Don’t want to ask, want to say…..
THANK YOU – for your awesome website, and the wealth of info – I work for a Park/Nature Preserve in Frankfort, KY – finding your site has made my job 10x easier – and more fun! Only problem is – I can’t quit scrolling……….Keep up the good work,
Debbie Bramlage

just a little fan mail, for now
I am the kind of person who, when I find a bug in my house, scours the internet for hours, looking for the animal in question. But the Internet, with regard to bugs, is good at identifying a handful of nasty pests (roaches, bedbugs, ants, etc.), and good at providing giant webs of super-scientific information that are impossible for a layman to navigate. Your site is, therefore, a revelation, and totally a thrill. It is also a public service, for both the human and insect publics. In the past hour, for example, I have gone from thinking I had silverfish to knowing I have house centipedes (and wishing I hadn’t squashed one), and from thinking I might maybe have bedbugs (sort of, though I don’t have a big bite problem, which confused me, but now makes sense) to thinking I probably have carpet beetles. I wish that instead of bringing my yogurt container full of dead bugs – which I keep in the freezer – to the exterminator for inspection, I had taken pictures and sent them to you. I will do this from now on, though I don’t have a good digital camera. In any case, this is one of the best sites I’ve seen on the internet, and I will be a frequent visitor and sometime user from here on out, till the internet stops working (and the bugs keep on keeping on). Many thanks,
Judd

Hi Judd,
Thank you so much for your thoughful letter. We haven’t posted a letter to our fanmail page in over a month. That is strictly for letters about insects generally and without accompanying images. We have always though of ourselves as a pop culture alternative to the heavily scientific insect sites. We have art degrees, and do not have backgrounds in science, but there is a wealth of knowledge available on the internet if one knows how to search effectively.

Fan mail
I have a desk job and one of the highlights of my day as a receptionist is checking out for new bugs on your webpage. I used to have a severe arachnophobia but since learning about spiders and looking at the pictures of them on your webpage I have become tolerant of them. I no longer squash them when they wander near me. As I work in a holistic health care office, often I have patients complain about a supplement "its too big for me to swallow" or "I don’t want to eat kale it’s gross" or even "I hate fish" what frustrates me about these statements is that what is being prescribed is necessary for the body to work in unison with it’s organs and where I am going with this is I notice on your page often people ask, "will it hurt me?" and I am in awe of your patience with these people. Earth needs everyone of these insects, no matter how frightening to function and I find that question so ignorant, instead of being concerned with the dust mites, be concerned with the amount of bees disappearing or the amount of creatures displaced by our need to expand into their homes to build more homes and businesses. Here I am rambling when I just wanted to drop a note to say "I love your webpage!".
Thanks,
Amanda from Canada

Reducing Bug Carnage
What a truly interesting site. I came here attempting to identify a critter I found in the house that I was unable to identify. Things like that worry me a bit now because my son lives in a group home that recently had to be fumigated for bed bugs. My wife was outraged that I would not allow him to spend overnight here while this task was undertaken. Her attitude quickly changed when I provided a mountain of information showing how insidious and infectious these creatures are and how easy it is to become infested with them. The bottom line was that within 30 seconds I had my sinister beast positively identified as a sow bug. I imagine you heard the sigh of relief all the way there. What blew me off my chair though is who you actually are.graphic designers. Is there no rock that remains unturned or mayhem we won’t commit in the name of creativity? I just roared until the tears ran down my cheeks. I think my pants need changing now too. Well done! I’ve been pretty creative too, but nothing like this. The only complaint I can lodge is that some of the pages are rather long, so it might be a good idea to insert a “back to top” link so that one does not have to scroll forever to get back to the other links at the top. It’s easy enough to do with some quick coding in simple HTML. After the first one it’s simple copy and paste in the coding until you go insane. Either that or you write a CSS style sheet that will do it automatically on every page.
And now, the real reason I’m emailing is to provide you with a very effective (although rather ugly) way of dealing with tent caterpillars and their ilk. This REALLY works, but it’s not for those who are squeamish. You’re not gonna like this…but it really works for these and other creepies like tent worms, army worms and cabbage worms. First of all you need to go to a garage sale and find a blender. You’ll get killed if you use the one in the kitchen for this. Collect a cup of the critters from your tree when they clump up in the tree for overnight warmth. Dump them in the blender and add 2 cups of water. Turn it to “puree” and leave it run for about 30 seconds. The water will turn green. Strain the resulting liquid through a coffee filter into a jar with a tight fitting lid. You’ll get about 2 cups of this delightful cocktail. It can be frozen for up to 6 months without any loss of potency. Mix at a ratio of 10 parts water to 1 part concentrate. Add a couple of drops of dish soap to make it stick to the leaves better. This can now be put in a sprayer and the afflicted plant sprayed. Aim at the leaves that are being eaten. Kills the worms dead and it won’t hurt anything else! Why does this work? Well, apparently they are not immune to their own gasto-intestinal gut bacteria and it is poisonous to them. Cheers!
Otter Brighteyes
www.members.shaw.ca/otterlimits/home.html
(This site addie will soon change as I have bought my own domain and private web space. The entire site is being rebuilt in proper XHTML Transitional. Does this matter?)

Dear Otter,
While we are happy to post your Pure