dumbest insect of the summer

[JohnRoberts]

Why do small insects you can't hear otherwise always fly into our ears?
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This weeks example of natural selection in action is the wasp that built a nest on my fly swatter sitting out in my car port. That ended badly for the larvae...

JR

 

[crazydoc]

I've taken a number of ticks and cockroaches (I think the roaches are too dumb to turn around and crawl out) out of ears, but never an earwig - I guess they just burrow through into the brain (see Night Gallery -The Caterpillar -for those too young to remember.)

Edit: Actually the roaches are too big to turn around - just too dumb to back out.

 

[JohnRoberts]

ear wigs were made famous by that star trek movie, but probably a fictional treatment.

Cockroaches are smart for dumb insects. They sit around outside my kitchen door and sneak in when they can. I kill a number of adult cockroaches (palmetto bugs) and almost zero young-uns.

I have been pretty lucky about ticks but try to be alert around low hanging tree branches.

JR

 

[cyrano]

Cockroaches are smart...

You can even get a DIY remote control kit for cockroaches. You may want to use a Madagascar hisser (Gromphadorhina portentosa). Easier to place the electrodes. Can even be ordered online.

Cockroaches also seem to have a social system that enables them to work better in groups, like ants and bees, but without the colony formation.

 

[boji]

I've taken a number of ticks and cockroaches out of ears

Ack.

You can even get a DIY remote control kit for cockroaches...use a Madagascar hisser (Gromphadorhina portentosa). Easier to place the electrodes.

ACK!

 

[JohnRoberts]

Palmetto bugs are roaches that self identify as small birds.

JR