unusual plants, insects, ...what have you seen?

[everett kendall]

Wow a Snake looking Caterpillar, never seen one before. It has been eating my garden plants.

Does anyone know what it turns into?

[pomchop]

Wow a Snake looking Caterpillar, never seen one before. It has been eating my garden plants.

Does anyone know what it turns into?snake catapilar.jpg

That is one very strange looking critter....I guess a bird might think twice before trying to have them for lunch.

[sceadugenga]

I haven't been able to get thumbnails to open for a while, anyone else have that problem?

FireFox users maybe?

Aha, the iPad opens it, no problem.

Might have a fiddle with the you know what program.

[villagefarang]

I haven't been able to get thumbnails to open for a while, anyone else have that problem?

FireFox users maybe?

Aha, the iPad opens it, no problem.

Might have a fiddle with the you know what program.

It didn't open for me yesterday but it does today. Not sure why. Strange looking critter indeed.

[sceadugenga]

Appears to be the you know what program, definitely not worth disabling it though.

[villagefarang]

I suppose these guys actually belongs here.

[boomerangutang]

Going through my photos today and came across this pic of a tree ant's nest.

Tried to load it from Google+ and got knocked back...??

I would call 'em weaver ants. Hill tribers leave them until the nest gets big, then they smoke them out and eat the white larvae. I found a large leafy tree (by a cremation site), and the tip of every leaf, had one weaver ant standing guard. They bite, but only a bit painful, and the pain dissipates fast.

We're lucky, here in S.E.Asia re; ants. Though there are hundreds of types, there are no particularly poisonous types. Each of the regions: Amazon, Congo and Australia, have their own particularly awful ant. Some are so bad, that one bite can kill a baby.

This one!

DSCF2932.JPG

Obviously a caterpillar of some sort.

The white "threads are feather like and blow in the breeze!

Actually a beautiful little critter!

Seems to only eat my palms.

I found photos of one on Google, but no information at all, not even a name.

Does anyone know anything about it?

Was the fella moving or looking like he was dying? I ask because there are fungi which kill caterpillars. A particular fungus might affect just one particular type of caterpillar.

[willyumiii]

Going through my photos today and came across this pic of a tree ant's nest.

Tried to load it from Google+ and got knocked back...??

I would call 'em weaver ants. Hill tribers leave them until the nest gets big, then they smoke them out and eat the white larvae. I found a large leafy tree (by a cremation site), and the tip of every leaf, had one weaver ant standing guard. They bite, but only a bit painful, and the pain dissipates fast.

We're lucky, here in S.E.Asia re; ants. Though there are hundreds of types, there are no particularly poisonous types. Each of the regions: Amazon, Congo and Australia, have their own particularly awful ant. Some are so bad, that one bite can kill a baby.

This one!

DSCF2932.JPG

Obviously a caterpillar of some sort.

The white "threads are feather like and blow in the breeze!

Actually a beautiful little critter!

Seems to only eat my palms.

I found photos of one on Google, but no information at all, not even a name.

Does anyone know anything about it?

Was the fella moving or looking like he was dying? I ask because there are fungi which kill caterpillars. A particular fungus might affect just one particular type of caterpillar.

No didn't look like it was dying at all. It was eating the palm fronds like there was no tomorrow.

A day or two later it rolled a piece of palm frond up and built a cocoon inside, but never emerged.

I was hoping to see another this year, but none showed up.

[T_Dog]

Anyone know what this is? Has the strangest way of ambulating as it walks with its feet but uses its rear end as well. It was just under two inches long and was plenty creepy.

[sceadugenga]

Turned up by the front door this morning, not unusual but certainly a large specimen.

[toybits]

Took this a few years ago. At first, I thought it was an Ant. But after looking closer - I don't think it is. Clever disguise.

[T_Dog]

Turned up by the front door this morning, not unusual but certainly a large specimen.

At first I thought that thing crawled over!

[T_Dog]

Wow a Snake looking Caterpillar, never seen one before. It has been eating my garden plants.

Does anyone know what it turns into?snake catapilar.jpg

That is quite amazing! I can see how a bird would be fooled.

[NomadJoe]

We had a visitor tonight. A good reminder as to why we should shake out our shoes before putting them on. I have had cockroaches and frogs in my shoes before, which I did not realize until after taking a few steps. This little guy would not be pleasant.

[sceadugenga]

Ant track.

This has been there for years and stretches from one end of my yard to the other.

How many million little anty footsteps?

[bobbyd1]

Waiting for next meal.

[boomerangutang]

I had a large spider parked outside my upper story window, but not on the sill. It had somehow gotten strands of web to stretch several meters each way to tree branches. After a few days, it had a mate. Then just the mate, then a hundred tiny yellow spiders, all keeping a safe distance from mom. Then all gone.

Saw a hornet carrying a stunned tarantula across a path - over to its hole. It will plant eggs in the spider, while the spider is still alive, and the grubs will eat their way out.

speaking of hornet, my hill tribe buddy got bitten on the ear. the pain went down his neck to his shoulder. I gave him an unopened bottle of soda water which had been in the fridge - it helped a bit. Tried some fresh aloe vera juice, but don't know it if helped medicinally.

If anyone knows of a way to get rid of tookays (large geckos) let me know. I've tried making small fires indoors and burning dried hot peppers, but the smoke doesn't seem to expel them permanently. I've heard all the cute comments about large geckos in the house, but I seriously want to eradicate them. Is there any chemical warfare agent that will smoke 'em out? I've tried rat poison pellets, but am not sure whether those work. I caught one with a sticky rat trap, but that was a rarity.

[sceadugenga]

They're territorial, a lot of people don't like the noise they make to warn away others.

I suspect that if you evict one another would take over his former turf.

My other half claims they keep mice out of the house and they certainly keep the geckos and larger insects in line.

[boomerangutang]

There's a stick insect there. It's gray color, about 8 inches (20 cm) long.