SLUG (The Ramones)
Fascinating Creatures (Francis England)
All God’s Critters (Peter, Paul and Mary)

- Producer Pien

I have a place in the Ozarks. One day an eastern hognose snake appeared by the cabin. I wanted to demonstrate to my wife their behavior of feigning death. I disturbed the snake until it went into its death roll, but in the process it vomited up a gooey blob. I thought I recognized what had been eaten/swallowed. After soaking and cleaning the blob in water it became obvious that an American toad was the victim. It was then, a moment or so later,that the victim came back from the dead, as it were. Before long this toad began breathing, moving, sitting upright, and finally began looking for an exit. We named him LUCKY.

http://www.environmentalgraffiti.com/featured/10-most-diabolical-insects/11139

Under the Vulture Tree – by David Bottoms

http://www.facebook.com/knmercer?ref=name#/photo.php?pid=121644&id=1020621236

Anyone have a suggestion for a book that would be appropriate for a budding 6 year old entomologist?

Snakes that somehow get into our lanai have been our most recent problem; so much so that my wife insists that we keep the doors closed most of the time. I know the snake in question is harmless.

Last year our neighbor went to pick up a black belt under her bed only to find that the belt rapidly moved out of reach.

This is the time of year, bees may elect to swarm, their process of splitting a healthy colony into two viable colonies during healthy flows of nectar and pollen availability. With the exception of Africanized honey bees living in the southern states, there are practically no wild honey bee colonies in existence in the US due to parasitic mites.

A swarm of 30,000 leaves their old colony (and their caring beekeeper) before locating a new home and may hold up for a day or two in a nearby tree, or house eave as a cluster about the size of a soccer ball until scouts locate and communicate the location of a new home.

PLEASE resist the urge to kill such a swarm as the honey engorged bees pose no threat to humans or pets, as they are not defensive without a home or brood. The cluster will move on, and hopefully survive the winter, adopting to life in the wild.

Your state agricultural extension station can supply a list of registered beekeepers in your area who will be more than happy to add to their colonies, or recapture one of their own!

Birds don’t have vocal cords; their sound-producing organ (?) is called a syrinx, as I remember, and its acoustics is apparently very different from that of a larynx,

It’s an intriguing show; thanks much!

[nb]

20 years ago I was grouse hunting in the ‘flats” of the famous As Sable River near Luzerne MI. Mid-step over a large log, I heard a very scary guttural hiss on the ground. I ‘froze’ with one foot on the ground, the other on the log and a large Hog Snake aimed at my crotch! I was carrying a .20 gauge double barreled shotgun, but using that on the snake at that particular position was not a good choice. I worked up the courage to slowly step off the log and pivoted away from the beast with my right foot… Once my heart stopped pounding like a cannon, I watched the snake for 15 minutes…it settled down and went back to sunning itself in the grass near the log. I continued the hunt and purposefully walked around two windfalls rather than step over them.

PS: MSU’s Rich Merritt is a terrific person, naturalist, author…thanks for including him on your show.

Three friends and I were camping on the Housatonic River (Connecticut) at the end of May and there was a particularly large emergence from the river the first night we were there.

None of us had ever seen them and were astonished at how utterly creepy they were! Black with huge pincers, millipede-like sectioned body. There were loads of them! Perhaps these weren’t what the caller and her crew of kids saw but it reminded me of our encounter. Gives me the willies every time I think of it!

I don’t have a link but if you do an Image search for “Hellgrammite” – you won’t be disappointed.