You know what bugs me? Bugs. Not as much as the leaky roof, but they bother me. Outside, they’re OK, I guess. Inside, its a constant battle. I can usually keep the ants and roaches away with occasional chemicals and way-too-often lectures to the kids about leaving food out, but the crickets don’t seem to care. They jump up when you least expect them, the cats play with them, and the kids scream when they see one. And the worst thing was the time I installed those stick-on rubber baseboards. They drip with glue. Transparent glue, so you don’t see a spot on the floor until you find all the cricket legs that stick to it long after the cricket is gone. Eww!

The Jumping Flea

A prominent scientist conducted very important experiment. He trained a flea to jump upon giving her a verbal command ("Jump!").

In the first stage of experiment he removed flea's leg, told her to jump, and the flea jumped. So he wrote in his scientific notebook: "Upon removing one leg all flea organs function properly."

So, he removed the second leg, asked the flea to jump, she obeyed, so he wrote again: "Upon removing the second leg all flea organs function properly."

Thereafter he removed all the legs but one, the flea jumped when ordered, so he wrote again: "Upon removing the next leg all flea organs function properly."

Then he removed the last leg. Told flea to jump, and nothing happened. He did not want to take a chance, so he repeated the experiment several times, and the leg less flea never jumped. So he wrote the conclusion: "Upon removing the last leg the flea loses sense of hearing"

Nature’s ultimate camoflage, transparency! See pictures of the delicate Glasswing Butterfly.

click to enlarge How do you get rid of 10,000 bees? By using lots of flammable liquids, of course! These guys had way too much fun with this. (via Bits and Pieces)

Can you imagine a centipede as long as your arm? One that can eat small animals? Meet Scolopendra gigantea!

The Spider Blog.

Spiders on Drugs. In the 1960s, Dr. Peter Witt gave drugs to spiders and observed their effects on web building. The results are both amazing and predictable, if that makes any sense. (via Arbroath)

THE MANTIS

This story was contributed by Ubergeek, but I couldn’t find a link for him. It was in the comments at this really funny post on an affair between a praying mantis and a wolf spider.

I'm a biker... I own more than just a "choppers" tee-shirt. Bugs get to be a fact of life, but this went waaaaaaaaaay beyond just getting hit by a bug.

I'm driving through upstate New York a few years ago, just enjoying the beautiful weather and the sceanery around Lake Placid.

Now this all happened in a split second, but you still have time to see it coming in that split second... just not do anything about it.

Praying Mantids can fly... they just rarely do so. Well call me Mr. Rarely:

I'm banging up some small country road when in the mid distance I see this small green dot bobbing along across the road... a second later I get a split second glimpse of a Praying Mantis in flight... looked like a big sucker too.

A split second after that it smacks dead into my upper lip, just under my nose.

SPLACK!!!!

I had goo everywhere... not to mention that it F*****g hurt! There was goop up my nose, in my teeth, sprayed across my cheeks. There was also one hell of a welt. And when I say up my nose... I mean UP my nose. At the velocity I was doing it got jammed way up there.

I damn near crashed my motorcycle... my goggles kept the bug bits out of my eyes but the impact to my sinuses made my eyes instantly fill with water. I managed to pull over and start snorting out bug parts and wiping my face.

But the truly funny part came about 10 minutes later at the next gas stop. I'm still snorting and trying to clean up when the guy at gas pump takes one look and then retches. He didn't actually puke... but he did have to hold it in. Figuring the damn thing has torn open my lip and he can see my teeth or something I crouch down and look in the mirror.

One of those nasty fore legs has imbedded in my cheek... not much more than a bad scratch... but what freaked buddy out was that it was still twitching.

Ahhhhhh nature.

Watch ants build a home. (via Bits and Pieces)

Previously on Miss Cellania: Insects

Thought for today: Time flies like an arrow. Fruit flies like a banana.

humor jokes video funny games bugs insects infestation