking of caterpillars I recently got some horn worms from a friend because they'd grown too big for his geckos to eat. I'm trying to raise them into adulthood, especially since we can get more horn worms that way.

Today it looks like some of them have buried themselves to start the pupa stage. I have them in 3-4 inches of coconut fiber.

Any tips on helping keep the pupas safe and alive? And after that, keeping the moths happy and reproducing? This is my first time raising moths/butterflies so I'm a bit nervous.

 

[Watcher]

Bugs are gross

 

[Bugaboo]

Thanks! I hope it made it to adulthood because those are some pretty butterflies!

Speaking of caterpillars I recently got some horn worms from a friend because they'd grown too big for his geckos to eat. I'm trying to raise them into adulthood, especially since we can get more horn worms that way.

Today it looks like some of them have buried themselves to start the pupa stage. I have them in 3-4 inches of coconut fiber.

Any tips on helping keep the pupas safe and alive? And after that, keeping the moths happy and reproducing? This is my first time raising moths/butterflies so I'm a bit nervous.

Raising hornworms/tomato worms is actually kind of complex. The very first thing you should know is that when they just eat tomato plants as they would in the wild, they are toxic for animals to eat. The babies need to be fed a specially formulated commercial diet (the kind of butter colored paste you see them eating in the store) to be safe for an animal to eat.
Here's the run down though
http://www.clubfauna.com/articles/invertebrates/breeding-hornworms/
To house to moths (which actually fly around like hummingbirds and are gorgeous animals, I love seeing them in my garden sipping from plants or from the hummingbird feeder) you'll need a screen cage, you can either buy a reptibreeze screen cage or make one, you can just buy a sheet of reptile mesh (made for custom enclosures) but I'm not 100% sure where you'd find it. Check craigslist for used mesh reptile tanks. Anyway, the article says not to make your own hummingbird food, I don't understand why he says this because homemade hummingbird food is cheap and easy to make, I will give you the time tested recipe for it:
-1 part white sugar
-4 parts water (I would try to avoid tap water because I don't know what effect it will have on the moths (chlorine, fluoride), use spring water instead)
Put in a pot, turn on heat, whisk until dissolved and boil for 2 minutes (this stops the mixture from fermenting and killing the hummingbird/moths) Plus commercial hummingbird food has red dye and I am very wary about feeding animals (especially small animals like hummingbirds) any kind of dye.
Also, the moths need a tomato plant in the cage to lay their eggs on. The tomato plant needs a grow light and a pot to live in as well as plant food to grow vigorously. Remove any eggs you find from the plant and put them in the egg rearing cup. Keep in mind the life of a moth is a sad one and moths don't live for more than a few weeks so try not to get attached even though they're super pretty and magical

Spoiler: Here is what the adults look like

 

[Android raptor]

Thanks! I knew about the tomato plant thing, my housemates sounded pretty okay with since they like tomatoes anyway. Do the moths need the whole plant, or would just ripping off leaves/clippings be okay? I think one of them also has an old mesh cage as well.

Would it be possible to feed to diluted honey? Since honey is just concentrated nectar and all.

 

[Bugaboo]

Thanks! I knew about the tomato plant thing, my housemates sounded pretty okay with since they like tomatoes anyway. Do the moths need the whole plant, or would just ripping off leaves/clippings be okay? I think one of them also has an old mesh cage as well.

Would it be possible to feed to diluted honey? Since honey is just concentrated nectar and all.

I'm pretty sure they need the whole plant to be able to lay eggs.
Also, you technically can use honey for making nectar, but according to people who are probably smarter than me, honey can foster bacteria that will kill hummingbirds if it's left in a warm place in water. Also, even if you do it you'll still need to boil it.
At the butterfly zoo we used to make nectar for butterflies with boiling water, honey, pre mixed preservative of some devious kind and the secret ingredient: Gatorade.

 

[Burning Fanatic]

Let's see if you can identify these several different spiders.

Spoiler: Took these photos years ago while walking through Seoul, South Korea:

1.



2.


3.

Spoiler: And these in Japan:

4.


5.


6.

 

[FitBitch]

I'm severely arachnophobic and have trouble even looking at pictures of spiders. Last year at Pokogon State Park in Northeast Indiana one fell on me from a tree while I was laying in a hammock. I had time to scream like a bitch and see it before my brother snatched it off of me like a goddamn ninja catching an arrow.

It was gray and red and hairy and roughly the size of a thumb. Do you think you can tell me what it was with spoilering the picture (I will take a look to confirm it is the same spider)

The last time I tried looking it up my cat brushed against my foot as the Google image results came up and I fell backwards chair and all and hurt myself. The cat was fine.

 

[murgatroid]

I tried to pick this little guy up by his extra long whisker looking things but they came right out with no resistance. Also I noticed it seems to go into camp mode and hide it's eyes when it's staying still.

Side question, sometimes I catch bugs and I poke holes in their makeshift prison but after a few minutes they seem to just somehow kill themselves. Why is this?

PPS: OP is this you?

He used to be one of my style inspirations, still is.