Box Elder help
December 12, 2010 7:21 pm
First, I want to thank you for this site. I’m using it in a mental health capacity to help with my bug phobia. It’s really helpful to look at the pictures and descriptions and learn about individual insects and creatures. It helps to demystify them and I’m finding myself much less scared of harmless bugs I see now.
Secondly, I live in Wisconsin where it is bitter cold and blowing snow right now. I’ve noticed a box elder bug is taking refuge in my apartment. I know he or she is harmless, so am using this as an opportunity to calm my fears and let this creature exist in my home with me instead of forcing it outside where it will surely freeze to death.
What I’m wondering is if there is any reason I shouldn’t continue to let it hang out in my home, and also how long it might survive in here as opposed to outside. Thanks a lot!
Signature: Rosemary
Hi Rosemary,
Thanks so much for your kind letter. Our readers who are plagued by Boxelder Bug home invasions will be amused with your solitary visitor. Boxelder Bugs often seek shelter indoors in prodigious when cold weather arrives, and they will pass the winter in comfort while waiting for spring to arrive. The Boxelder Bug will not harm your home and there is no reason why you shouldn’t allow it to remain.
Boxelder Bugs
General Comment(aka “Fan Mail”)
December 5, 2010 6:56 pm
Hey what’s WTB? I just love the site. I’m on it for hours and hours and a time. Also love the new book. I got it a few weeks ago, and I read it when i was on bed rest from a surgery. Finally someone talks about feeding habits of fiery searcher ground beetles and bee robber flies. Hopefully I get into the UW of Madison entomology class next year(knock on wood). But I am only 15 years old so a UW class will kick me around a bit. Anyway I’ll wrap this up. I know you are busy so no need to response. Unless you would like to. Keep up the Great Work! ~ Alex G.
Signature: Alex G.
Hi Alex,
Thanks so much for your kind letter and Good luck getting into the UW Madison class.
What’s That Bug bug – missing pages
November 19, 2010 10:18 pm
Hello good bug folks. I’m having a problem with your site, and I don’t know if it is my problem or on your end. Perhaps webmaster Daniel will have an idea.
Periodically our computers (one netbook, one desktop) won’t display all your entries. Page 1 will show all the current photos and requests, but when I select page 2, it will skip any other entries added since the day the glitch started. The most recent episode started November 13th. Everything in between vanishes into a black hole, including any top-of-page features added since. Eventually I presume that it will right itself as it has in the past, but in the meantime it is a rather annoying little issue, because I don’t know what I’ve missed out on. It’s like reading a book with a chapter torn out. Anyway, it is really interfering with my daily bug fix, and I hope you might be able to find time to suggest what it going on, so it can be rectified.
One of your greatest fans…
Signature: Bev (aka Bugophile)
Hi Bev,
Thanks for your concern. We have also mentioned this to Daniel the webmaster. There seems to always be about three or four posts that get lost in a black hole between pages 1 and 2 and we cannot figure out the problem. As you indicate, they eventually reappear when additional posts are added to the top of the queue.
Hi Daniel
Thanks for your reply, I know the last thing you want to have to do is spend time on computer bugs, real bugs are much more valuable. Hope you can get it figured out soon. By the way, I have put in a specific request to the family for a copy of Curious World… for Christmas. Looking forward to finding it under the tree.
Bev
Media Inquiry about your book
November 17, 2010 2:19 am
Hello, Daniel,
I’m a fan of your site–years ago you helped me identify a house centipede–and I heard about your book while I was at Comic-Con this year. I write for Wired.com’s GeekDad blog, and I wondered if there’s any chance I could get a review copy of your book to write up on the site.
Thanks!
Signature: Jonathan Liu
Hi Jonathan,
How nice to hear we were helpful in the past and that you are still a fan. Thanks for the mention of The Curious World of Bugs already on Wired.com. I will contact my publicist with your request.
Daniel
¶ Posted 17 November 2010 § Centipedes ‡ ° Also tagged: Bugman on Martha Stewart
November 9, 2010 11:22 am
Hi there! I had some trouble logging in, my computer is goofed up at the momeht so i’m borrowing my daughter’s computer and email address. I wanted to say I would MOST DEFINITELY watch Bugman on Martha, and I am a homemaker too! I would really like those oven mitts as well! Will you be marketing some? I think you should, they are adorable!! Have loved your site for years. Take care, Michelle Nash, formerly of St. Charles, IL – now in Rolla, Missouri 
Signature: Michelle
Hi Michelle,
Daniel does not currently have plans to market the oven mitts, but there is always that possibility. There will probably only be two pairs, one for Martha and a backup pair. There has been no additional work done on the oven mitts since the image was posted because it seems there is not enough time in the day to do everything that needs to get done, but since there is not currently a deadline to complete the oven mitts, they are not yet late.
your site
November 3, 2010 10:55 am
This site is just amazing. I love the many mantis pictures and .. well alll them Bugs.
I forge Bugs in a smithy (though i might try unicorns if I want money) and the pictures really really help me visualise these amazing creatures.
Thank you.
Signature: jack frost
Hi Jack,
Thanks for the compliment. We wish you would send us a few photos of your sculptures.
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Ed Note November 1, 2010: We just discovered this blog posting, and though it is theoretically not a letter that was submitted to the website, Daniel was thrilled to read it.
My super last minute grainy sleepyhead SciFri post!
This week I went to a seminar given by a Wildlife Ecologist and Entomologist from the University of Delaware and before the seminar the campus bookstore had a booth set up selling his book and a few other books, one of those other books being The Curious World of Bugs by Daniel Marlos and though I NEVER pay full price for books (because I’m always buying them so if I always paid full price I would be super broke) I decided I had to have this book right then. I’m flying through it because it’s so interesting. I wasn’t all that interested in insects until I got my job at the entomology lab and now I think they are some of the coolest creatures ever, especially after learning more from this book. Maybe I’m a Wildlife Ecologist/Entomologist in the making…
http://www.tumblr.com/tagged/scifri
Nasty reader award
Location: Maryland
October 26, 2010 12:34 am
Love, love, love your site. I find it very informative and am pleased to say that I now think before I squish. (I admit, though, that cockroaches are squished without a second thought. Fortunately I haven’t had roaches to squish since I lived in that one questionable apartment…) anyway, I wanted to say kudos to you for having the ”Nasty Reader Award” links. Too often the people who write nasty letters get no comeuppance (sp?) and it gives me great satisfaction to see that at least a few of these horrible people face some kind of recourse. Keep up the great work, both with the bugs and the karma. (PS- I included the pic of me because for some reason the site wouldn’t let me send this w/out a pic. Please don’t post it! Thanks!)
Signature: Faithful reader in Maryland
Dear Faithful reader in Maryland,
Thank you for your nice letter. We are pleased to hear that our website has contributed toward your appreciation of and tolerance for the lower beasts. We admit that we ourselves have very little tolerance for certain creatures, like the Argentine Ants that have colonized Southern California. While we will tolerate them in the garden, they are dispatched without mercy should they happen to invade the kitchen. We are happy to honor your request not to publish the beguiling image of you dancing at what looks like a fun party because What’s That Bug? does not run a dating service and we imagine that we would be getting countless comments and requests from the eligible gentlemen among our readership if we were to run your photo.
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