Ugly Freaky Wee Hours Bug Visitors…
Posted by Tim.
One of the advantages of living in a ~100-year-old residence hall is the always-stimulating bug infestations. I should have expected some oddities tonight, given the crazy thunderstorms today and the fact that I’ve had my windows open (with screens in place, but those don’t exactly keep all the critters out) for weeks on end now.
Anyways, tonight I woke up to find a sizable (1.5″ long body, about 3″ total length with legs) camel cricket creeping across the carpet by my bed. That’s one freaky bug, man. I wasn’t sure (sleep-addled as I was at the time) exactly what it was, so I grabbed the ant spray and doused the critter. I later figured out that I should have just scooped it up and tossed it outside, but it seems as though they’re not endangered or anything, so I’m not too worried.
But wait, there’s more! 
As I’m scooping up the dead camel cricket, I notice another critter: a big-ass (about 1.25″ long) earwig crawling down the wall. So I sprayed him, too! I’m going to try getting back to sleep now, but I might just stay up and grade P42 homework. At this rate, I’m thinking I need to keep my eyes open and on the lookout for more insectoidal invaders… 
July 10th, 2007 at 8:28 am Using
Way to fight those critters, Tim!!! Soon they’ll be so scared of you they’ll leave the dorm, I’m sure, and refer to you as “Tim the Terrible”!
July 10th, 2007 at 3:35 pm Using
Those earwigs are kind of nasty. We have some sort of very odd bug down here that I tend to find on the walls in the basement. They get up to about 3 inches long and are kind of fuzzy with long arched legs. It seems to be more of a creepy thing rather then finding them in food or anything, but it is kind of worrysome since they’re really really fast.
July 10th, 2007 at 10:20 pm Using
Yeah, big bugs that sneak up on you in the dark are pretty gross. Earwigs of that size are doubly nasty b/c of their name.
July 10th, 2007 at 10:40 pm Using
Nathaniel, I think you may have been seeing the common house centipdede, which is actually quite beneficial, in spite of freaky appearances otherwise.
I believe this is the critter that suprised Chris and I in the Stat Mech class of Spring 2005. I stomped him real flat at the time, cause he freaked us out pretty good that day…
July 11th, 2007 at 2:53 am Using
oh, good god. there was an infestation of house centipedes in the dorm i lived in for the summer between junior and senior year. yes, they are wicked fast. they hang out in damp, dark places. and of course, i was showering at night at the time. originally. they liked to charge at me when i was sitting on the toilet in naught but my shower shoes. then one night, on a lark, i shook out my bathrobe when i got back to my room…. and a centipede went running across the floor. seemed like more than coincidence to me. i completely spazzed, emailed facilities demanding that they kill them because they were hitching rides in my bathrobe, and i started checking every square inch of the shower stalls everyday before going in to shower. in the daylight. i was SERIOUSLY bug phobic at that time. mdm mellowed me slightly, but i still hate the centipedes, cuz they’re too damned fast. just killed one on the wall here last night, too. NOT happy to see them here in the house. furry little bastards.
we also have the occasional earwig, long the bane of my existence as a kid. once i was introduced to the delights of the house centipede (of which, i think i’ve seen maybe 5 total ever in this house, first one not until high school), however, the earwig became somewhat trivial. a bitch to kill though. the stomping way, that is. takes a lot of pressure to crush them.
i only pray i don’t run into cockroaches once i move to maryland. i really, really hate bugs that make big messes when squished.
July 12th, 2007 at 5:34 pm Using
Yup, they’re house centipedes. Good to know that, while kind of nasty, they’re not really a problem. We really don’t have that many spiders in the basement.
There’s a period in September when the crickets try to get inside here. I’m not looking forward to that. All of the jumping makes them hard to smush.