Question of the Day, Sunday, July 26, 2015

micknsnicks2mom · Jul 26, 2015

a couple nights ago, my snick and jaspurr were enjoying watching and playing with what looked to be a small cricket in our kitchen. so with that on my mind.........

For today's Question of the Day, let's talk about bugs, insects, small reptiles, and the like!

We'll break them down into Flying, Crawling, Jumping, and 'Oddities' categories. In any of these categories --

      Are there any you like or don't mind?

      How about kinds you dislike?

      Any that are simply 'ICK' for you?

      Do you have any stories or cute reactions that any of your cat(s) have had to any bug, insect, small reptile, or such?

i'll start!

out here in the rural area in which i live there are many bugs, insects, small reptiles and the like. i've learned not to mind many or most of them. i've found that bees tend to be attracted to me, and love to hover around my knees. they never sting me, and i think they may be attracted to my perspiration/sweat behind my knees (the back of my legs, behind my knees). so i don't mind bees. i love butterflies, ladybugs, and always try to herd any toads i see off of my lawn before mowing the grass. when my niece was much younger, she was totally fascinated by worms -- so i don't mind them, and i know how beneficial they are to the soil. i don't mind crickets or grasshoppers either. spiders are different for me. the only kind of spider i don't mind are the daddy long legs kind. if i find one in my house, i'll transport it outside...where it can go about it's business in a more appropriate setting.

i definitely dislike slugs and grubs, and aphids. it doesn't bother me to handle them, but i usually set the slugs and grubs out for the birds to feed on. well, the slugs may just dry out in the sun. snakes i don't mind if i know they're not poisonous. the problem is that i cannot tell which type of snake those i occasionally come across outside are -- poisonous or not poisonous (or is it venomous???). then there's 'may flies'. i'd never come across those until a couple years ago. from my research about them online -- they fly in groups, looking for people/cattle/other mammals to bite. you cannot just shoo may flies away, you literally have to escape them by going indoors and then give them time to move on. may fly bites are incredibly itchy. i don't like ants either. here we get what we call 'piss ants', which are tiny black ants, that find their way into our homes in search of food. i'm extremely careful to keep crumbs and such cleaned up in my house, so we only occasionally with get some of those tiny ants in our house -- looking for but not finding food here. outdoors we have yellow (meadow) ants here too. mosquitos are bugs that i dislike very much. i almost never go outdoors after dark, because i know the mosquitos will bite me mercilessly.

ICK for me are things like palmetto bugs (actually a variety of cockroach) and cockroaches. palmetto bugs look to me like prehistoric cockroaches, or cockroaches on steroids -- they're definitely in the 'oddities' category IMO. these are bugs that would in all likelihood survive a nuclear bomb exploding.

snick has always been much more interested in bugs than in birds. several years ago, snick found a small black ant on our kitchen floor and was creeping along after it and sniffing at it. at one point she bit that ant, and the expression on her face looked like she was thinking, 'ick, bitter tasting'. the cricket that i mentioned was in our kitchen a couple nights ago, snick enjoyed watching it.

jaspurr is interested in both birds and insects. he absolutely loves ants. he doesn't try to eat them, but loves to sniff them and will roll around on the floor where an ant has crawled. he seeks out where he can smell the ant has been and then rolls on that spot. that same cricket in our kitchen a couple nights ago, jaspurr enjoyed trying to catch it/pounce on it while snick watched him.

okay, now it's your turn!

swampwitch · Jul 26, 2015

I don't mind any insects or anything else unless it bites or stings me. Then things get personal.

Columbine · Jul 26, 2015

SwampWitch said:
I don't mind any insects or anything else unless it bites or stings me. Then things get personal.

I hate mosquitoes, midges, anything else that bites me! I hate wasps too. Oooh....also fleas, ticks, lice, any other parasite or bitey thing that can affect cats, dogs or horses....or people, of course.

I'm scared of bees, but kind of like them - I know how important they are. I just want them to go and do their thing away from me!

I don't like flies, but they're more irritating than anything else.

I like spiders (because they eat flies

), ladybirds/ladybugs and butterflies. Frogs and newts are cute too (do they count?). Geckos are really cool, but we don't have them in this country.

Leeches are just gross. Slugs are too, but they don't bother me like leeches do, for some reason.

I'm not too fussed about other creatures.

margd · Jul 26, 2015

I really hate cockroaches. They make my skin crawl. I'm not a big mosquito or gnat fan either.

I like butterflies, moths, grasshoppers, earthworms, frogs and toads of all sorts, even some snakes, which have such beautiful patterns. I'm scared of poisonous snakes though because when I was a kid, I once saw a poisonous viper dart across the street and attack a man on a bicycle. Fortunately he saw it coming and leaped off his bike. There were other on-lookers and they quickly dispatched it. Also once the Indian equivalent of a gila monster chased my little brother around our back yard - that was terribly scary. We had a slide and he finally climbed up the ladder until someone came out and chased it away. So I'm not real fond of them either.

I like geckos and chameleons and most lizards also turtles.

I get the rare fly in my apartment and Paul and Chula both love to chase them, especially when they are in the window.

Alligators and crocodiles are okay as long as they are at the zoo!

Norachan · Jul 26, 2015

Are there any you like or don't mind?

I like spiders. Spiders are good, they eat flies and mosquitoes.

      How about kinds you dislike?

Anything that bites or stings. Mosquitoes, ticks, wasps, hornets and fleas are all on my hit list.

      Any that are simply 'ICK' for you?

We get these big scary crickets around here. They like to crawl inside clothes you have hanging up or towels left on the rail. They give me the heebie-jeebies.

      Do you have any stories or cute reactions that any of your cat(s) have had to any bug, insect, small reptile, or such?

Nothing cute I'm afraid. Their usually way of dealing with any insect or small reptile they find is to bat it around for a while and then eat it.

raysmyheart · Jul 26, 2015

Are there any you like or don't mind?

     I do not mind small moths, bumble bees, yellow jackets, ladybugs, spiders that are small or thin, crickets, lightning bugs, grasshoppers.

What kinds do I dislike?

     Slugs, ticks, fat spiders, cockroaches, hornets, the fierce type of fly that is relentless when you hit their nest with the lawnmower and then they follow your every move, trying to bite.

Totally ICK bugs

Slugs, grubs, grub-like catepillars, garden snails, cockroaches, fleas, ticks.

Reactions from Speedy

   Speedy is crazy about jumping after small moths when we go for a late-nite walk. She is very quick and will pounce on the moth and then I can see her smacking her lips!!!!

micknsnicks2mom · Jul 26, 2015

SwampWitch said:
I don't mind any insects or anything else unless it bites or stings me. Then things get personal.

yes! i agree. it's just plain rude when they bite or sting.

miagi's_mommy · Jul 26, 2015

Hm I like butterflies and lady bugs.... And honestly I like working bees. One got in my pant leg and I thought it was a spider... and when I took my pants off it was a huge working bee. Didn't even attempt to sting me so I let it go outside. Spiders I do not like at all.. and hornets. Just no on hornets/wasps they're evil. Working bees will not sting you if you leave them alone.. I think people misjudge them. If you walk through their nest or something.. it's their defense. But if you let them work and don't bother them they will not sting you. There were actually 2 working bees that got in our house by accident this year... and they just wanted outside so we got a jar and put them outside. A huge hornet got in our house last summer and I had to kill it so it did not sting my pets, my mom or me. And I hate mosquitoes ugh.

micknsnicks2mom · Jul 26, 2015

Columbine said:
I hate mosquitoes, midges, anything else that bites me! I hate wasps too. Oooh....also fleas, ticks, lice, any other parasite or bitey thing that can affect cats, dogs or horses....or people, of course.

I'm scared of bees, but kind of like them - I know how important they are. I just want them to go and do their thing away from me!

I don't like flies, but they're more irritating than anything else.

I like spiders (because they eat flies

), ladybirds/ladybugs and butterflies. Frogs and newts are cute too (do they count?). Geckos are really cool, but we don't have them in this country.

Leeches are just gross. Slugs are too, but they don't bother me like leeches do, for some reason.

I'm not too fussed about other creatures.

ahhh, yes! fleas and ticks......just nasty things. when we moved into our house here, the sellers left fleas. snick and mickey (rip) had never had fleas before, so the fleas were even more annoying (for both the cats and me). it took me literally months of vacuuming, many many loads of laundry, and buying and using a steam cleaner on every rug and cat tree again and again and again to rid our home of those horrible fleas. of course, flea meds (from our vet) were applied on both cats for 3-4 months too. i've been lucky to have never had a tick embed itself into me.

yes, frogs and newts count too! i live in an agricultural area. there have been many fertilizers, pesticides, etc sprayed on a regular basis every year here for decades and decades. when i first moved here there were no frogs, the run-off from all those chemicals had killed them all off. i've heard that there are now some frogs again here. my niece has geckos! she was given two as a birthday gift probably two or three years ago. of course, they bred and there were many baby geckos. my niece was very careful about who she would let adopt her geckos, making sure they would care for them properly. now she has her geckos all in their own individual tanks, because they were not getting along well with each other. they're much happier in their own 'homes'.

agreed -- leeches are gross.

stewball · Jul 26, 2015

Columbine said:
:lol3: :lol3:
I hate mosquitoes, midges, anything else that bites me! I hate wasps too. Oooh....also fleas, ticks, lice, any other parasite or bitey thing that can affect cats, dogs or horses....or people, of course.

I'm scared of bees, but kind of like them - I know how important they are. I just want them to go and do their thing away from me!

I don't like flies, but they're more irritating than anything else.

I like spiders (because they eat flies ), ladybirds/ladybugs and butterflies. Frogs and newts are cute too (do they count?). Geckos are really cool, but we don't have them in this country.

Leeches are just gross. Slugs are too, but they don't bother me like leeches do, for some reason.

I'm not too fussed about other creatures.

What about cockroaches?

stewball · Jul 26, 2015

I like ladybirds and moths. That's it.
I hate everything else except geckos.

Columbine · Jul 27, 2015

Stewball said:
What about cockroaches?

I'm lucky enough not to have come across cockroaches in real life. I'm sure I'd hate them if I met them though!

stewball · Jul 27, 2015

Columbine said:
I'm lucky enough not to have come across cockroaches in real life. I'm sure I'd hate them if I met them though!

They are disgusting and we get big flying ones here. They give me the shivers.

Winchester · Jul 27, 2015

With the exception of lightning bugs and the bugs our garden needs to do well, and the honeybees, the only good bug is a dead bug. I'm not fond of crickets, but I toss them out of the house; I don't kill them.

We get those darn stinkbugs every year and they are disgusting in the house. We also get those huge Asian ladybugs (is that what they're called?) and they're almost as bad in the house. Centipedes get into the basement every once in a while....not particularly crazy about them either. One came up the basement wall once morning when I was on the treadmill and I fixated on that bug the whole time. I finally had to stop the treadmill and dispose of the thing.

You all know how I feel about ants. The other night when I was canning the zucchini relish, I took my jars out of the canner and had all this lovely boiling hot water leftover. I said to Rick, "Know where there are any good ant hills? I hate to just let this water go to waste!" And I was serious. I despise ants with a passion.

Hydrox, the Old Coot, had one problem with fleas....and to this day, I blame it on my sister.

She had found these two little girls and she was taking them to the vet. She wanted to stop off and do some shopping at KMart, so she stopped at our house and dropped the girls off in their carrier. She shopped and came back for the kittens and continued down to the vet. The girls had fleas. I didn't know it. And they went to Hydrox. That poor cat started scratching and scratching. I didn't know what it was; in my defense, I spread-eagled him on my lap more than once, looking for fleas and didn't see one. My FIL even put him on his lap and didn't see anything. It was hard to see much with an all-black kitty. Called the vet and took him down. Well! The vet took a comb through that boy and the fleas just scattered. I was aghast. They were in my house, too! Hydrox got a flea bath and spent the night at the vet. I came home and had the house fumigated. End of flea problem. When I brought Amber Louise into the house as a kitten, she had a couple fleas. But every morning and night, I bathed her in warm water in the bathroom sink and then combed her out. The other cats were too old and tough....evidently not good flea material. We didn't have a big problem that time.

Not crazy about flies, but they're more of a hassle than anything. There I am lying on the couch with a good book and three cats. Just about the time, I'm ready to fall asleep, I hear, "Buzzzzzzz, buzzzzzz!" The cats hear it, too, and the ears immediately perk. I know that I might as well get up and deal with the fly, otherwise the girls will kill themselves trying to get to it.

Spiders. Many years ago, when BooBoo was just a RugKitten, not even one year old, he was down at the front door, playing with a bug. I never gave it a second thought. Took a load of laundry down to the washer. When I came back up, he was just sitting there. Not doing anything, just sitting there. And I knew....he ate the bug. I yelled for Rick and he came running. We called the e-vet, picked the boy up and ran down to the hospital. Boo was in my arms and he started screaming, just screaming and I hope I never, ever hear that screaming again. Turns out the bug was a spider and when Boo ate the spider, said spider bit the inside of his throat. He was treated with some kind of anti-venom stuff and spent the night in an oxygen tent. We were scared to death we were going to lose him and the vet even said it was touch-and-go. He honestly didn't know what would happen.

The next morning, the vet called and said, "You wanna come down and pick this kid up? He's screaming for breakfast and he won't eat our food!" I immediately went down to the hospital and brought Mr. Boo home and gave him breakfast. He came through it fine, but he lost one of his nine lives that time. We lost our wallets, too; that vet bill was terribly expensive. (You know, thinking back to our vet visits sometimes, it's a wonder our vet even trusts us with cats!)

If I see any bug, ANY bug in our house, I kill it. Anything that flies or crawls or anything else. It's dead. Better the bug than Mr. Boo.

micknsnicks2mom · Jul 28, 2015

Margd said:
I really hate cockroaches. They make my skin crawl. I'm not a big mosquito or gnat fan either.

I like butterflies, moths, grasshoppers, earthworms, frogs and toads of all sorts, even some snakes, which have such beautiful patterns. I'm scared of poisonous snakes though because when I was a kid, I once saw a poisonous viper dart across the street and attack a man on a bicycle. Fortunately he saw it coming and leaped off his bike. There were other on-lookers and they quickly dispatched it. Also once the Indian equivalent of a gila monster chased my little brother around our back yard - that was terribly scary. We had a slide and he finally climbed up the ladder until someone came out and chased it away. So I'm not real fond of them either.

I like geckos and chameleons and most lizards also turtles.

I get the rare fly in my apartment and Paul and Chula both love to chase them, especially when they are in the window.

Alligators and crocodiles are okay as long as they are at the zoo!

yes, cockroaches are definitely just nasty. years ago, i lived in an apartment building. there were no roaches when i moved in. it was when someone else moved into another apartment in the building that the cockroaches arrived and took over. all it takes is for someone to move in and bring either cockroaches or (i guess) their eggs with them/in with their belongings, then the whole apartment building will end up having cockroaches. this is the reason why, after i moved out of that apartment i would never live in an apartment building again.

i agree, though some snakes have very beautiful patterns on them, when/if they 'cross the line' and decide to chase or attack a person they then need to go -- one way or another, removed to an appropriate area for them or 'dispatched'.

our jaspurr loves to chase flies, like your paul and chula! jaspurr will eat them if he catches them.

micknsnicks2mom · Jul 28, 2015

Norachan said:
Are there any you like or don't mind?

I like spiders. Spiders are good, they eat flies and mosquitoes.

      How about kinds you dislike?

Anything that bites or stings. Mosquitoes, ticks, wasps, hornets and fleas are all on my hit list.

      Any that are simply 'ICK' for you?

We get these big scary crickets around here. They like to crawl inside clothes you have hanging up or towels left on the rail. They give me the heebie-jeebies.

      Do you have any stories or cute reactions that any of your cat(s) have had to any bug, insect, small reptile, or such?

Nothing cute I'm afraid. Their usually way of dealing with any insect or small reptile they find is to bat it around for a while and then eat it.

it looks like many people are in agreement that bugs that bite or sting are disliked, and are 'dispatched' in one way or another.

those big scary crickets sound like they belong in the 'oddities' category. bugs that 'surprise' me by hiding in unexpected places get my first reaction, which is usually to squash them.

micknsnicks2mom · Jul 28, 2015

raysmyheart said:
Are there any you like or don't mind?

     I do not mind small moths, bumble bees, yellow jackets, ladybugs, spiders that are small or thin, crickets, lightning bugs, grasshoppers.

What kinds do I dislike?

     Slugs, ticks, fat spiders, cockroaches, hornets, the fierce type of fly that is relentless when you hit their nest with the lawnmower and then they follow your every move, trying to bite.

Totally ICK bugs

Slugs, grubs, grub-like catepillars, garden snails, cockroaches, fleas, ticks.

Reactions from Speedy

   Speedy is crazy about jumping after small moths when we go for a late-nite walk. She is very quick and will pounce on the moth and then I can see her smacking her lips!!!!

ahhh, lightning bugs! i like those too. we get hardly any bumble bees here. i think i've only seen one or two in the (coming up on) four years we've lived here.

yesterday i saw what must have been the granddaddy of slugs here. that was one massive slug, and i found it clinging to the underside of a piece of firewood in the pile of wood which i was stacking. he was grey with stripes as well as spots, and measured approximately 2-2 1/2 inches diameter (around his girth) and 5+ inches in length.

speedy, the 'intrepid' (moth) hunter!

micknsnicks2mom · Jul 28, 2015

Miagi's_Mommy said:
Hm I like butterflies and lady bugs.... And honestly I like working bees. One got in my pant leg and I thought it was a spider... and when I took my pants off it was a huge working bee. Didn't even attempt to sting me so I let it go outside. Spiders I do not like at all.. and hornets. Just no on hornets/wasps they're evil. Working bees will not sting you if you leave them alone.. I think people misjudge them. If you walk through their nest or something.. it's their defense. But if you let them work and don't bother them they will not sting you. There were actually 2 working bees that got in our house by accident this year... and they just wanted outside so we got a jar and put them outside. A huge hornet got in our house last summer and I had to kill it so it did not sting my pets, my mom or me. And I hate mosquitoes ugh.

i agree -- bees are different than wasps and hornets. wasps and hornets seem to have a permanent bad attitude.

mosquitos seem to 'like' me, or i should say my blood. they'd feast on me if i were outside in the evenings. it looks like everyone is agreed that mosquitoes are disliked.

micknsnicks2mom · Jul 28, 2015

Stewball said:
I like ladybirds and moths. That's it.
I hate everything else except geckos.

moths are fine, as long as they're outdoors. indoors, they like to chew on my curtains/drapes and rugs. i've read that lavender oil soaked into a cotton ball and placed in a dish, can repel moths indoors.

micknsnicks2mom · Jul 28, 2015

Winchester said:
With the exception of lightning bugs and the bugs our garden needs to do well, and the honeybees, the only good bug is a dead bug. I'm not fond of crickets, but I toss them out of the house; I don't kill them.

We get those darn stinkbugs every year and they are disgusting in the house. We also get those huge Asian ladybugs (is that what they're called?) and they're almost as bad in the house. Centipedes get into the basement every once in a while....not particularly crazy about them either. One came up the basement wall once morning when I was on the treadmill and I fixated on that bug the whole time. I finally had to stop the treadmill and dispose of the thing.

You all know how I feel about ants. The other night when I was canning the zucchini relish, I took my jars out of the canner and had all this lovely boiling hot water leftover. I said to Rick, "Know where there are any good ant hills? I hate to just let this water go to waste!" And I was serious. I despise ants with a passion.

Hydrox, the Old Coot, had one problem with fleas....and to this day, I blame it on my sister.

She had found these two little girls and she was taking them to the vet. She wanted to stop off and do some shopping at KMart, so she stopped at our house and dropped the girls off in their carrier. She shopped and came back for the kittens and continued down to the vet. The girls had fleas. I didn't know it. And they went to Hydrox. That poor cat started scratching and scratching. I didn't know what it was; in my defense, I spread-eagled him on my lap more than once, looking for fleas and didn't see one. My FIL even put him on his lap and didn't see anything. It was hard to see much with an all-black kitty. Called the vet and took him down. Well! The vet took a comb through that boy and the fleas just scattered. I was aghast. They were in my house, too! Hydrox got a flea bath and spent the night at the vet. I came home and had the house fumigated. End of flea problem. When I brought Amber Louise into the house as a kitten, she had a couple fleas. But every morning and night, I bathed her in warm water in the bathroom sink and then combed her out. The other cats were too old and tough....evidently not good flea material. We didn't have a big problem that time.

Not crazy about flies, but they're more of a hassle than anything. There I am lying on the couch with a good book and three cats. Just about the time, I'm ready to fall asleep, I hear, "Buzzzzzzz, buzzzzzz!" The cats hear it, too, and the ears immediately perk. I know that I might as well get up and deal with the fly, otherwise the girls will kill themselves trying to get to it.

Spiders. Many years ago, when BooBoo was just a RugKitten, not even one year old, he was down at the front door, playing with a bug. I never gave it a second thought. Took a load of laundry down to the washer. When I came back up, he was just sitting there. Not doing anything, just sitting there. And I knew....he ate the bug. I yelled for Rick and he came running. We called the e-vet, picked the boy up and ran down to the hospital. Boo was in my arms and he started screaming, just screaming and I hope I never, ever hear that screaming again. Turns out the bug was a spider and when Boo ate the spider, said spider bit the inside of his throat. He was treated with some kind of anti-venom stuff and spent the night in an oxygen tent. We were scared to death we were going to lose him and the vet even said it was touch-and-go. He honestly didn't know what would happen.

The next morning, the vet called and said, "You wanna come down and pick this kid up? He's screaming for breakfast and he won't eat our food!" I immediately went down to the hospital and brought Mr. Boo home and gave him breakfast. He came through it fine, but he lost one of his nine lives that time. We lost our wallets, too; that vet bill was terribly expensive. (You know, thinking back to our vet visits sometimes, it's a wonder our vet even trusts us with cats!)

If I see any bug, ANY bug in our house, I kill it. Anything that flies or crawls or anything else. It's dead. Better the bug than Mr. Boo.

japanese beetles? they're just horrible, and in the years they do come they come en masse. that reminds me of locusts. one year i 'toured' quite a bit of the US (and parts of Canada) in my van (vw bus), and while driving through part of kansas i drove through locusts. incredible experience, and i've never seen so many dead bugs stuck on my windshield as i did then.

poor hydrox, and poor you! fleas are just horrible. there's really no way but to go to war with them when they're in our homes.

oh, wow!!! after that experience (with your boo), i'd kill any and every bug that dared enter my house too.

Question of the Day, Sunday, July 26, 2015

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