I've never, ever seen a black beetle in our food stores. We get mites
in older starchy stuff, they're easy to sieve out.

I meant weevils, not mites.

Which is the lesser of two weevils?

mike

"Mary Fisher" wrote in news:42d5001c$0$28623
:


I've asked in what way they're bothering him - no reply as yet.

Well said, John.

And if you stopped preaching for a second and looked at the post....

"They're quite big. 1/2" in size and black. I really don't like sharing
my bed with these critters "

What more do you need? Or is it just that annoyedtuna'a reasons are not
good enough for you, and therefore not acceptable?

mike

AlexW wrote:
Its just the principle. I have had a beetle, an earwig and spiders (not
together BTW) stuck in in items of clothing before, can't remember the
exact circumstances as the instances were years ago.
Made me itchy though for a few minutes tho...

I heard of someone get a wasp in his crash-helmet.

Owain

"mike ring" wrote in message
. 1.4...

I've never, ever seen a black beetle in our food stores. We get mites
in older starchy stuff, they're easy to sieve out.

I meant weevils, not mites.

Which is the lesser of two weevils?

I'd answer that but I mite be wrong and that would never do!

Mary

mike

Mary Fisher wrote:
I've never, ever seen a black beetle in our food stores. We get mites in
older starchy stuff, they're easy to sieve out.
I meant weevils, not mites.

They're edible though aren't they - if cooked?

Beetles probably would be too crunchy for most tastes

Owain
who's just watched[1] Heston Blumenthal[2] make Snail Porridge[3]

[1] partaken of a televisual entertainment
[2] by some accounts, the best chef in Britain
[3] like I'm going to be able to walk into Tesco tomorrow and ask for
two pints of snail stock with any expectation they'll have any

"Owain" wrote in message
...
AlexW wrote:
Its just the principle. I have had a beetle, an earwig and spiders (not
together BTW) stuck in in items of clothing before, can't remember the
exact circumstances as the instances were years ago.
Made me itchy though for a few minutes tho...

I heard of someone get a wasp in his crash-helmet.

I once had a veil full of honey bees ... you only leave your head covering
unzipped once :-)

Mary

Owain

"Owain" wrote in message
...
Mary Fisher wrote:
I've never, ever seen a black beetle in our food stores. We get mites in
older starchy stuff, they're easy to sieve out.
I meant weevils, not mites.

They're edible though aren't they - if cooked?

Well I'm sure we've eaten them and we're still here - sorry and all that!

Beetles probably would be too crunchy for most tastes

Owain
who's just watched[1] Heston Blumenthal[2] make Snail Porridge[3]

[1] partaken of a televisual entertainment

I guessed - I'm getting good!

[2] by some accounts, the best chef in Britain

I've heard of him. See - I even know it's a he!

[3] like I'm going to be able to walk into Tesco tomorrow and ask for
two pints of snail stock with any expectation they'll have any

Make your own. I'd offer you our snails but the hens use them as conversion
currency.

Mary

"Owain" wrote in message
...
AlexW wrote:
Its just the principle. I have had a beetle, an earwig and spiders (not
together BTW) stuck in in items of clothing before, can't remember the
exact circumstances as the instances were years ago.
Made me itchy though for a few minutes tho...

I heard of someone get a wasp in his crash-helmet.

Owain


Yeah, me. Horrible thought still lives with me till this day.

(/me shudders at hearing that weird buzzing sound in my ear again)

"Andy Dingley" wrote in message
...
On Wed, 13 Jul 2005 04:40:29 GMT, "BigWallop"
wrote:

Beetles are the types of things you also find around rotting wood,

No you don't. There are very few UK beetle species that will be
attracted by rotting wood (meaning indoor construction timber, not
treestumps). It'll attract woodlice like a magnet, but not beetles

OH OH!!! You'd better the beetles that then. There have been many
sightings of foreign imports to this country in the last few decades, and
they all seem to be thriving.

http://www.kendall-bioresearch.co.uk/woodworm.htm gives a few bits of info'
on these bugs, and the whole site has many pages full of the different
creepy crawlies you'll find on our shores.

"Mary Fisher" wrote in message
. net...

"BigWallop" wrote in message
. uk...


I have a problem with my DuckDo,

Ah! Now I CAN help you with your DuckDo.

What's your problem?

Mary


My DuckDo won't do. It just sits there staring at the sky. :-)

In message , Mary
Fisher writes

"raden" wrote in message
...


I think it's a matter of an attitude of fitting with nature rather than
fighting against it

Gosh, that's deep!

That's me all over

--
geoff

wrote in news:1121209534.575431.10420
@g43g2000cwa.googlegroups.com:

Over the last couple of weeks, I've found 5 beetles wandering about in
my house. 4 on the 2nd floor and one in the first floor bathroom,
suprisingly, none on the ground floor.


Tonight I saw my first ever Horntail (aka Horsetail or Wood Wasp - Urocerus
gigas, I think), on our kitchen curtain. I thought that the ovipositor was
the most frightening sting ever. But apparently harmless to humans.

http://www.bioimages.org.uk/HTML/R69966.HTM

I would hate to meet one of these in the bathroom!!!

--
Rod

On Wed, 13 Jul 2005 21:17:45 GMT, "BigWallop"
wrote:

No you don't. There are very few UK beetle species that will be
attracted by rotting wood (meaning indoor construction timber, not
treestumps). It'll attract woodlice like a magnet, but not beetles

OH OH!!! You'd better the beetles that then.

They're smart enough to know already.

There have been many
sightings of foreign imports to this country in the last few decades, and
they all seem to be thriving.

So what ? They're not eating rotten roof timbers though. The
powder-post beetles (and their kin) will _avoid_ damp or rotten timber.


http://www.kendall-bioresearch.co.uk/woodworm.htm gives a few bits of info'
on these bugs,

It's an interesting but very partial site (for instance there's nothing
on the longhorn beetles, which I have a houseful of - or on why this
doesn't worry me)

I bet the OP's critter is one of these, or some other food-eating
beetle, not a timber eater.
http://www.kendall-bioresearch.co.uk/domest.htm

It's probably living in loftspace pigeon nests, eating either droppings
or dead chicks.

On Wed, 13 Jul 2005 21:25:24 +0100, Owain
wrote:

They're edible though aren't they - if cooked?

No. Most UK beetles will taste _disgusting_ (they do it deliberately).

In general, adult insects aren't edible, but insect larvae are.
Grasshoppers, locusts and a few other well-muscled critters are one
exception, butterfly caterpillars with deterrent toxins or irritants are
the other.

There are also some beetles (even woodlice do it, and they're not even
insects) that leave various chemical compounds behind (generally as
pheremone markers) and some people can be sensitive to these. An allergy
to woodlice, even leding to anaphylactic shock, isn't unheard of.

On 13 Jul 2005 22:06:34 GMT, Rod wrote:

I thought that the ovipositor was
the most frightening sting ever. But apparently harmless to humans.

Harmless to Sigourney Weaver maybe.


OTOH, put yourself in the wasp's position. That's its knob you're
talking about, not a sting. It may well feel quite protective about the
thing and not at all likely to go jabbing it into critters who have
evolved opposable thumbs to hold fly swatters with.

"Mary Fisher" wrote in message
. net...

"AlexW" wrote in message
...
Mary Fisher wrote:
"BigWallop" wrote in message
. uk...

They aren't a pest, as it says on the site you
linked to, but they can breed and make life hell


In what way?

Mary

Make you itchy at a distance of 10 feet ???

Oh, poor baby!

Crunch under foot ???

Don't tread on 'em.

Get into your smalls ???

Huh?

Mary

etc etc




Alex



Mary, you're obviously some sort of tree-hugging, green, eco-warrior type of
person who doesn't like to kill any living thing and that's fair enough but
you have to understand that some people are uncomfortable around bugs and
some people are just plain frightened.

When I was 8 years old (now 47) I was unfortunate enough to somehow get an
earwig in my ear whilst I slept. You cannot imagine how terrified I was to
have this live thing "eating into my head" as I thought, and I was literally
screaming the place down while my parents efforts to calm me down and get
said offending insect out of my ear did little to placate me.

Consequently, I have been left with an absolute and abject terror of
anything that creeps, crawls, slithers and is even remotely insect-like. I'm
an 18-stone, 6ft male but I would rather move out of my house than share it
with just one beetle, no matter how nice or unharmful you seem to think
these creatures are, or how irrational you'll think my fear is. I'm afraid
that, for me at least, it's a matter of getting them before they get me and
a little more understanding on your part may not go amiss.

Mogweed.

"Mogweed" wrote in message
...

"Mary Fisher" wrote in message
. net...

"AlexW" wrote in message
...
Mary Fisher wrote:
"BigWallop" wrote in message
. uk...

They aren't a pest, as it says on the site you
linked to, but they can breed and make life hell


In what way?

Mary

Make you itchy at a distance of 10 feet ???

Oh, poor baby!

Crunch under foot ???

Don't tread on 'em.

Get into your smalls ???

Huh?

Mary

etc etc

Alex

Mary, you're obviously some sort of tree-hugging, green, eco-warrior type
of
person who doesn't like to kill any living thing and that's fair enough
but
you have to understand that some people are uncomfortable around bugs and
some people are just plain frightened.

When I was 8 years old (now 47) I was unfortunate enough to somehow get an
earwig in my ear whilst I slept. You cannot imagine how terrified I was to
have this live thing "eating into my head" as I thought, and I was
literally
screaming the place down while my parents efforts to calm me down and get
said offending insect out of my ear did little to placate me.

Consequently, I have been left with an absolute and abject terror of
anything that creeps, crawls, slithers and is even remotely insect-like.
I'm
an 18-stone, 6ft male but I would rather move out of my house than share
it
with just one beetle, no matter how nice or unharmful you seem to think
these creatures are, or how irrational you'll think my fear is. I'm afraid
that, for me at least, it's a matter of getting them before they get me
and
a little more understanding on your part may not go amiss.

Mogweed.


I don't see where Mary said anything about people not having a fear of
creepy crawlies. She was only saying that these little creatures aren't the
type that eat people, and that they shouldn't be treated as such and with so
much fear to go all in war and destroy things to get at them.

Your incident was harrowing for you and I know how that type of fear of a
situation can be, but Mary was trying to help in relieving the fear, not
bolster it for anyone.

My own story is of being buried alive in a trench collapse. I was trapped
in complete darkness for just over an hour. I had air to breath from a pipe
which had luckily slid into the gap where my head lay, although I couldn't
see any light through it. I now have a terrible fear of being in the dark.
Real panic sets in, although I do try hard to fight through it. Anyone who
tells me to stop being stupid doesn't know how these feelings really get to
you. I don't go flaming them or shouting them down for not knowing how it
feels for me. I understand that they have not experienced the feelings I
have, and that they usually think they are helping. I just smile and nod
and let them get on with.

Life's to short to try and make others feel your feelings. They never will.

In article ,
mike ring wrote:


I've never, ever seen a black beetle in our food stores. We get mites
in older starchy stuff, they're easy to sieve out.

I meant weevils, not mites.

Which is the lesser of two weevils?

Ahaaaa! An O'Brian reader, for all love! - ?

John

In article , Mogweed
wrote:


Mary, you're obviously some sort of tree-hugging, green, eco-warrior type of
person who doesn't like to kill any living thing


Wow, I'm sure she will be interested to hear that!


and that's fair enough but
you have to understand that some people are uncomfortable around bugs and
some people are just plain frightened.

In a short phrase, Tuff Titty. Someones irrational fears never ever justify
killing. Learn to live in harmony or move to a plastic bubble.


When I was 8 years old (now 47) I was unfortunate enough to somehow get an
earwig in my ear whilst I slept. You cannot imagine how terrified I was to
have this live thing "eating into my head" as I thought, and I was literally
screaming the place down while my parents efforts to calm me down and get
said offending insect out of my ear did little to placate me.

The sort of incident that many have experienced.


Consequently, I have been left with an absolute and abject terror of
anything that creeps, crawls, slithers and is even remotely insect-like. I'm
an 18-stone, 6ft male but I would rather move out of my house than share it
with just one beetle, no matter how nice or unharmful you seem to think
these creatures are, or how irrational you'll think my fear is. I'm afraid
that, for me at least, it's a matter of getting them before they get me and
a little more understanding on your part may not go amiss.

So what are you going to do? Sit there with all the chemicals known to Man
and kill anything that waves an antenna at you? A little growing up on your
part is called for I think. You are not God, you have no right to take life,
regardless of your wussy tendencies.

--
AJL

"Andy Dingley" wrote in message
news
On Wed, 13 Jul 2005 21:25:24 +0100, Owain
wrote:

They're edible though aren't they - if cooked?

No. Most UK beetles will taste _disgusting_ (they do it deliberately).

In general, adult insects aren't edible,

Well, I don't think many are actually harmful. There are exceptions of
course and I doubt that there'd be as much food value in insects as there is
in larvae but if you eat something unknowingly most of the time it's not
going to be a problem.

I wouldn't choose to eat weevils (irrational) which is why I sift old flour,
float them out of lentils and pick them from pasta. But my eyes aren't what
they were and sometimes I just get bored. I doubt that anyone would be able
to differentiate between the odd cooked weevil and the black pepper grounds
in the dish.

but insect larvae are.
Grasshoppers, locusts and a few other well-muscled critters are one
exception,

During the war we were given dried locusts as a special treat. They were
sweet, otherwise unmemorable.

There are also some beetles (even woodlice do it, and they're not even
insects) that leave various chemical compounds behind (generally as
pheremone markers) and some people can be sensitive to these. An allergy
to woodlice, even leding to anaphylactic shock, isn't unheard of.

But not black beetles :-)

Mary

"Andy Dingley" wrote in message
...


It's an interesting but very partial site (for instance there's nothing
on the longhorn beetles, which I have a houseful of - or on why this
doesn't worry me)

I've never seen one of these, sadly, I think we might be too far north.

Mary

"BigWallop" wrote in message
k...

"Mary Fisher" wrote in message
. net...

"BigWallop" wrote in message
. uk...


I have a problem with my DuckDo,

Ah! Now I CAN help you with your DuckDo.

What's your problem?

Mary


My DuckDo won't do. It just sits there staring at the sky. :-)

Poor thing. I suggest it needs a whim-wham to pe-ak on.

Mary

"Rod" wrote in message
. 4...


Tonight I saw my first ever Horntail (aka Horsetail or Wood Wasp -
Urocerus
gigas, I think), on our kitchen curtain. I thought that the ovipositor was
the most frightening sting ever. But apparently harmless to humans.

http://www.bioimages.org.uk/HTML/R69966.HTM

I would hate to meet one of these in the bathroom!!!

Even though it's harmless to humans?

You're unlikely to see it in your bathroom, it's unusual for them to go into
a house.

Mary

--
Rod

Mary Fisher wrote:

I wouldn't choose to eat weevils (irrational) which is why I sift old flour,
float them out of lentils and pick them from pasta. But my eyes aren't what
they were and sometimes I just get bored. I doubt that anyone would be able
to differentiate between the odd cooked weevil and the black pepper grounds
in the dish.

When we lived in the Middle East weevils in the flour were just a fact
of life. Like you we tended to get bored with sieving them out after
a while.

Similarly we fished out anything that floated when we boiled the rice
but anything that sank just got included in the meal.

--
Chris Green

"Owain" wrote in message
...
AlexW wrote:
Its just the principle. I have had a beetle, an earwig and spiders (not
together BTW) stuck in in items of clothing before, can't remember the
exact circumstances as the instances were years ago.
Made me itchy though for a few minutes tho...

I heard of someone get a wasp in his crash-helmet.


And I heard of someone getting jellyfish in his wetsuit...

wrote in message ...
Mary Fisher wrote:

I wouldn't choose to eat weevils (irrational) which is why I sift old
flour,
float them out of lentils and pick them from pasta. But my eyes aren't
what
they were and sometimes I just get bored. I doubt that anyone would be
able
to differentiate between the odd cooked weevil and the black pepper
grounds
in the dish.

When we lived in the Middle East weevils in the flour were just a fact
of life. Like you we tended to get bored with sieving them out after
a while.

Similarly we fished out anything that floated when we boiled the rice
but anything that sank just got included in the meal.

Quite.

Mary

--
Chris Green

"PC Paul" wrote in message
.uk...
"Owain" wrote in message
...
AlexW wrote:
Its just the principle. I have had a beetle, an earwig and spiders (not
together BTW) stuck in in items of clothing before, can't remember the
exact circumstances as the instances were years ago.
Made me itchy though for a few minutes tho...

I heard of someone get a wasp in his crash-helmet.


And I heard of someone getting jellyfish in his wetsuit...


I heard about the new genetic engineering they are carrying out on
jellyfish. Seemingly it makes them set after an hour in cold salt water.
:-)

"Mary Fisher" wrote in message
. net...

"BigWallop" wrote in message
k...

"Mary Fisher" wrote in message
. net...

"BigWallop" wrote in message
. uk...


I have a problem with my DuckDo,

Ah! Now I CAN help you with your DuckDo.

What's your problem?

Mary


My DuckDo won't do. It just sits there staring at the sky. :-)

Poor thing. I suggest it needs a whim-wham to pe-ak on.

Mary


Mary, you're a genius. I gave it a whim-wham and my DuckDo now does. Much
appreciated. :-)

"BigWallop" wrote in message
k...

"Mary Fisher" wrote in message
. net...

"BigWallop" wrote in message
k...

"Mary Fisher" wrote in message
. net...

"BigWallop" wrote in message
. uk...


I have a problem with my DuckDo,

Ah! Now I CAN help you with your DuckDo.

What's your problem?

Mary


My DuckDo won't do. It just sits there staring at the sky. :-)

Poor thing. I suggest it needs a whim-wham to pe-ak on.

Mary


Mary, you're a genius. I gave it a whim-wham and my DuckDo now does.
Much
appreciated. :-)

takes a bow

Mary

"Huge" wrote in message
...
Andy Dingley writes:
On 13 Jul 2005 22:06:34 GMT, Rod wrote:

I thought that the ovipositor was
the most frightening sting ever. But apparently harmless to humans.

Harmless to Sigourney Weaver maybe.


OTOH, put yourself in the wasp's position. That's its knob you're
talking about,

More like a Fallopian tube, really.


Fallopian tubes are great for syphoning petrol out of cars. It can be c*^
getting them into the tank though. They are best used on a Vulva 440 I've
heard. :-) LOL

"BigWallop" wrote in message
. uk...

"Huge" wrote in message
...
Andy Dingley writes:
On 13 Jul 2005 22:06:34 GMT, Rod wrote:

I thought that the ovipositor was
the most frightening sting ever. But apparently harmless to humans.

Harmless to Sigourney Weaver maybe.


OTOH, put yourself in the wasp's position. That's its knob you're
talking about,

More like a Fallopian tube, really.


Fallopian tubes are great for syphoning petrol out of cars. It can be
c*^
getting them into the tank though. They are best used on a Vulva 440 I've
heard. :-) LOL

Wrong shape. Scholngs are better.

In message , Andy Dingley
writes
On Wed, 13 Jul 2005 21:25:24 +0100, Owain
wrote:

They're edible though aren't they - if cooked?

No. Most UK beetles will taste _disgusting_ (they do it deliberately).

In general, adult insects aren't edible,

I remember seeing fried cockroaches for sale at the Sunday market in
Bangkok

One case where I declined to taste the local delicacy

--
geoff

In message , writes
Mary Fisher wrote:

I wouldn't choose to eat weevils (irrational) which is why I sift old flour,
float them out of lentils and pick them from pasta. But my eyes aren't what
they were and sometimes I just get bored. I doubt that anyone would be able
to differentiate between the odd cooked weevil and the black pepper grounds
in the dish.

When we lived in the Middle East weevils in the flour were just a fact
of life. Like you we tended to get bored with sieving them out after
a while.

Similarly we fished out anything that floated when we boiled the rice
but anything that sank just got included in the meal.

Such as stones

removed half of one of my molars from a stone in some nasi goreng in
Indonesia
--
geoff

In message , BigWallop
writes

"Mary Fisher" wrote in message
.net...

"BigWallop" wrote in message
k...

"Mary Fisher" wrote in message
. net...

"BigWallop" wrote in message
. uk...


I have a problem with my DuckDo,

Ah! Now I CAN help you with your DuckDo.

What's your problem?

Mary


My DuckDo won't do. It just sits there staring at the sky. :-)

Poor thing. I suggest it needs a whim-wham to pe-ak on.

Mary


Mary, you're a genius. I gave it a whim-wham and my DuckDo now does. Much
appreciated. :-)

Does this stuff contain some hallucinogenic substance ?

--
geoff

In message , Huge
writes
Andy Dingley writes:
On 13 Jul 2005 22:06:34 GMT, Rod wrote:

I thought that the ovipositor was
the most frightening sting ever. But apparently harmless to humans.

Harmless to Sigourney Weaver maybe.


OTOH, put yourself in the wasp's position. That's its knob you're
talking about,

More like a Fallopian tube, really.

O very technical
--
geoff

In message , Mary
Fisher writes

"Rod" wrote in message
.4...


Tonight I saw my first ever Horntail (aka Horsetail or Wood Wasp -
Urocerus
gigas, I think), on our kitchen curtain. I thought that the ovipositor was
the most frightening sting ever. But apparently harmless to humans.

http://www.bioimages.org.uk/HTML/R69966.HTM

I would hate to meet one of these in the bathroom!!!

Even though it's harmless to humans?

You're unlikely to see it in your bathroom, it's unusual for them to go into
a house.

What, they don't shower every day

disgusting

--
geoff

"raden" wrote in message
...
In message , writes
Mary Fisher wrote:

I wouldn't choose to eat weevils (irrational) which is why I sift old
flour,
float them out of lentils and pick them from pasta. But my eyes aren't
what
they were and sometimes I just get bored. I doubt that anyone would be
able
to differentiate between the odd cooked weevil and the black pepper
grounds
in the dish.

When we lived in the Middle East weevils in the flour were just a fact
of life. Like you we tended to get bored with sieving them out after
a while.

Similarly we fished out anything that floated when we boiled the rice
but anything that sank just got included in the meal.

Such as stones

removed half of one of my molars from a stone in some nasi goreng in
Indonesia

It must have been a bit dodgy to start with then :-)

Mary
--
geoff

"raden" wrote in message
...
In message , Andy Dingley
writes
On Wed, 13 Jul 2005 21:25:24 +0100, Owain
wrote:

They're edible though aren't they - if cooked?

No. Most UK beetles will taste _disgusting_ (they do it deliberately).

In general, adult insects aren't edible,

I remember seeing fried cockroaches for sale at the Sunday market in
Bangkok

One case where I declined to taste the local delicacy

So if it had been sheeps' eyes you would have done?

Mary

--
geoff

"raden" wrote in message
...


I have a problem with my DuckDo,

Ah! Now I CAN help you with your DuckDo.

What's your problem?

Mary


My DuckDo won't do. It just sits there staring at the sky. :-)

Poor thing. I suggest it needs a whim-wham to pe-ak on.

Mary


Mary, you're a genius. I gave it a whim-wham and my DuckDo now does.
Much
appreciated. :-)

Does this stuff contain some hallucinogenic substance ?

Well, normally I'd rap your knuckles for listening to a private conversation
but in this case I'll tell you that it wouldn't solve your immediate
problem.

Stick with the Co-codamol.

Mary

--
geoff

In message , Mary
Fisher writes

"raden" wrote in message
...
In message , Andy Dingley
writes
On Wed, 13 Jul 2005 21:25:24 +0100, Owain
wrote:

They're edible though aren't they - if cooked?

No. Most UK beetles will taste _disgusting_ (they do it deliberately).

In general, adult insects aren't edible,

I remember seeing fried cockroaches for sale at the Sunday market in
Bangkok

One case where I declined to taste the local delicacy

So if it had been sheeps' eyes you would have done?

I might have done, but that's more middle eastern

I've never been a fan of cockroaches since one fell in my mouth while I
was sleeping - big bugger it was

--
geoff