Randomly Speaking...

[LadyJeanne]

I saw one of these on a balcony in Virginia last weekend. I thought it was an alien that had hatched under the fat orange moon, the full moon, the night before, but it's a Chinese praying mantis (or so the aliens would have us believe. ).

Apparently, they're all over the East Coast, so I asked a friend in New Hampshire if they had them:

Not only do we have them, the praying mantis is a protected species in New England. They are still kind of rare, like, you won’t find one just casually walking through the back yard, but they are out there.

There are only two down sides to the praying mantis.

One, the females eat the males after mating. Enough said about that.

Two, they secrete a toxic chemical from under their feet to which most people are extremely allergic. The lesions take between three and four days to appear, and when the skin breaks open you’re left with weepy puss-filled sores for a few months.

Good thing you didn’t touch it.​

What random thing happened to you today?

 

[Guest]

What's wrong with eating the male again?

 

[LadyJeanne]

What's wrong with eating the male again?

 

[rgraham666]

Two, they secrete a toxic chemical from under their feet to which most people are extremely allergic. The lesions take between three and four days to appear, and when the skin breaks open you’re left with weepy puss-filled sores for a few months.

News to me. I used to keep them as pets when I was a kid. They were more common then. I never had anything like that happen to me.

I used to feed them moths and other insects I had caught. They would gently take them right out of my hand.

I don't see them as often now. Since I live in a city now, it's unlikely. Although I found a young one, about half grown last year.

They're beautiful insects.

Was the one you saw really that big LadyJ? Unless the hand is that of a small child, the one in the picture is twice the size of the largest I've ever seen. Might be a different species. I've never seen one with that colour carapace before. All the ones I've known were entirely bright green.

 

[rgraham666]

Oh, and sarahh? I think you're using an entirely different idea when they say 'they eat the male.'

 

[Guest]

Oh, and sarahh? I think you're using an entirely different idea when they say 'they eat the male.'

Oh?

My mistake.

 

[rgraham666]

Randomness in my life.

They were having a small Scottish festival in a park I take part of my daily walk through. They had bagpipers.

I love the pipes.

 

[minsue]

News to me. I used to keep them as pets when I was a kid. They were more common then. I never had anything like that happen to me.

I used to feed them moths and other insects I had caught. They would gently take them right out of my hand.

I don't see them as often now. Since I live in a city now, it's unlikely. Although I found a young one, about half grown last year.

They're beautiful insects.

Was the one you saw really that big LadyJ? Unless the hand is that of a small child, the one in the picture is twice the size of the largest I've ever seen. Might be a different species. I've never seen one with that colour carapace before. All the ones I've known were entirely bright green.

Ditto, both on keeping them as pets & on the coloring. I miss them. I hardly ever see any now.

 

[rgraham666]

Ditto, both on keeping them as pets & on the coloring. I miss them. I hardly ever see any now.

I suspect that because they're at the top of the food chain, the insecticides got them.

 

[LadyJeanne]

News to me. I used to keep them as pets when I was a kid. They were more common then. I never had anything like that happen to me.

I used to feed them moths and other insects I had caught. They would gently take them right out of my hand.

I don't see them as often now. Since I live in a city now, it's unlikely. Although I found a young one, about half grown last year.

They're beautiful insects.

Was the one you saw really that big LadyJ? Unless the hand is that of a small child, the one in the picture is twice the size of the largest I've ever seen. Might be a different species. I've never seen one with that colour carapace before. All the ones I've known were entirely bright green.

Yep - it was that big and had that exact same coloring. Scared the bejeezus out of me when I first saw it. I watched it for a long time as it hung out on the balcony. It was incredible - I'd never seen an insect that big. I've seen little tiny green ones in the midwest, but this was something else.


Bagpipes in the park are gooood.

 

[Mari J]

The Deadly Mantis is one of my favorite bad sci fi movies.

 

[cheerful_deviant]

I found one of those guys on the side of my garage last year and he was enormous! Probablly about 8-10" long or so. Or about the same size as the one in the pic. I see smaller ones 2" or so, around her pretty often, but they're not to common.

They are still around in New England, but not as much as they used to be. They like open fields and tall grass, not manicured lawns. So if there are alot of hayfields or wild fields in your area you'll see more.

 

[lucky-E-leven]

Ditto, both on keeping them as pets & on the coloring. I miss them. I hardly ever see any now.

They're all over the place here.

An even weirder thing to see is something we call a 'walking stick'. Looks just like a piece of tree branch, but has legs almost identical to the mantis and is about 15 times bigger. Strange.

http://www.animatedchildrenstories.com/Images/WalkingStickInsects.jpg

 

[cheerful_deviant]

They're all over the place here.

An even weirder thing to see is something we call a 'walking stick'. Looks just like a piece of tree branch, but has legs almost identical to the mantis and is about 15 times bigger. Strange.

That's because everything's bigger in Texas.

 

[lucky-E-leven]

That's because everything's bigger in Texas.

It's a bad cliche, I know, but it's very true in many cases.

 

[rgraham666]

Yep - it was that big and had that exact same coloring. Scared the bejeezus out of me when I first saw it. I watched it for a long time as it hung out on the balcony. It was incredible - I'd never seen an insect that big. I've seen little tiny green ones in the midwest, but this was something else.


Bagpipes in the park are gooood.

Then I'm pretty sure it must be a different species from the ones I'm familiar with.

Quick bit of science trivia. Mantises and walking sticks are very closely related to grasshoppers.

And as far as giant insect movies go, I liked Them better. The fact that the lead male character had the same name as me probably has something to do with that though.

 

[Alex756]

I've seen ones that big on my porch. They were way more common last year when we had the cicada drove of doom... with a smaller cicada bloom this year (I don't know if its the missing brood or just leftovers from last year) we're seeing the praying mantises as well. ALOT of bugs are around this year though that haven't been in the past. I even have an orb weaver on my deck.

-Alex

 

[cloudy]

The only cool bug we have are junebugs. I looked for a pic, and I found one I'll put below, but the ones I saw don't show the iridescent colors that the ones around here have. They're actually VERY pretty.

Plus, it's fun to tie a thread around one of their legs, and fly 'em around like a kite.

http://www.ces.ncsu.edu/depts/ent/notes/forage/gjbnote02/gjb.jpg

 

[rgraham666]

The only cool bug we have are junebugs. I looked for a pic, and I found one I'll put below, but the ones I saw don't show the iridescent colors that the ones around here have. They're actually VERY pretty.

Plus, it's fun to tie a thread around one of their legs, and fly 'em around like a kite.

http://www.ces.ncsu.edu/depts/ent/notes/forage/gjbnote02/gjb.jpg

I guess this is one of those case where different regions use the same name for different insects.

The junebugs up here are ugly.

Stupid too. They fly into a window until they brain themselves.

 

[cloudy]

I guess this is one of those case where different regions use the same name for different insects.

The junebugs up here are ugly.

Stupid too. They fly into a window until they brain themselves.

Yeah, they do that here, too. I suppose their lack of brainpower is why they're so easy to catch, and why they'll hold still while you tie that thread to them.

 

[LadyJeanne]

Today's random thought - turn-ons

At brunch this morning, my friends and I were talking about that Jet Blue plane emergency landing this week. Specifically, we were admiring the way the pilot gently brought the plane down, rolled down the runway in a perfectly straight line, and ended up dead center on the white line.

Somehow ( ) that led to a conversation about what we think is sexy. It's a real turn-on for me to watch a guy do something that he does really, really well. Whether he's tweaking his car's engine or making a kick-ass sales presentation or building a deck or landing a jet plane or chopping vegetables, it turns me on.

It's the skill and concentration and focus and then the perfect execution - it just fills me with all this admiration and respect and, yes, erotic thoughts.

What about you? What random thing turns you on?

 

[rgraham666]

Smiles. I go soft inside and hard somewhere else if she's got a beautiful smile.

Brains is a close second.

 

[LadyJeanne]

Smiles. I go soft inside and hard somewhere else if she's got a beautiful smile.

Brains is a close second.

Like this?

http://bestsmileys.com/love1/20.gif

 

[rgraham666]

Like this?

http://bestsmileys.com/love1/20.gif

Close enough for rock and roll.

 

[kendo1]

We had two praying mantis as pets when I lived in OZ. My mum sat on one.