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Know your beetles: The whitespotted sawyer
By adamg on Fri, 05/22/2009 - 9:41am
Jennifer Forman Orth introduces us to the whitespotted sawyer beetle, which people sometimes confuse with the dread Asian Longhorned Beetle, and which is now emerging from wherever it is they emerge in the springtime. She provides a handy guide to telling the two apart.
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Field guide to bugs in our house
Tiny black beetle: Smush.
Brown moth: Kill on sight and then holler "those goddamn grain moths are back, where the hell are those traps?"
Brown moth larvae: Smush, throw out the box of cereal you found it in and weren't going to eat anyway, and holler even louder "I'm going to Tags to get more traps!"
Spider: Live and let live, unless you find it in the bathroom or near the bed. Also, do not name any spider you suffer to live, because someone else might come by with the vacuum cleaner and poor dear Aranea Cavatica will meet her end.
House centipede: HOLY CRAP KILL IT WITH FIRE
I presume you mean Scutigera
I presume you mean Scutigera coleoptrata?
You'll be happy to know they're better able to hunt down and kill those other icky bugs then spiders are, and without the silk webbing. Only downside is they're creepy as hell, like the dark and startle you as much as you them when you turn on a light, and fall apart when touched.
I've tried to subscribe to
I've tried to subscribe to "the enemy of my enemy is my friend" philosophy when it comes to those critters as well, cause I do hear they're good when it comes to pest control.
But damn, they're fast, and those zillion legs make 'em look like they're floating around, and I've had one too many run up the wall close to my face when I'm reading late at night.
The cat, though, thinks they make excellent light snacks, and wishes there were more.
Let house centipedes live
I started seeing the occasional house centipede after the neighbor woman in our building managed to get a bed bug infestation that had not yet spread beyond one bedroom.
Bed bugs are evil bastards, hard to kill, and spread easily.
The landlord managed to exterminate the bugs in the room, and then I started seeing the house centipedes.
I figured that, as long as we are seeing house centipedes, they are finding evil bugs to eat, and I should let them live to do their job.
A year later, we haven't noticed bed bugs anywhere.
You're making a strong case
You're making a strong case for 'em, and it is comforting to know that they help make sure you're not getting bedbugs.
I'll be happy to wave at them from a distance and let them do their thang. However, I cannot guarantee the survival of those who think it's great fun to run up the wall and say hi. My reaction to that is primal and instinctive.
from the trees!
The whitespotted sawyer lives the first part of its life as a worm-like larva (think: beetle grub), chewing tunnels through the wood of a pine or fir tree. After about two years, it pupates inside the wood (a stage similar to the cocoon/chrysalis of a butterfly or moth) and then in the spring, it reaches adulthood, bores its way out of the wood, and emerges as an adult.
(duh! ;-))