They’re (almost) here! The cicadas are coming

Every seventeen years, in the east. And now it's time:

They’re (almost) here! The cicadas are coming | The Sideshow - Yahoo! News: "Most people say it is like a science-fiction movie UFO sound,” cicada researcher Dan Mozgai wrote to Yahoo News in an email.

The East Coast, he added, should expect piles of the dead insects around their homes: "They can pile up like dead leaves."

Debate Continues: Did Your Seafood Feel Pain?

Debate Continues: Did Your Seafood Feel Pain?: The scientific debate on the subject has intensified recently, with a team of British researchers proposing this month that electroshock tests suggest crabs indeed feel pain. But the study has drawn scrutiny, while another study late last year pushed back on the idea that fish, more closely related to humans than are crabs, feel pain.

Nick Redfern's World of Whatever...: Mothman Vs. Mothra

Nick Redfern brings a neat little comparative exercise to Mothman, using the pop culture classic film Mothra and specifics of the Mothman phenomena. Nick Redfern's World of Whatever...: Mothman Vs. Mothra

And, just because Mothra is one of my favorite films, here's a clip!

Giant shrimp raises big concern as it invades the Gulf - Houston Chronicle

The Gulf will never be the same; and the invasion of giant shrimp adds to the problems in the area: Giant shrimp raises big concern as it invades the Gulf - Houston Chronicle

Though no one is sure what the ecological impact will be, scientists fear a tiger prawn takeover could knock nature's balance out of whack and turn a healthy, diverse marine habitat into one dominated by a single invasive species.
"It has the potential to be real ugly," said Leslie Hartman, Matagorda Bay ecoystem leader for the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department. "But we just do not know."

And a bit of food porn: "World’s largest insect discovered in New Zealand"

World’s largest insect discovered in New Zealand | The Sideshow - Yahoo! News

I'm not a fan of bugs. Don't much like them, and even while, sometimes, appreciating their beauty and diversity I still don't like them. Even so, I try my best to take insects out of the house and release them outdoors, when possible. I suppose we all have our boundaries; I'll kill wasps, for example, if they're in my house. But overall, I certainly don't go out of my way to kill a bug. I don't understand those - and in fact, find it creepy and telling about a person's character -- who stomp on bugs outdoors as they're casually walking along, talking with you about mundane matters, and WHAM! BUG STOMP! in mid sentence. Whatever is that poor bug doing to you on the pebbled path that you have to take the energy to step on it for no apparent reason other than it's there?

I digress, a bit. This article is both wonderfully interesting and unnerving, about the Giant Weta, a really big bug in New Zealand. What really got my attention however was this comment:

And yes, the man in the video actually eats one of the bugs (and no, bug preservationists need not be alarmed--the smaller Weta is not endangered):

With video clip, which I didn't watch, because I didn't want to add energy to a completely gratuitous act of "food porn." Because it's there, one has the right to kill it, seems to be the message. Underscoring that sentiment is the justification that it's okay, because the bug "... is not endangered."

Invasion of the Hairy Crazy Ants

Report on the "hairy crazy ants" invading the southeast and south west regions in the states. From Florida to Texas, these small "hairy" ants that move very fast have caused a lot of problems. 'Hairy crazy ants' invade from Florida to Texas :

And they're on the move in Florida, Texas, Mississippi and Louisiana. In Texas, they've invaded homes and industrial complexes, urban areas and rural areas. They travel in cargo containers, hay bales, potted plants, motorcycles and moving vans. They overwhelm beehives — one Texas beekeeper was losing 100 a year in 2009. They short out industrial equipment.

If one gets electrocuted, its death releases a chemical cue to attack a threat to the colony, said Roger Gold, an entomology professor at Texas A&M.

Thousands more ants rush in to defend their fallen kin. The ants have caused a lot of damage to computers, beehives, industrial equipment, etc. They live in areas where there is moist debris (rotted tree trunks, leaf and wood piles, etc.) and "...eat just about anything -- plant or animal." They're very difficult to eradicate and seem immune to conventional pesticides.

The Praying Mantis Man on Phantoms and Monsters: Paranormal, UFOs, Cryptids and Unexplained Phenomena

As always, Lon Strickler brings us very excellent stories of strange encounters of all kinds. I really liked this one:Phantoms and Monsters: Paranormal, UFOs, Cryptids and Unexplained Phenomena of one man's encounter of a praying mantis type creature:

Humanoid. Tall. 6 foot at least --no reference points-- but I sense 6'6" - 7'. Moving away from me back up the bank. (I am chest-high in the river) The first thing I see was the 'grasshopper' thigh, but bending forward like a human. Then the whole form. He is looking at me over his shoulder, moving up the bank, astonished, amazed. What, that I am in the water in a strong current, that I can see him? But yes we lock eyes and this creature is astonished-- I get the sense that he can't believe I am in the water, that he can't believe I have seen him, that I am not perturbed at all-- something of all three, I still don't know-- just astonishment and he is actually trying to get away from me and the water!


Triangular Head. Huge, slanted black eyes. Just like a Praying Mantis. It's whole body was gangly, nobby, ((Nobby!) but you could still sense it was powerful, and no-- I would not say it was a "Big Bug"-- it was definitely humanoid despite the mantis/insect qualities...

Update on Tiny the Lobster

The auction for Tiny has been extended; it ends June 24th.
TINY the Lobster Proceedes going towards Charlotte County Cancer - Saint John Buy & Sell Goods - Kijiji Saint John Canada.

Related post: Sacrifice and Blue Lobster, Tiny Lobster Update

Tiny the Lobster Update

Tiny the lobster, so named by the fisherman who caught him, is being auctioned off for charity. Tiny is over forty pounds, which is huge, of course, for a lobster. Tiny was caught a week ago in New Brunswick, at that time Troy Mitchell, fisherman of lobsters, said:

Mitchell has put the lobster up for sale online in hopes someone might want to save Tiny, either to donate to the Huntsman Marine Science Centre in St. Andrews, N.B. to display or to set him free. He says his preference is to donate the proceeds to the local Cancer Society charity, instead of selling the lobster to the market within the next few days. Mitchell says it's most likely a lobster of this size would end up being canned.

"I'd just hate to see it go to a cannery," he said.

He'd hate to see Tiny end up in a can, but not so much as to ensure that doesn't happen. Further hedging on Tiny's fate in this update:
The public attention generated by Tiny - multiple television appearances and international news coverage - is what convinced the Mitchells that Tiny can do a lot more good for mankind than by simply becoming the main ingredient in a few dozen lobster rolls. So instead of having Tiny shipped to a cannery, they've put the lobster up for auction, with all money raised going to the Charlotte County Cancer Society and hopefully ending with Tiny living another 40 or so years in the comfort of a tank at the Huntsman Marine Science Centre in southwestern New Brunswick.

Related post:
Sacrifices and Blue Lobsters

Beetles take over Surfers Paradise Local Gold Coast News | goldcoast.com.au | Gold Coast, Queensland, Australia

 Thousands of beetles swarm an Australian beach at night; scientists say they are fresh water insects and are baffled as to why they'd appear on a beach. With video clip:
Beetles take over Surfers Paradise Local Gold Coast News | goldcoast.com.au | Gold Coast, Queensland, Australia

Mothman Flutterings: New Look

Finally, a look I can live with over on my WordPress blog Mothman Flutterings. Check it out. Now that I have a new look I like and that says "Mothman" I feel inspired to bring more Mothy goodness to the blog.

Radioactive Rabbit

Highly radioactive rabbit trapped at Hanford.

TRI-CITIES, Wash. (AP) - A radioactive rabbit was trapped on the Hanford nuclear reservation, but there is no sign any people were exposed to the animal.

Washington state Health Department workers with the Office of Radiation Protection have been searching for contaminated rabbit droppings. None have been found in areas accessible to the public, regional director Earl Fordham said Thursday.

Radioactive animals in the area are not uncommon. Radioactive wasps and nests have been found through the years, along with other animals:

Hanford has an extensive program to check for contaminated animals. In 2009, 33 contaminated animals or animal materials such as droppings were found on the site, the Tri-City Herald reported.

In Hanford's earlier years, contaminated animals were more common.

Liquid waste with radioactive salts was discharged into the ground near central Hanford during the Cold War. Rabbits and other animals were attracted to the salts and spread radioactive droppings across as much as 13.7 square miles of sage-covered land before the waste sites were sealed to keep out animals in 1969.

As the article mentions, there is on-going testing to this day to find radioactive animals in the area.

Odd Insect in the Garden: "A moth, a bee and a crayfish"

Photo here of an unidentified insect. According to the person who sent in the photo, her yard was full of these odd flying insects, described as a combination of a "moth, a bee, and a crayfish."

Why Was Watchmen's Mothman Sent to the Crazy House?

Or maybe that should be "the bug house" heh.

First posted on my Mothman Flutterings blog on March 29th, 2010.

I wondered that myself while watching that movie. An excellent movie, in my opinion by the way...

Question asked on Yahoo Answers: Why was the Mothman Watcher sent to the asylym?

Beware; for some reason the link doesn't work, or it didn't for me; I got an alert that Yahoo removed the question due to "community guidelines."  So here's what came through in my alerts:

It's not clear in the film but here's what I found on wiki :

"During the '50s, as Mason later mentions, the House UnAmerican Activities Committee forced all active costumed vigilantes to reveal themselves to one of their representatives. Due to left-wing friends that Mothman had cultivated while a student, his clearance was considerably more difficult than his companions. He was eventually cleared, but Mason describes the investigations as both lengthy and ruthless.

Mason speculates that the pressure of this meeting may have prompted his future drinking problem, but Laurence Schexnayder points out that the stem of his harder drinking was after the death of Dollar Bill. After a long bout of drinking, Mothman had a complete mental breakdown, and in 1962 he was admitted into a mental institution that Rorschach reveals is in Maine. "

Grasshopper Canyon

Posted on my blog The Orange Orb, April 8, 2010.

I love these weird little bits of, whatever they are. I was drifting off to sleep, still awake, in that warm delicious place between wake and sleep, when the slide show started. Often when I'm in this mild trance like kind of state, images start to flood my mind; one after the other, vivid, intricate images like moving postcards, but they don't last for more than few seconds. They're almost unrelated to each other, and, almost always unrelated to me. The images are usually of people in various settings and places. Global. It's as if I'm watching a TV screen gone crazy; a scene here, then, gone! Flash forward to another, and another. Sometimes this scares me a little because I don't know what these people and places have to do with me; it's as if I've wandered into someone else's dream, or head. Often I hear voices; but don't really catch anything, because it's all so fast, and a lot of the time it's even in another language.Once in awhile things slow down a bit and it seems as if I can stay, wander around, figure this thing out, but I'm whoosed off again.

It's very startling when, on occassion, one of the people in a scene will see me and look right at me; we're both equally started. Neither one of us expected to be there. Once in awhile they seem pissed off that I've intruded. And, occasionally, these scenes aren't so mundane, they take on a more paranormal or high strangeness aspect. (Like my flying over rocks and ocean and meeting up with a Sasquatch. . .)

Oregon author and psychic Nahu had interesting things to say to me about these experiences; that they're just typical psychic tapping into the grid. That's not how he put it; he said it more eloquently than that! He advised me to just let it be and go with it. I usually do but sometimes it's a bit scary and unnerving.

Not as often as I'd like but it's during these times that I'll have an OOBE; the scenes fade out and are replaced by rushing, roaring sounds, chimes, even singing, and I leave my body.

So last night I was in bed but awake. I was half listening to Coast to Coast. Steve Quale was the guest; he was talking about giants in the Grand Canyon, hidden history and artifacts. I wasn't paying much attention because of distractions in the house and I was ready to turn it off to go to sleep, just waiting for things to settle down in the house. I had just turned off the radio and immediately fell into that in between place, and I "fell" into a very deep and narrow canyon. And all around me were giant grasshoppers. By giant I mean ten feet tall. They were in a light sleep, or dormant state, in the rocks, the walls, of the canyon, and barely visible. They were well hidden and yet pale, almost translucent. They were a pale white, with a very slight green tinge, just a hint of color.  I didn't like it here one bit; the giant grasshoppers were bad enough, but the canyon itself was spooky. The canyon, the physical place itself of rock and earth and water, was a living, intelligent, cognizant entity, and as alien as any outer space being. (Or maybe we were/are the "aliens" on this earth.) Then I had the awareness that there's soemthing about the physical geography of canyons that make them generators, or conduits, for alien (both terra and extraterrestrial) entities. My mind then went to the canyon where the Bales brothers saw the giant triangle in Idaho. I'd never been to that location - never been to Idaho -- but somewhere, I was there. And it was as spooky as the grasshoppers, for the canyon itself was a living, breathing entity ancient and aware.

Like the deserts, where many mystical experiences occur, as well as the flying saucer related experiences of the Contactees, the land itself seems to be an active participant in UFO/craft and alien encounters.

I think I'm going somewhere with all this but not sure where yet.

• Related post: Nahu's Psychic Bigfoot Experience and Words About Beckjord
• UFO Digest: High Strangeness on the Ranch
• Alien Ant Watercolor
• Green Warty Visitations
• See: My introduction to Tim Beckley's reprint of Contactee Dana Howard's Over the Threshold.

The Cockroach That Wouldn't Die

 This was first posted on my Orange Orb  blog May 1st. . .

Barf Stew picks up on Jason Offutt's post about a giant bug, which I commented on the other day. The story reminded me of an urban legend I heard when I was in my late teens, early twenties. I was living in L.A. The story was told to me with all seriousness, most of us believed it at the time, including me! The story:

Scientists at UCLA were studying pesticides. Cockroaches taking over L.A. was a concern. So they had a cockroach the literal size of a poodle; kept in a glass cage. Success! Now they could breed the giant cockroaches to test their cockroach killing inventions. But no matter how much of the stuff they sprayed this poodle sized bug with, it wouldn't die. Finally, worried that the cockroach would escape, the scientists had to resort to shooting the thing with a gun.

Moth Synchronicity!

I had just posted the "Puppet wolf" article below, which includes mention of Mothman, posted that on my Twitter (sigh, yes, I tweet, I fear) and right below my post/link to the puppet wolf article, was this link from Coast to Coast about a "giant moth." With pic. This morning, I noticed my cat staring up towards the kitchen ceiling; following her gaze, and afraid I was going to find a spider or wasp (they often come in through the garden window over the sink) I saw a large (though not as large, not by any means, as the C2C pic) moth in the corner.

Wasp Synchronicity and Crop Circles

I attended the 11th annual McMinnville UFO festival in Oregon a couple of weeks ago; crop circle researcher Colin Andrews was the keynote speaker. A fantastic presentation! I wrote about some of my responses, which includes a bit of synchronicity involving wasps, for UFOMystic: Mini Report From McMinnville: Chirps, Trills and Wasps.