Miscellaneous Monday: Bug Nostalgia

[Andrew Zimmerman]

Happy Monday, y’all!

It’s June 😲! In a few quick weeks, we’ll be halfway through the year! Can you believe it?

Where I live, this month often ushers in the arrival of (the aptly named) June bugs, also known as May beetles (genus Phyllophaga).

Although June bugs can cause a lot of garden destruction, they also bring a lot of memories back for me because as a kid, my brother and I used to go exploring with my dad and catch insects. It was one of my favorite Saturday hobbies in the Spring and Summer! 🦗 🪲

Today, take a short break from busting software bugs, and share your memories and thoughts about real-life creepy crawlers. Love them? Scared of them? Reluctantly tolerate them? 😬

Tell us about your favorite bugs, or a special bug-related story from your life. 

Have a great week ahead!

[Daria Kulikova_GitProtect_io]

I've always been a little squeamish around bugs. But oddly enough, as a kid, I cried whenever I found one dead (usually poor flies that crossed paths with my cat). My best friend was a very sensitive person like me, so one summer when we were around 6 years old, we decided to go around our yards, looking for dead bugs to provide them with a proper funeral. We were like a funeral agency for bugs. Now, understand how creepy it was, but when I was a kid, with my friend we thought that we were helping insects :) 

[Susan Waldrip]

@Daria Kulikova_GitProtect_io , I think that's so sweet!

[Lori Brown]

I was unaware that stag beetles lived in my area until there was one perched on the bathroom window. They're huge! Not what you expect to see, wandering downstairs, bleary-eyed in the morning. I woke up real fast!

So cool. We're all freaking out, showing everyone in the house. And the beetle is just chilling there, not a care in the world. 

Apparently it's a life lesson - when the world is freaking out, be the beetle. :)

[Stephen_Lugton]

Until you've taken an unexpected Stag Beetle to the face while standing up to get a beer in a pub garden you've never known true bug related horror.

We were doing a week long trip on the Thames on a friend's parent's cabin cruiser.  We'd stopped on the final night and gone for a pub meal and drink, as it was getting dark.  Just as it was starting to get dark I went to buy a round of drinks, and as I stood up one of these came in the other direction, I may have screamed like a small girl!

[Lori Brown]

You know, if he wants a beer...I'm gonna give it to him.

[Susan Waldrip]

🤣🤣

[Rishabh Jhawar]

I wouldn't say I have a favorite bug, but back in junior school, there was this one time of year when these huge blanket worms or caterpillars would suddenly show up and start crawling all over the place. It was wild—every kid was terrified of them.

[John Funk]

Yes, I remember many June bugs during the summer! They would especially congregate around our large Magnolia tree. Being kids, as kids will do, we would tie a thread around a leg and fly it around like an airplane for a little while before letting it go. 

[Amanda Barber]

I remember riding over the June bugs while biking as a kid and hearing that crunch. 🤢

I'm mostly a reluctant tolerator - not my favorite, but I can usually remain calm, haha!

[Barbara Szczesniak]

The only bugs I've ever been comfortable around are butterflies and ladybugs (except when the ladybugs would make their way into my bathroom in the spring in Georgia). I do not want any bugs to ever be inside my house. 

[Susan Waldrip]

I love Orb Weavers! They make beautiful webs, and we have a few different kinds so they have different designs on them (one is a cat face). I learned this year that we need to keep their "empty" webs up through spring because the bushtits use them to hold their nests together, and sometimes an orb weaver will reuse a web and repair it if it's not completely shredded after winter.

[James O_Connor]

I wouldn't say I love them but I do have a certain fascination with huntsmen spiders here in Australia - huge yet ridiculously fast.

[Lori Brown]

Just about need a saddle on one of those bad boys. That's so cool. I have a tarantula at home (a pet, not just wandering around), so I might be biased.

[Dave Liao]

I once had stir-fried grubs, and it was like eating gnocchi.

I would do it again, but only if the same chef was doing the cooking! 😆 

[Benjamin]

Don't have a fascination or appreciation of bugs. Especially cockroaches and spiders. And especially spiders that have fur and possibly multiple eyes. 

I think watching Bug's life is far as my interest will go. :)