Florida bugs are huge! And to me, very different from any bugs that I have seen. Just looking at my screen door at night when I have the porch light on, you can see the many different type of strange and weird looking creatures. When I look at my screen at night, I automatically can see and hear that scene from the movie Star Wars, you know the one where all the aliens are at the bar for a drink..this one..
this one !
that’s what it looks and sounds like!
We don’t have simple cockroaches down here, we call them Palmetto bugs..with gigantic engines and a wing span that would make any northern bird blush. Look here!
I don’t remember these things in Boston? I think they need a mini runway to get airborne!
You want to talk spiders? Growing up on the east coast I remember being afraid of those long legged spiders we called daddy long legs. Well, I can proudly say that I fear them no more! I have this to contend with down here:
(From the spider bites web page) The Banana Spider is known to hide among bananas shipped to the US and is really called the Brazilian Wandering Spider. These spiders are aggressive and very venomous and not intimidated by size (can attack people when threatened).
The odd part about the Banana Spider is that studies indicate only 33% of the spider bites actually contain any significant amount of venom, but those that are injected with venom could be in serious danger!
If you are bitten by a Brazilian Wandering spider (Phoneutria spp.), you should seek immediate emergency treatment as the venom could possibly be life threatening. The Phoneutria not only has a potent neurotoxin, but is said to have one of the most excruciatingly painful spider bites of all spiders due to its high concentration of serotonin.
Despite the Banana Spider’s reputation as the world’s deadliest spider, there are multiple studies that dispute the ability for the spider to actually kill a human and one study suggested that a little over 2% of these spider bites (mostly in children) were serious enough to require antivenom.
On the other hand, there are other studies suggesting that the Banana Spider is indeed the most toxic spider in the world based upon toxicology studies. One of the most notable and thorough studies is presented in the book “Venomous Animals and their Venoms Vol. III” by Wolfgang Bucheral and Eleanor Buckley. This study has some shocking findings that clearly demonstrate how lethal the Brazilian Wandering spider can actually be.
There is an antidote for the bite of a Banana Spider and was discovered by Carlos Chagas from Brazil.
If you see a spider hiding in a cluster of Bananas, you should move right along and possibly inform the store manager that is may be a Banana Spider!
There are big, less threatening bugs as well, take the large milkweed bug here
Not so threatening but still big! Large Milkweed Bugs - Oncopeltus fasciatus
These bugs can sometimes be found by the hundreds on a single milkweed plant. Adults and all levels of instars can be mixed together. The adults, being flying insects, can be quite a sight when airborne - the top of their abdomen is really brilliant orange and shows up nicely when the wings are in use. For a bug Leary guy, they still can be intimidating
I could go on, but I will stop here before I get to talking about the not so big but pesky little fire ants, that’s another entry.
Even with all these large pesky creatures about, I love the south, the people and it’s bugs. well, bugs - not so much!
