Posted: 2/5/2006 5:15:51 AM EDT
 Does anyone know what this bug is and how it got here? I've found at least 5-6 over a span of 6 months either dead on the carpet, or just crawling around. SOmeone said it was a bug found in really moist areas. I have a Walmart thermometer and humidity meter and it shows 75% humidity. I'm not sure if its relative or absolute humidity. |
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OH MY GOD! That's a poisonous Brazilian Potato Bug! They only come out into the open when they have established their colony within the walls of the house, and a colony numbers anywhere between 4-5 hundred billion bugs. GET OUT OF THE HOUSE NOW! you buying it? didn't think so ........ As you may have guessed, I have no idea what kind of bug that is, but it does look like what we call armadillo bug except yours has antenae. ? |
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Some web research seems to indicate that sowbugs can't roll up but pillbugs can and they are frequently mistaken for each other. Sowbugs are flatter, and are probably what the OP has pictured. They are supposedly land based crustaceans with gills(hence the preferring of damp areas). They're also supposedly harmless unless in great numbers(and then a nuisance to gardens and such) and good a breaking down dead plant matter. Seems that dropping your humidity levels would be the best pest control for these little guys. |
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Yeah it is a pill bug. There are several differnt species. I have seen the kind you have, and they are wierder looking. There are several types though, and they are generally in different regions. And I think they ARE distant relatives of the trilobyte. Man - if you ask me, the FREAKEST place I could imagine is snorkleing in a pre-cambrian sea. Imagine EVERY critter looking like a gawddamn alien! |
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We have those and the regular "ball bugs" here in Mo. Those Sow Bugs aren't as fun to play with, because you can't roll them like ball bugs. I used to walk around with jars containing a lot of them when I was a kid. One time I was running in to go to the bathroom and tripped, which caused my jar to fall and break. I was crying, and my parents came running to see if I was hurt. (They heard the glass break). When asked if I was hurt, I said "No, but my ball bugs are getting away!" They were going across the room, and up two walls. After that, I was encouraged to leave my bugs outside.  (It only got worse though, because in my teens my pet snakes would get out, and sometimes the mice I was raising as snake food would escape too. I only had one snake that was never recovered though. It was a 3 to 3.5 foot Prairie King Snake). |
Awe, that's nothing. I have these running around my place. These freak me out and that's hard to do. 
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