BS: more from the x-files

Subject: BS: more from the x-files
From: GUEST,dianavan
Date: 10 Apr 06 - 09:13 PM

Here I have been laughing along with Bobert's little, green worm story when lo and behold...

I took the compost bucket out to the bin yesterday to discover another nightmare. The bin had been emptied and I was expecting a totally clean composter but when I took off the lid, there were hundreds of fat larvae squirming around in the bottom of the bin. They were very, very big - 4-5 cm (1 1/2") and about 1/2" wide, very fat and black. As I looked on in amazement, they began to hatch and a head poked out. All of a sudden I realized they were wasps. Not your ordinary, run of the mill wasps but huge, fat, black and very ugly.

I was terrified. I couldn't think of how to destroy them without contaminating my garden soil so I ran for the bag of lime with a tin can in hand. I sprinkled 5 cans of lime on them and shut the lid. I checked on them today and it looks like they are dead. I sure hope so.

I've seen lots of wasps, hornets and bees in my day but nothing as big, fat and ugly as those scary critters. What is really puzzling is that the bin had been emptied and placed there less than two weeks ago. They must have crawled in from the bottom. The top was closed.

Help! Any idea what they might be?

Subject: RE: BS: more from the x-files
From: SINSULL
Date: 10 Apr 06 - 09:31 PM

Did you water the compost? Bobert, if I remember correctly, flushed his infamous larvas down the john. Maybe... You people and your worms. I really have to find some new friends.

Subject: RE: BS: more from the x-files
From: GUEST,dianavan
Date: 10 Apr 06 - 09:32 PM

I think they are actually pupae of some sort but I can see the faces inside and it sure looks like the face of a hornet or a wasp. I hope I haven't just killed some beneficial insect or butterflies or something.

Ugh! I totally panicked. All I could think of was KILL IT!!!

Subject: RE: BS: more from the x-files
From: Ebbie
Date: 10 Apr 06 - 11:07 PM

dainavan, how from Bobert do you live? If it is more than 1000 miles we are in deep trouble.

Subject: RE: BS: more from the x-files
From: wysiwyg
Date: 10 Apr 06 - 11:24 PM

Oh my GOD!

NATURE!!!! Arghhhhhhhh!

Run for your LIVES....

:~)

~Susan

Subject: RE: BS: more from the x-files
From: GUEST,dianavan
Date: 10 Apr 06 - 11:42 PM

No, I didn't water the compost. There was no compost in the bin. It was empty except for these horrible, slow moving wigglers. I think they crawled up into the bin from the ground underneath.

I live in British Columbia and Bobert is in Virginia or somewhere south. Way south.

I am not making this up.

Subject: RE: BS: more from the x-files
From: Donuel
Date: 10 Apr 06 - 11:59 PM

I think Don Firth will be furious. I believe you wiped out the last Alpha Centurians on Earth.

Subject: RE: BS: more from the x-files
From: Helen
Date: 11 Apr 06 - 04:03 AM

Donuel, are the Alpha Centurians related to the Chocolate Barbarians that we ate at a work Christmas party once? :-)

And the alien worms must have migrated north through the soil from Bobert's place.

Helen

Subject: RE: BS: more from the x-files
From: GUEST,dianavan
Date: 11 Apr 06 - 11:29 PM

I have not solved the mystery but the best explanation is that they might be the pupa of the tomato hornworm which emerges as the hawk moth in Spring. Then again, it might be the dreaded gypsy moth. They also look like silk worms. All three pupae are very similar.

When I googled pupa, I found alot of information. Did you know they are a delicacy in some countries? I think thats what bothered me the most. They were fat and juicy looking - like something that could be eaten. Too bad I doused them with lime. I should have experimented a little more.

Subject: RE: BS: more from the x-files
From: Sorcha
Date: 11 Apr 06 - 11:36 PM

Bet they were tomato hornworms....mouths connected to assholes. When they pupate out, they are sphinx moths...same critter, but our horn worms are brown, not black. Start out green, then turn brown. Nasty looking.

Subject: RE: BS: more from the x-files
From: Bunnahabhain
Date: 12 Apr 06 - 09:36 AM

Well, they won't have been wasps, unless you managed to put it down over a nest buried in the soil. Depending of the temperatures recently, the nest could have been asleep then, and woken up since. Only likley if you've not used that area much at all for the last year.

Subject: RE: BS: more from the x-files
From: Windsinger
Date: 12 Apr 06 - 12:54 PM

Dianavan, if those creeped you out, then for the love of catnip don't go see "Slither". ;)

Although unless you're a hungry robin, I suppose hundreds of Unidentified Wriggly Invertebrates is a sight no one wants to wake up to. yech.

Slán,

~Fionn

www.geocities.com/children_of_lir

Subject: RE: BS: more from the x-files
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 12 Apr 06 - 05:02 PM

YE Gods... I had that book way back in the late 1970's!!! It's a pretty gory story..... didn't realise they'd made a film of it now. The other 'Slither' isn't the same at all.

LTS

Subject: RE: BS: more from the x-files
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 13 Apr 06 - 08:56 AM

There are a couple of "look like wasps" large critters seen occasionally in my area (Kansas) but they're rare enough that I don't even remember what grandpa called the last one I saw (other than the ^$%#@!! part). Vague recollection is that they were more more common in orchards, and the one or two I've seen were implied to be damaging to apple(?) and perhaps peach(?) crops. The three of four that I've seen all appeared near small stands of pear trees. They nest in holes in the ground (like bumble bees?) and presumedly would pupate in the soil(?). Size was about as described - 3 or 4 cm long - in the adult. The body is much "fatter" than for typical wasps, but the general appearance, yellow/black stiped body, is definitely "waspish."

So far as I knew, they don't attack people, but they look like they could . . ..

John

Subject: RE: BS: more from the x-files
From: GUEST,Coyote Breath with irony galore
Date: 14 Apr 06 - 12:11 AM

good job!

It's ugly!

I don't know what it is!

I'll kill it!

Get a grip. It's part of the world we live in. There are many things in the world we live in that are unpleasant to experience. Ya don't like that? I suggest you vacate the premises and leave the 'natives' alone.

Probably kill snakes too dontcha?

CB

Subject: RE: BS: more from the x-files
From: GUEST,dianavan
Date: 14 Apr 06 - 05:44 AM

No, I don't kill snakes or spiders either but guess what, I'm glad I killed them to save my tomatoes. I'm sure they'll make great compost; now that they're dead.

I certainly did not want them breeding in my compost bin.

You obviously buy your food at Safeway, Coyote Breath.