Insects

[goosehd]

@aksu I’ve encountered black flies and mosquitoes like that a few times in northern, swampy, boggy areas and did not enjoy it. The fishing was excellent even though I was miserable.

[tody]

@ARNC Thinking about putting up a hive in our garden.

My encounter with bees 15 years ago was a bit crazy. While still living in Cologne, we noticed a swarm in our backyard, heading for a small hole in our wall. When opening the drywall up, we found a massive structure behind it. They must have been living there for decades.

[ARNC]

@tody that’s a lot of bees and the natural comb structure is really cool.

It might be worth checking what the rules are about bee keeping in Germany (obviously different to the UK). I don’t know much but I know my boss and another colleague have been on a special bee training course and we had the bee inspector visit recently. As we’re near the coast they needed to check that foreign bees aren’t coming over and taking up residence (sounds like some kind of political joke but it’s a real thing apparently, I think to stop transmission of bee diseases).

[jerkules]

@ARNC ”bloody foreign bees, coming over here stealing our pollen and our women”

[SKT]

Arachnid post…but does anyone want a sack of baby spiders? My kids were freaking out

[Oaktavia]

@SKT ahoooo I'm itchy!!!

[SKT]

@Oaktavia right!? Kinda freaked me out too

[spleef_oner]

Found this spider in my backyard this morning, pretty massive for IL.

[Nocturama]

Spent the night on my study window - the delicacy of the wings is
EDIT: now the sun has moved round I managed to get a better photo.

[AdamC]

@spleef_oner what spider is this? It looks absolutely huge

[Oaktavia]

@Nocturama Nice photo!!!

[Oaktavia]

@AdamC I think it's a Nursery Web spider but it could be a large Wolf spider...

[spleef_oner]

@AdamC yeah, like @Oaktavia said I think it’s a big wolf spider.

[steelworker]

Its a reason to build a flamethrower

[Oaktavia]

@spleef_oner I live not too far in WV have seen the largest wolf spiders I've ever seen here. Never saw them get that big on MD. There was one in the bed of our truck that was enormous a few months back but my phone was not on me. Nice photos you got for sure.

[SKT]

Not a great photo but cool beetle. I believe it’s
Phyllophaga crenulata. Type of scarab beetle

[Sir_Cuffs-a-Lot]

[SKT]

@Sir_Cuffs-a-Lot that is one cool dragonfly! And an excellent pic to boot

[motojobobo]

@Sir_Cuffs-a-Lot super nice pic! Thanks for sharing.
Did you get that with a phone pic? Super sharp.

[Sir_Cuffs-a-Lot]

Thanks guys @SKT @motojobobo! Dragonflies are all over the place here, some with crazy colouring. Will try and snap more pics - this was just a quickie I took with my iPhone 12