3.21.2010

creatures I have seen in my apartment

I hope I am not tempting Fate by saying that the Brooklyn brownstone I live in has been uncommonly free of the New York City pest trifecta: cockroaches, mice, rats. Nor have I ever had a bed bug visitation. For this, I am very very thankful. Perhaps because there are a lot of trees and Prospect Park is just up the street, I have had a number of other callers.
Many of the images here are not of my specific creatures— they are from the delightful What's That Bug? A folksy, useful site whose authors attempt do just that— WTB? identifies readers' entomological sources of distress, disgust, or wonder from emailed images. Fielding everything from beauty shots to scenes of carnage to drawings (bottom) the authors are able to impart an impressive amount of information considering they are both MFAs and teach photography in Los Angeles!
House Centipede
Have seen several of these periodically— I can't even bear to talk about this.
Moth
Unremarkable sightings, cat gets agitated
Spider Beetle 
(evidently harmless but it looks alarmingly like a tick to us inveterate urban dwellers!)

Brown Marmorated Stink Bug
Truthfully, I am not sure I saw this exact bug– it didn't "produce a pungent, malodorous chemical" 
when I scooped it up on a paper and threw it out the window
Daddy Long Legs
The last one I saw was about 5 inches across leg to leg. Hunched, unmoving, for 2 days in the cove molding near my ceiling it was like a visitor from a Tim Burton movie.
I also have small spiders, but I couldnt find an accurate image— they all seemed much bigger than what I have seen
little Black Ant
For two seasons I had a trail of ants coming and going single file each way from my west window. Very upsetting as I tried to obliterate them and they just. kept. coming.
Praying Mantis
This is my photo— and this is my mantis! I discovered it one night inside my apartment when its rustling against the window woke me. I was petrified since I didnt know what it was— it was just tremendous. Somehow I thought I'd shooed it out the window. By the time it appeared again, inside, I knew what it was and gingerly picked it up. I could feel its little tiny hands grasping as I flung it out the window. It (or a relative) showed up again on my geraniums.
reader-submitted drawing from the site What's That Bug?

3 comments:

la_sale_bete said...

I found one of those house centipedes in my house yesterday. We get a few of them each year, as well as an annual cockroach. Spring has sprung in Brooklyn!

Sophie Munns said...

Oh Angela,
always something to intrigue, delight or fascinate at your blog!
Hope you are enjoying spring and yu do continue to avoid that trifecta!
We have geckos climbing our walls herein the sub-tropics. I find them the nicest indoor creatures ever to have graced my home. Some are very tiny - all are well-behaved!
ciao,
S

angvou said...

Ha! Sophie how charming! You have tiny well-behaved geckos! They never yammer on about car insurance, then?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=acCfnwTpdxU

Our only exposure to geckos is in the GEICO ads. I wonder why he has a British accent instead of Australian...?

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