No new assassin bug news.
But, I have a little garden, and I’ve noticed it’s being eaten by some
beetles and some flies and aphids and the other usual suspects, so I decided to
order some praying mantis egg cases.
Here they are:
Well it’s been almost 2 weeks with no praying mantis
evidence at all. The egg cases appear to
have all hatched, and they seem to have all run off. My girlfriend found a lone healthy-looking mantis on some cilantro plants that we have and it was kind enough to pose long enough
for me to get a few shots. Noticeably
bigger, as expected, but also much greener than the young ones we observed. There has been a noticeable reduction in the bugs in our garden, but the reasons are unclear as the garden-eating bugs seemed to have just about disappeared way before the mantises were hatched, so it is unclear at this point.
My girlfriend has been integral in this whole mantis project
and she called me while I was out to say they were all in the pool and she was
saving them as fast as she could. Well, she
pulled about 20 of them out of the pool and totally saved them before I could
get home and close the pool cover. After
that, I saw that they all seemed to be emigrating, heading West, directly
toward the pool, and were climbing over the cover, and on to greener pastures apparently.
(05/29/11) They were really cheap and took about 2 weeks to hatch, but
with our Texas sun and it being a hot year and all, I’m afraid not all that
were supposed to hatch, made it. We only
had about 50 or 60 come out from an advertised 150-600 possible. We kept them in the shade and sprayed them
with a little water from time to time.
Here are the new instars:
(This is from February) OK, another encounter, this time inside the house. Lumbering along in my hall, and there are
children in the house with their rooms just a few feet away. Sorry to say, I overreacted, possibly, and
dispatched it. No photo this time. RIP
Tonight I caught another one out of season, very small and immature, and not worthy of photographing. Small, green, but with the same greedy and deadly mouthparts that I have come to know so well. It was resting on the chair on my back porch that I use regularly, ready to inject me with enzymes designed to liquefy my internal organs. People, look sharp!
I will be looking into having a Lucite paperweight custom-made from a fresh specimen (perhaps a project for a university student?). Barring that, I’ll just buy a $15 paperweight kit and glue one of my pictures onto the bottom of it just to get me through these last stages of this obsession.
Last Friday I was getting ready to send off my specimen to the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention in Georgia when I decided to give them a call first. I reached a very nice lady there on first try, and we had a very interesting and informative conversation. Partly because I had current pictures posted here, we were able to determine that my species genus is not one that transmits Chaga’s. Whew. Yes, she agreed that was an egg mass as well. She sent me an information sheet describing the ones in this area, and I’m pretty sure I’ve never seen one of those around here. So my now dead specimen has been disposed of, as well as the eggs, which were not looking too healthy anyway from what I could tell.
All is well. :-)
End of blog? We’ll see.
Thanks for taking the time to read this. Please be sure and post a comment if you like.
James
OK, a few days ago on Halloween afternoon I found another dreaded red Zelus specimen in my back yard, this time a good-sized lively one, that I was able to capture and photograph. Holy moley, I think it even layed a few eggs in my collection jar (or perhaps it just produced some waste).
Today I got a callback from a nice lady at the Texas Department of State Health Services who referred me to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Georgia. There is an established procedure for specimen submission to test for Chaga’s, and she emailed the details. The gist is you request a FedEx number, prepare it securely as they request and ship it to them for free analysis to see if the T. cruzi is present. I’ll be working on that, like, IMMEDIATELY. Naturally, I had to snap some pics for more documentation:
There’s a little piece of fluff on its leg…but what’s that other stuff? Looks like eggs…
Good view of the mouthparts as well as the underbelly I think.
My best Photoshop effort to show the orange-ish mass
OK, I’m getting itchy all over and this is creepin’ me out, so I gotta go.
After nearly two years of waiting and watching, I finally have collected a healthy mature specimen of my assassin bug, again from my back yard. My assassin bug traps didn’t work, he just buzzed by me while I was starting the BBQ, and paused on the side of my house long enough for me to retrieve my collection jar and catch it. Similar in size and structure to my friend that bit me way back and started this whole saga, this one is reddish-orange instead of greenish. October seems to be a dangerous month for my back yard! Sorry to say, this one’s got to go to the health department for analysis for Trypanosoma cruzi, the parasite that causes Chagas’ Disease.
Once captured, I was able to take a few pictures, here are the two best:
This one was just about an inch long. Note the formidable mouth parts designed for injection and sucking. Sheesh.
Perhaps now I can get some closure on this little drama in my life.
Thanks for stopping in!
Still no Assassin Bug sightings. Still waiting. But November will be here soon enough.
This is a walking stick I found just outside my front door of my home at night here in NW Austin, Texas on 06/17/06. I would say it was about 3 1/2 to 4 inches, perhaps a female? It climbed over the door threshold, and was in my house when I took this. (there’s some whitish hair on the right, from one of our pets no doubt, and a bit of fluff on its neck) You may notice there is a missing front leg. I tried to sharpen the inset of the head to show the socket where it attached. (Youch!)
I understand that they are able to actually grow back a leg, but I’m wondering how it happened? I’m thinking either a predator (bird?), a conflict with a competitor for mating, or an actual mating which possibly got a bit ugly. Also, as I was encouraging it to leave the house, it began swaying back and forth as if being blown in the wind. Indeed its excellent camouflage includes this behavior as well.
I recently learned the order name Phasmatodea comes from Latin “phasma” for ghost because of their excellent camouflage.
My Assassin Bug traps don’t seem to be working, they’re just collecting dirt and decayed vegetation material. I’ll just wait.
Last weekend (06/16/06), I noticed quite a large wasp buzzing persistently around a palm plant in my back yard. A few attempts with my camera and playing with its settings allowed me to catch this picture.
I believe this is a Cicada Killer, perhaps a Sphecius speciosus specimen. This one was a full 2 inches in length, BIG. He really appeared docile though, and allowed me to get within a few inches to get this shot. I suspect this was a male guarding a nest. I actually found a nest in another (relatively far off) part of the yard:
The next day, the nest appeared to be once again open for business, but I observed no activity.
If you just look around you carefully, it’s amazing what you can find that is right in front of you. A person doesn’t have to go anywhere to observe life’s wonders. They are all around us.
This wonderful site has published my pic and story. They’ve got lots of fascinating information about insects and other arthropods, and LOADS of pictures that are awesome…see for yourself:
www.whatsthatbug.com
Well, despite setting traps and frequent visits to the back yard, there are no more assassin bug sightings of late. I believe I will just have to wait until they are in season again.
-Looking Around Anxiously
There are over 1,000 species of Assassin Bugs around the world
My blood test for Chagas disease was negative. Yay!
So, it’s come to this: now I have homemade assassin bug traps in my back yard. I’ve set extra towels on the back porch where they were before, and half-buried some small pieces of PVC pipe in some leaves where they breed. Let them hide. It’s been several weeks, nothing yet, and no new sightings. I suspect I may have to wait until next Fall to get a good specimen.
I can wait. The health department will still be here.
…Not Bitter AT ALL
U.S. Post Office stamp circa 1999
The story continues as I wait to hear back from the doctor specialist and the health department. I’m thinking of setting some extra towels out on the back porch and leaving the light on more often. Also, thinking about making an Assassin Bug trap, perhaps some 1-foot lengths of PVC pipe lightly buried in the leaf piles. No telling what I might end up with. Also, I’m thinking of changing the name of my business to reflect this life experience. I have obtained better items for collection and examination of specimens as well. I now keep my collection jar at the back door for quick collection.
BTW, I had an observation beehive in my bedroom when I was about 13 years old. There was a plastic tube we ran to a small hole we cut in my bedroom window’s screen. My fascination with arthropods began at an early age.
Waiting to hear from the doctor’s office…
Assassin bugs inject a combination of venom and digestive enzymes
The Assassin Bug I caught a few weeks ago lived only 48 hours. I was tempted to feed it, but didn’t, partly because I was afraid it would escape, and didn’t feel like giving in to watching an aggressive bug do its thing just to get my jollies. So, other than capturing it, I didn’t do anything to hurt it, and was planning to let it go after asking the health department if they wanted it for examination. Alas, I caught it late on a Friday, it died Sunday night before I could get it to the health department on Monday. I still have what’s left of it, just in case. So perhaps it didn’t die in vain. However, my feeling now is that is was very young, and not likely to have the Chagas parasite, at least not yet, so it may be of extremely limited value. I continue to try and capture a larger mature specimen for this purpose.
I called the county folks on Monday, was told to leave a message. No reply. I emailed the story and included the digital picture, again no reply. The Chagas may be infecting my cells as I write this. I’ve called the infectious diseases doctor back to request the blood test for Chagas. I’m carrying the picture still and am trying to educate my neighbors to the presence and the dangers of this little fellow.
The Assassin Bug is considered beneficial because it controls populations of other arthropods. That’s great, just don’t pick them up or touch them. I’m concerned for our dog that goes in the back yard regularly, as well as our outdoor cat that hunts in the same area. We have no children here, but our neighbors have kids playing outside all the time. I guess if we didn’t have Assassin Bugs we’d REALLY be overrun by insects, because, believe me, we’ve got plenty here in central Texas in both variety and volume, including Cicadas, Golden Orb Weavers (very persistent), fire ants, scorpions, centipedes, etc. Last summer I caught a Cicada Killer wasp, absolutely the biggest and most menacing wasp I have ever seen in my life. Sounded like a motorboat when it flew.
This is a better picture of the same species, Zelus renardii, attacking a cotton bollworm.
It seemed the more I learned about my assassin and Chagas disease, the less I wanted to know, and the more afraid I became. Especially when I read they attack prey much larger than themselves, and I finally realized that he had tried to poison me and liquify my internal organs for food! OK, sorry for the melodrama, but that’s basically correct, and it certainly explains the shudder and weird “fight or flight” feeling that I got. I was at my doctor’s office for other reasons, and I mentioned this experience to him, and showed him my best picture, and he expressed concern and referred me to an infectious diseases specialist “just to be sure.”
The infectious diseases nurse did a double take on the phone when I mentioned the Assassin Bug, I don’t think she’d ever heard of this. (This was a large, major metropolitan hospital here in Austin by the way, the largest of our 3, privately owned, arguably the best.) The doctor seemed fascinated and listened to my story, and then asked if my liver was swollen or hurting (no). Really, I went there to get peace of mind and put this whole thing to rest, and I ended up telling him that all in all, I was feeling just fine, so he didn’t seem worried at all. However, he said it was a health hazard, and should be reported to the county health department, possibly the state health department. We parted ways and I thought the story was over. Well, this was before I researched Chagas Disease.
Early last November, 2005, I was in the back yard of my house here in northwest Austin, Texas, when I was bitten by a bug. He had been hiding in my work gloves, which I had left on my back porch for several weeks. Since I normally keep them inside, I was concerned that a spider or something may be hidden in there, so before I put them on, I shook them out and even squeezed each finger to kill anything that might be hiding. I guess that’s when he got grumpy, because about 1 minute after I had put the gloves on and begun my yard work (picking up leaves), I received a most painful bite on my little finger, much like a severe wasp sting. Here’s the scary part: a shudder immediately went over my entire body, and a chill went down my spine, sort of an “I’m in trouble” feeling in general, like I needed to run or do something immediately. I remembered getting a similarly strange bite from the previous year as well and I though, whatever that was that got me last year has gotten me again. Removing the gloves and examining the bite revealed a small, perfectly round puncture, with blood beginning to ooze out. It was painful, and swelling began immediately. I swore off using gloves for the moment and continued my work.
About 30 min. later, the swelling was going down, and the pain had nearly completely stopped, though it was a bit tender to the touch still (it took 2 weeks to heal completely). I got a bit worried, and thinking perhaps a little investigation was in order, since we have both the Black Widow and the Brown Recluse spiders in this area, I turned my glove inside out and out came a small greenish-brownish bug, a little over an inch long, with wings, and big front legs with debris on them. I quickly ran in and got a plastic dish and caught the little guy (gal?). I did my best to photograph it, but my cheap camera just wouldn’t focus on something so small, sorry.
Good light and magnification helped me to make the amateur identification that I had an Assassin Bug on my hands, my best guess is that it was a Zelus renardii, the Leafhopper Assassin Bug. A close look at his formidable needle-like articulated mouthparts caused me to do a bit more research whereupon I learned about their predatory nature and habits and such. I let him go unharmed (mistake?). Much later, I was to learn they are a vector for Chagas Disease if infected with the parasite Trypanosoma cruzi. Great. And I had been bitten.
That very night, I found 4 more, 2 of which were even larger than the first, hiding in a towel that was hanging from the side of my house, same place. I left them alone. I continue to see them to this day: just a few weeks ago I caught an immature but lively specimen apparently hunting prey buzzing around my back porch light at night. I also remembered that I had had the same kind of bite the previous year, doing the same thing in the same place, picking up leaves in my back yard. I’ve never looked at a pile of leaves the same since.
This is the actual bug that bit me. Yes, it’s blurry, it’s not your eyes.