Quick! Someone call Rikki-Tikki-Tavi! April’s bug of the month are the Mambo and White-spotted African assassin bugs! This insect is famous for its two spots and infamous for its powerful venom. A neurotoxic venom similar in potency to that of a cobra AND it can spit its venom like a cobra as well! A venom so powerful that it can cause temporary blindness in humans and knock down crickets from 12 inches away. I don’t think anyone will be holding these but we will do a public feeding. They are merciless voracious hunters and it will be a scene sure to be reminiscent of the Colosseum.

Assassin bugs are everywhere and are considered beneficial. They are pretty much like a spider with one fang or as it’s known in the insect world a “proboscis.” While many insects have a proboscis with two sides, one for injecting and one for sucking, Assassin bugs just have one chamber. This allows them to deliver a massive dose of their venom which liquifies their prey and then suck it up quickly.

It has been recently discovered that assassin bugs have two kinds of venom, one for prey and one for defense. They will bite to defend themselves and it is considered more painful than a bee sting.

Assassin bugs are of the order Hemiptera (true bugs) and have many famous members of their family, the family Reduviidae that is. One smooching member you may have heard of is the kissing bug. This nasty little member of the Reduviidae family will sneak up on you while you sleep and bite you on the lips. Their bite can deliver a protozoan parasite named trypanosoma cruzi. This causes a disease known as Chagas disease. A disease with a whole list of wonderful nasty symptoms one of which is sudden death, if left untreated.

Good times…. Good times!

Ladybird is back! … kind of.

Many of you have asked about Ladybird, the Burgandy Goliath Birdeater tarantula (theraphosa Stirmi). She was gone the last couple of shows because she was going through a molt. Well, she molted and now besides being even bigger than before – “she” turned out to be a “he!”

Yes, Ladybird is a dude. Not that there is anything wrong with that but we needed a new name. I was going to put it up for a vote on the book of faces BUT I had a name I wanted to use, Paul. In honor of one of my favorite Bugs Bunny episodes with Witch Hazel.

So, Paul, Paul is back!

A CALL TO ACTION

Earlier this week we sent out an email asking for your help with our mission to build our permanent location. (SEE DETAILS HERE) If you didn’t get that email, well, you may wish to check your spam folder… or click here.

This is a summary of what we are asking of you. Some of which take absolutely no effort on your part but truly help us.

DONATE – this always helps
SHOP OUR STORE: see below for details
SHARE, SHARE, AND SHARE: Tell your teachers, principals, librarians, scout leaders and other parents about what we do. Share our blogs and posts. Share it on social media or anyplace or group you think may have an interest. Share our promo video here.
SUBSCRIBE TO YOUTUBE CHANNEL: This one is of the least effort and a huge factor for us. Click here to subscribe. Watch our pilot episode WHO WANTS TO BE AN ENTOMOLOGIST? free and be kept up to date on our new series coming out this summer.

SIGN UP TO BE A VOLUNTEER

We are in need of grant writers, graphic designers, photographers, video production assistants, bloggers, salespeople, web designers, etc etc. Have a skill to share we haven’t mentioned? – that’s fine too. Have spare time? We can help you with that.

WEBSITE T-SHIRT STORE

This week is another chance to win a free t-shirt. It took some time and tweaking but we finally have our T-shirt shop directly on our website. You can now view all our collections and different designs. Many new designs and products will be up as the year progresses. As a “Thank You,” for subscribing to our newsletter, you can use this code CREEPYFRIEND for %15 off your entire first order. Share the code with friends if you like and feel free to share our products on social media. We appreciate it.