Wild Facts

Photo from Wikimedia

I hope everyone is enjoying their long weekend (if you are at work today, then I hope you enjoyed your regular ol’ weekend). So I was going through some pictures on Facebook today and there was a cute one of my 2 year old niece holding a Madagascar Hissing Cockroach (which was part of an exhibit at the Jungle Cat Party). I am still impressed how brave she is since I am not sure if I would have wanted to hold the big, ugly insect. I figured talking about this massive cockroach would be a fun way to start the week. Okay, so maybe my idea of fun is a little messed up but what can you do, right?

The first thing we need to discuss is just how big the Madagascar Hissing Cockroach is. Well this rather large cockroach from Madagascar is typically somewhere between 5 – 7.5 cm (2 – 3″) long. Now this doesn’t sound that big but I want you to measure out 3 inches and then picture that being a cockroach. I bet now you can see why these insects made it onto an episode of Fear Factor (for some reason that episode has always stuck with me). The male Hissing Cockroaches even looks more impressive with their large horns, which gives them a rather unique appearance.

Okay, so why do the males have such cool horns? For the same reason moose have big antlers! That’s right, when two aggressive males meet up, they will enter into battle. And just like our ungulate friends, male Hissing Cockroaches will ram each other with their horns. During these battles there is quite a bit of hissing with the winner hissing much more than the losing cockroach. I guess it is the winners way of smack talking their opponent. This hissing also helps us understand the hierarchy of a Hissing Cockroach colony.

Photo from WIkimedia

Oh yeah, these large insects will often live in colonies. But don’t worry, for the most part these cockroaches are not pests and don’t generally live in people’s houses. They prefer living on the forest floor where they will feast on fruit and plant material. Just so you know, if they did raid your fridge, a large colony of these cockroaches could consume one large carrot in a day. That may not sound like a big deal but try telling that to the carrot.

That does it for today’s wonderful Wild Fact on the Madagascar Hissing Cockroach. I have to thank my two year old niece, Camryn, for being brave and inspiring today’s Fact! Enjoy the rest of your day, folks.

Photo by Kynn (Wikimedia)

Here we are at the middle of another week and I have another cool animal for us to study. Now I know most of you don’t care for insects but I think you will really like this one. Especially since the Tarantula Hawk may be beneficial to the people that are petrified of spiders but we will discuss that a little later on. By now you have probably figured out that the Tarantula Hawk is not actually a bird but a spider wasp. We will not have to travel far to observe these interesting insects since they are pretty much found worldwide, including Southeast Asia, Australia, Africa and of course the Americas. So, open the front door and see if you can spot one from your doorstep.

You can probably guess how the Tarantula Hawk is a friend of arachnophobes everywhere. Yes, these large wasps will hunt down the large, creepy spiders for her larvae. That’s right, the female wasp will capture, sting and paralyze the helpless Tarantula before the caring mother drags the heavy spider body back to her burrow or specially prepared nest. Once she gets it home, she will lay a single egg in the spiders body. Okay, this is the really gross part…. once the egg hatches, the larvae will bust through the abdomen and land in the stomach to start feeding.

Tarantula Hawk Taking a Spider Home (Photo from Wikimedia)

This clever little larvae will try to avoid the major organs so the spider stays fresh. After a few weeks of this, the larvae will turn into an adult and proceed to the real world by ripping through the stomach of the poor tarantula. I never thought I would feel bad for a huge spider, but I kinda do. What a horrible way for your life to end.  Just so you know, the male Tarantula Hawk is much nicer and doesn’t actually hunt. Instead, these peaceful guys just feed on the flowers of milkweeds and other plants.

Tarantula Hawk Fast Fact – This wasp is fairly docile and will not sting unless provoked. With that said, I would highly recommend not provoking this giant wasp. Their sting will cause excruciating pain for about 3 minutes and has been rated near the top of the Schmidt Sting Pain Index. In fact, the only other animal with a more painful sting is the bullet ant. Again, I think not provoking the Tarantula Hawk should be right up there with not tugging on Superman’s cape or pulling the mask off the ol’ Lone Ranger.

That does it for another Wild Fact. Have a great day and I will see you tomorrow.

Photo by Fir0002 (Wikimedia)

Now I know, I don’t get into Politics too much on this blog, considering it is a wildlife blog and all, but I did want to take a second to offer my deepest condolences to the Layton family. The passing of Jack Layton, an honest, inspiring and courageous politician as well as human being, has definitely left a large hole in the hearts of all Canadians. Regardless of your political views, it is difficult to criticize this man for his integrity, passion and desire to shape a better country for all of us. I only wish more politicians were built from the same mould as Mr. Jack Layton. You will be truly missed. No doubt he would want the country to continue moving forward and so we will.

With that said, let’s get into today’s Wild Fact. With winter fast approaching, I figured we should take a look at an insect or two before they all head for their annual winter sleep. I am sure we are all familiar with today’s animal, the infamous Grasshopper. There are two main types of Grasshoppers. We have the Long-Horned and the Short-Horned Grasshoppers. As you can imagine, the Long-Horned Grasshopper has antennae roughly the same size as their body. Their Short-Horned counterparts have antennae that are about half their body size. In today’s Wild Fact, we will mostly be looking at Grasshoppers in general.

Photo by Jalil Arfaoui (Wikimedia)

Farmers in the Western United States are probably quite familiar with a special Long-Horned Grasshopper called the Mormon Cricket, which makes a living stealing feed from their grazing lands. I know it is called a Cricket, but trust me when I tell you that it is actually a Grasshopper. Before you go and start thinking that Short-Horned Grasshoppers are better since they don’t steal from farmers, you need to realize that it is the Short-Horned Grasshopper that will turn into Locusts when their populations get overcrowded. Believe me when I tell you that once these innocent Grasshoppers hit Locust stage, nothing is safe.

So sure, some of the Grasshopper species can become pests but for the most part they are actually quite harmless. This is a good thing too since these insects can be found pretty much anywhere, with the exception of the North and South poles. Naturally these two areas are just too cold for our cold blooded insect to survive. The cold even impacts the Grasshopper on a day to day basis. If you watch one of these jumpy insects for an entire day, you will notice that they remain relatively still during the morning. Although, once the sun is high in the sky, the Grasshopper will go on a jumping spree. They just need to warm up a little before doing their daily exercises. Actually, it is always a good idea to warm up before participating in any strenuous activity.

Grasshopper Fast Fact – Once they get warmed up, the Grasshopper is capable of jumping 20 times their own length. Some species of Grasshopper can reach 50 mm (2″) in length. So if we do the math that means that particular Grasshopper is able to jump about 100 cm or 3.3 feet.

Thanks for tuning into Wild Facts on this wonderful Wednesday. I am going to close out today’s Wild Fact with some very wise words that the entire world should live by.

“My friends, love is better than anger. Hope is better than fear. Optimism is better than despair. So let us be loving, hopeful and optimistic. And we’ll change the world.” – Jack Layton

Photo by Fritz Geller-Grimm (Wikimedia)

I thought it has been awhile since we took some time to study the amazing world of insects. Okay, so I know not everyone shares the same love I have for our precious insect “friends” but you have to admit some of these bugs are pretty cool. I think today’s insect falls into this “cool” category since they are actually beneficial to humans. Do you remember Garden Pest week on Wild Facts? Well the Green Lacewing is the exact opposite of a garden pest since they literally destroy those pesky garden intruders. Okay, maybe not the White-tailed Deer but definitely those deadly Aphids.

So what else can we learn about the Green Lacewing? Well, they are very common across North America and Europe, believe it or not they have a green coloured body and they are incredibly delicate. As well, this diverse group of insects can have a wingspan anywhere between 6 mm (2.3″) and 65 mm (25.5″), with the larger Lacewings being found in the tropical areas. Your best chance to catch a glimpse of these beneficial insects would be during the night or at dusk and dawn when they are most active.

During these times, the Green Lacewing will be out and about foraging on a variety of prey items. As mentioned, Aphids are a common snack for them, however, they will also chow down on mites and other small arthropods. Similarly, they supplement their diet with nectar and pollen. Although, most species feed on both insects and nectar there are some species that are solely predatory and still others that just like the sweet taste of nectar and pollen. To each their own, I guess.

Larvae - Photo by Eric Steinert (Wikimedia)

The larvae of the Green Lacewing are in my Top 5 Coolest Larvae list. Of course I have a Top 5 coolest larvae list! What? You don’t? The Lacewing larvae are absolute eating machines! They particularly enjoy feeding on aphids and mites while in this stage. Their feeding frenzy has lead to them being called Aphid Lions or Aphid Wolves. Both are wicked names that I am sure the larvae are proud of. Other than their sense of touch, they are not highly developed in their larvae form. They just sort of walk around swaying their head back and forth hoping to find something. Once they bump into a potential prey item, they will inject it with a special digestive secretion that can literally dissolve the organs of an aphid in about 90 seconds. Now do you see why they are in my Top 5 Coolest Larvae list?

See, insects can be fun and interesting, right? I hope you enjoyed reading this fact as much as I enjoyed writing it. Have a great day and I will see you tomorrow.

Photo by Donald Hobern (Wikimedia)

Before getting into today’s Wild Fact, I would like to take a quick moment to say Happy Birthday to my Dad! I hope you are enjoying your day. It almost seems fitting to be talking about the Light Brown Apple Moth today, since my dad has a couple of apple trees growing around the house. This is an impressive feat for someone living in Northern Ontario. This particular pest is native to Australia but has also been introduced to other areas such as New Zealand, Hawaii, and a few years ago this moth was identified in California, so they appear to be making their way around the world.

The Light Brown Apple Moth is a major agricultural pest due to their diverse eating habits. This particular moth is not picky and is considered to be a herbivore generalist, which means they will eat pretty much any type of vegetation. In Australia alone, they have been known to feed on about 123 different plant species. This includes everything from fruit crops, vegetable and ornamental plants to greenhouse crops and even young pine trees. It seems the Light Brown Apple Moth could also be called “Little Mikey”. Anyone who understands this comparison gets a nice, shiny sticker.

Photo by Ken Walker (Wikimedia)

Figuring out how to control this obnoxious pest has also been an issue. Typically an Integrated Pest Management plan is put into place which includes insecticides, oiling the plants, biological controls and even releasing a synthetic pheromone which confuses the female and interrupts their mating pattern. I think this last option is pretty clever but I am not sure how effective it is. The control of this pest managed to cause quite an up roar in Australia when people were using untested insecticides, which were not approved, in an attempt to save their crops. As you might expect, a large population of people came out to protest this decision. So not only does the Light Brown Apple Moth destroy crops, they can also cause friction between humans. Now that is a pest!

Light Brown Apple Moth Fast Fact – This particular insect is considered to be a noxious insect in North America and as such Canada and the USA have put restrictions on importing goods from countries with a high population of the Light Brown Apple Moth.

I guess that is the end of our special Garden Pest Theme of Wild Facts. I hope you enjoyed learning about a few animals that are destroying our crops around the world. Enjoy your weekend, everyone!

Photo by Shipher Wu (Wikimedia)

Today we are continuing on with our Garden Pest week of Wild Facts. The animal we are looking at today is called the Aphid, which is a term used to describe over 4400 species. It is crazy to think that I could fulfill my dream of completing 1000 Animal Facts just by using one simple creature such as the Aphid. Actually, I would be able to meet my Wild Facts goal four and a half times. This literally blows my mind….okay, maybe not literally. Not sure what an Aphid actually is? Maybe some of their other names will help solve the puzzle. These little guys are also known as Plant Lice, Greenflies, Blackflies (no, not the actual Blackflies) and Whiteflies. Is it just me or was someone on a colour kick when handing out these names.

If you are a farmer then you probably detest Aphids, since they are one of the most destructive plant pests in the temperate region. Luckily, only about 250 of the 4400 species are actually garden pests. Just imagine how bad it would be if all Aphid species were fond of destroying Farmer Joe’s crops. Similar to the Colorado Potato Beetle, it is tough to control these organisms since they have an incredibly successful breeding strategy. Actually they have many incredibly successful breeding strategies, depending which exact species we are talking about. Some Aphids are capable of asexual reproduction, which basically means that the offspring arise from a single parent and contain the genes from that parent. It is kind of like cloning yourself.

Aphid Giving Birth - Photo from MedievalRich (Wikimedia)

Interestingly enough, the Aphids you are cursing at for eating your precious crops are most likely females. That’s right, generally it is only females present in the Aphid population, although they did find one species that had both males and females. For the most part it works like this, the eggs that hatch in the spring are all females. These females will then use asexual reproduction throughout the summer to create genetically similar offspring. Incredibly, one female born in the spring is capable of producing 1000′s of descendants in a single season. Once Autumn rolls around, the temperature and amount of light trigger a shift in the reproduction cycle and the females now give birth to male Aphids. Quite often these males will not have mouth parts or wings, with their only purpose being to mate with the females. This helps keep up some genetic diversity in the group. These eggs from the autumn mating season will overwinter and turn into females in the spring. I told you they had a crazy and unusual breeding strategy, however, it is highly successful and makes controlling these insects very difficult.

Well, I think that is enough about the Aphid’s love life. Thanks for reading and I will see you tomorrow for another great Garden Pest Wild Fact.

Colorado Potato Beetle - Photo Courtesy of L. Carter

Now I know we tend to be sluggish on Monday mornings but I think this is a great opportunity for a Pop Quiz. You know, it will get those brain cells of yours working. Last week, I mentioned that we would have a theme for this week of Wild Facts. The first animal we are looking at is the Colorado Potato Beetle so your one question Pop Quiz is this. What is the theme for the week? Let’s learn a little more about the Colorado Potato Beetle as you think about your answer.

The Colorado Potato Beetle is also known as the Colorado Beetle, Ten-Striped Spearman, Ten-Lined Potato Beetle, and of course the Potato Bug. No matter what you decide to call them, these insects are about 10 mm (0.4″) long and have a beautiful yellow/orange colour broken up by 5 dark coloured lines. Wait a minute! If they only have 5 dark lines, why are they called the Ten-Lined Potato Beetle? That is a good question but shouldn’t you be focusing on your pop quiz? Obviously, if you count the dark and light lines, it equals ten…. At least I hope it does.

Controlling the population of the Colorado Potato Beetle may be tough since the females tend to be very prolific, laying up to 800 eggs. Instead of putting all of their “eggs” in one basket, the Potato Bug will generally lay batches of 30 eggs in any single location. Don’t worry, I did the math for you and that is about 27 batches of eggs they will lay. Normally these eggs hatch anywhere between 4 and 15 days; however, this is largely dependant on the temperature and the amount of light. If the conditions are not appropriate than these eggs will enter a stage called diapause, which is a fancy way of saying they will delay their hatching until spring.

Prolific Potato Beetles - Photo Courtesy of L. Carter

So why would you want to try and control these colourful little Potato Bugs? As you may have guessed by now, the Colorado Potato Beetle is a major pest of lettuce……what did you think I was going to say? Okay, you are right, they destroy potato crops but may also damage tomatoes and egg plants. No matter what your opinion is on the use of insecticide, you would think this would be an effective way to remove these pests from your garden, right? Wrong! The Potato Bug is capable of rapidly building up an immunity to insecticides. Even introducing natural predators doesn’t work too well since this pest is so prolific, with their 800 eggs and all. So how do they control these insects? Well, there really isn’t an amazing way to do it, so if you can find a cost effective way to remove the Potato Bug, I guarantee you will become quite wealthy.

All right, that does it for the first Fact of our themed week. Oh, I guess I have to mark your quiz before we leave. If you “guessed” this weeks theme to be Garden Pests or something similar then you get a sticker! See you tomorrow for the next pest.

Photo by Mehmet Karatay (Wikimedia)

Today we are all going to learn a lesson in loyalty and teamwork. I know, who would have thought that a blog about animals could teach us life lessons? So how is an animal blog going to teach us these important life lessons? By looking at the model student for loyalty and teamwork, the Army Ant. Seriously, if you look up either of these terms in the dictionary, the Army Ant’s picture will be beside the term. Don’t believe me? I will wait, while you go and look.

(slowly looks at his watch)

About time!  Did you have a tough time finding an actual hardcopy dictionary? So did you find it? Of course you didn’t, I just made all that stuff up but we can definitely learn a thing or two from the Army Ant and I will explain how right now.

Okay, so I lied since I want to describe the Army Ant before getting into their loyalty and teamwork traits. Army Ants are basically designed for war.  First of all, the soldiers can get up to 1.27 cm (0.5 inches), which is fairly large when you think about the typical size of an ant. Not only are they bigger than most ants but they are covered in protective armour and just happen to have mandibles that are equivalent to a set of Ginsu knives. To make matters worse, they aren’t afraid to use these knives to slice and dice anything that gets in their way. I know this is starting to sound like a late night infomercial but I am just trying to paint a picture of the Army Ant….oh and if you read this in the next 30 minutes, because you know we can’t do this all day, I will throw in a second set of razor sharp mandibles at no extra charge, just pay for shipping and handling.

Warrior Ant - Photo by Axel Rouvin (Wikimedia)

Now we know how these ants are designed for war but how do they define loyalty and teamwork? Well, for starters, their nest is actually made of living ants. Okay, maybe I should expand on this a little. Army Ants live in temporary nests that they form by linking their bodies (by their feet and mandibles) to each other. These nests made of living ants are intricate and protect the queen ant living inside. Now if that is not loyalty then I don’t know what is?

As far as the teamwork life lesson. Well, Army Ants are very aggressive hunters and will typically leave the nest in large masses of 200 000 or more ants. Basically, anything in the way of this swarm of large soldier ants will be destroyed. There have been reports of reptiles and small mammals being trapped and perishing at the hands….errr…. mandibles of these incredible ants. Even more impressive is the fact that these soldier ants don’t have eyes so they rely on following chemical scents to find their prey and their way home. All I know is I wouldn’t want 200 000 blind ants wielding sharp knives coming towards me!

Okay, so today’s fact is a little longer than usual and it is taking all of my will power to cut it off here. As you can tell, the Army Ant is one incredible species and I suggest you do a bit of extra research on your own to learn more about these fascinating creatures. I will let you go now. Enjoy the rest of your day!

Photo by Cyron Ray Macey (Wikimedia)

Welcome ladies and gentlemen to the last Wild Fact of the week. Today’s animal may give you the heebie-jeebies but you will want to read through to the very end because the Cockroach is one interesting insect. Did you know that there are over 4000 Cockroach species inhabiting our little planet?  Luckily, only about 30 of these species ever come in contact with humans on a regular basis. Now we all know that the Roach is a pest and nobody wants them around but did you know they are actually very beneficial to the ecosystem? That’s right and we will find out how very shortly.

So why does everyone hate Cockroaches so much? Well aside from their ugly bug-like appearance, they feed on decaying matter. Therefore, if you have them in your home then it may mean you need to hire a house cleaner since you probably have some decaying material kicking around. So perhaps, we don’t dislike the Cockroach so much as what they represent. Oddly enough, it is this very behaviour that makes those 4000 species of Roaches beneficial to our ecosystems. Their eating habits definitely help keep our world in check by breaking matter down. See, Cockroaches are good!

40-50 million year old preserved Cockroach - Photo by Anders L. Damgaard (Wikimedia)

Still not convinced that Roaches are great and want to get away from them. Unfortunately, the only way to get away from Cockroaches is to find Atlantis and live beneath the sea. These creepy critters are pretty much found in every type of habitat across every continent. Water is your only safe spot. You have to be impressed with the adaptability of these insects, right? What do you mean that doesn’t impress you?

Did you know that Cockroaches are over 300 million years old (so don’t expect them to leave anytime soon) but the species we have today are considerably smaller than the first Roach. Aren’t you happy that you weren’t living 300 million years ago? Although, I think if you were, Cockroaches would be the least of your concerns.

So there you have it, the last Wild Fact of the week. I hope you enjoyed learning a little bit about the infamous Cockroach. Enjoy the weekend and I will see all of you on Monday.

Photo from Wikimedia

It seems that yesterday’s trend of incredibly tiny animals will continue today. This wasn’t intentional but I really wanted to talk about one of the smallest insects out there. I am sure you have gathered by the title that I am talking about Fairy Flies. We are going to stay with the general term “Fairy Flies” but please note that there are more than 1400 species of Fairy Flies, so you can imagine that not all characteristics will be equal across the board. Enough chit chat though, let’s start learning about this interesting little wasp.

That’s right, the Fairy Fly is actually a parasitic wasp. I bet you didn’t see that one coming by reading the title, did you? As mentioned, these wasps are the smallest recorded insect to date with a length of 0.21 mm. This isn’t the case for all species of Fairy Flies though as some can get quite large (in relation to other Fairy Flies). For example, there is one species that has a wingspan of 3 mm, which may not seem big but it is a heck of a lot larger than 0.21 mm.

So what do these little wasps do all day? Well, they mostly prey on the eggs of other insects all day. These little egg parasites have actually been used to help control certain insect populations. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t agree with introducing other animals to help control a pest but it is still pretty neat that these tiny parasites are able to effectively control a variety of insect populations. When they are not taking advantage of helpless little eggs, these wasps will hang out in the water.

You read that right, some species will actually head underwater where they can use their wings like paddles. These impressive little creatures can stay submerged for up to 15 days. It is underwater that all of the mating and egg laying will take place, so basically some very important life functions happen in the water. These are definitely not your typical wasps. When it is time to dry off and head for lunch the Fairy Fly will simply walk up a stick or a plant that is emerging from the water. Once they dry off, they will be good to go and ransack some more insect eggs.

Well that does it for another incredibly small Wild Fact. Tune in tomorrow to see if we can find a bigger animal. Enjoy the rest of your day.