Monday, January 26, 2009

What is it ?


This is a bug we commonly found in our house in the jungle. Several of us have tried to identify the bug and have failed to do so. Does anyone know what this is?

We called it the 'alien mutated spider bug', but I am sure there is a better name out there.

What would you call it?

35 comments:

Dawn said...

Just yuck!!

ABNPOPPA said...

JM,

You were very close. The correct name is the 6 legged, long antennae, dual pincher, spider bug. I remember it well from my late nights in the 60's along with my Bob Dylan and Jimi Hendrix moments!

I don't have the slightest idea but seemed like a name. Been a long day. Have a nice day in the Jungle!

Pops

Anonymous said...

That's a "Corporal Holt, smash that thing with the shovel" bug.

Liz said...

I'm with Dawn...

Anonymous said...

I don't know what it is but I hope it stays in Venezuela!

Findalis said...

I'd call the exterminators in on that one. And pray that they could destroy it.

Happy Elf Mom (Christine) said...

Can I guess "scorpion?" It really looks like a daddy longleg and a scorpion mixed together. :]

Elephantschild said...

I'm going with "creepy scorpion," although "double ugly" works, too.

Sarah Joy said...

How about this:

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!

Unknown said...

Just stopping in to say hi. Did you see the photos I put up of dad?

Becky said...

That would be a "run screaming through the jungle" spider, otherwise known as arachniphobia.

You commonly saw these? Ugh!

Mountain Mama said...

This is a Horriditis-avoidabilitis! (not really)
I cannot imagine a spider looking thing that size. It's like something from a science fiction movie!

~~Deby said...

I would call it DEAD--ASAP and any of it's family members..then fumigate...I told you I am a wimp....
Deby

Sarah Joy said...

Rita, the real question is, has it bitten/stung anyone?

Amanda said...

Oh Lord, please do not let that thing appear in my dreams tonight.

Shane Rios said...

its called a spiderfly lol no not really sure does look like it tho'.

Unknown said...

well that is what happens when, a scorpion and a daddy long-leg have a a baby, mean while in the jungle a grass hopper and a tarantula also have a baby. then theses two babies become demon possessed and have a baby while on crack

Charles said...

A BIG HARRY GOMER..... mash it quick

Unknown said...

I would call it CREEPY.

Thursday's Child said...

I call that "get me back to Lebanon where we just have jumping tarantulas"!

I believe the more common name though is, "Oh, ****! Get in here and kill it NOW!"

~Karen_ said...

It makes the spiders here seem miniature! Is it really that big?

CrimeSceneFairy said...

oh. wow. i think that's called the SCEERY!!!

Jane said...

That is the scariest thing I have ever seen!! Are they poisonous???
I think those are the varmits that are better off DEAD!!!

Elephantschild said...

I FOUND IT, I FOUND IT!!!

It's neither quite a spider, nor quite a scorpion, although it's in the Arachnid family; it's in a class by itself. (NO KIDDING!)

They're called Amblypygi or "whip spiders." They're the only known social spiders - the mothers have been known to caress their young w/ those *things* she's got.
They don't make webs, and can scoot sideways. (Ewwwww!)

Here's more:
http://www.physorg.com/news92921107.html

Rita Loca said...

Elephants Child. KEWL! And they do scoot sideways!!!

Anonymous said...

The biologist in me thinks that it is way cool, but if I saw it in person I would probably run for the can of Baygon.

BTW, looks like something out of the movie Alians

Anonymous said...

I'm with you on the can of Baygon. That's my preferred method of exterminating such critters. You don't have to get too close--and you've no innards to clean off the floor after you're done! The only one I ever saw alive (in 18 years in Venezuela) wasn't in my house, and therefore, escaped death by Baygon!

This one was already dead when I saw it. We decided a ruler was a must in the photo in order to show the size of that thing!

Rita Loca said...

Rosie,
We had quite a few over the years. I think the palm roof was infested. A good reason to have netting.

Anonymous said...

Speaking of netting... .

I still have a chuckle over my folks visiting while we lived in a palm roof, mud and pole walls and dirt floor house in Toki. My family was sleeping in hammocks with netting, of course. My folks weren't going to do well in hammocks so we make a makeshift bed on the floor with a mosquito net hanging above it.

That first night I took great care in explaining the need to be sure the netting was tucked in on all sides--completely. They complied, PRESUMING this was best to keep the mosquitoes, and therefore malaria, at bay. It was years later before I explained to them the netting was really to keep the rats off the beds and out of the hammocks! Ha!

Sometimes what you don't know really doesn't hurt you!

Gayle said...

n the south here in the US it's called a "Vinigar Bug". Google it, Rita.

When we lived in El Paso a huge one was in the middle of the living room floor. I didn't know what it was. My son was four and was going to pick it up! I didn't know whether it was poisonous or not. I went and got my neighbor who had lived in Texas all of his life and he said it was a vinigar bug. He swept it out onto the porch and killed it with a broom so I could smell it and it smelled like someone had poured out a bottle of vinigar, which definitely explains why they call it that. :)

If you google the spider bug you'll see the difference. It's definitely a vinigar bug. They creeped up here from Mexico. They probably creeped into Mexico too. LOL!

Elephantschild said...

/rant on

RE: the can of Baygon.
In West Africa years ago, we could still buy bug spray made primarily w/ DDT. It worked INSTANTLY. Awesome.

As opposed to the oh-so-civilised US where we use "safe" bugspray that takes 1/2 a can's worth to kill a roach so slowly that it's got time to scoot into my laundry pile or under my freezer before it dies.

/rant off

MaMa Vaughn said...

GROSS!! Call it "DEAD"!!!

When we told the story of you and the worms adventure....to all the kids you should have seen their faces!

Terri said...

You can call it a whipspider if you want. I call it a "I-just-messed-my-pants" spider.

Norberto Kurrle said...

I've never seen this one...and we have many living in our abode!

Rebecca said...

Normally I'd be fascinated. However, having lived in a house with wolf spiders and tarantula's bigger than my hand I'm not fascinated. Just thoroughly disgusted.