Ok, this may be way off the wall, but with the nice weather we are having the bugs are appearing. It occurred to me that I have never seen a bug urinate or defecate. It’s not that I walk around trying to catch a ladybug on the crapper, but you would think that in all my years and all the bugs I’ve seen that a chance sighting would have occurred.
So, what’s the straight dope behind the insect excretory process?
I know for a fact that Earwigs do leave “excrement”. I haven’t seen them in the process of leaving it, but after last summer’s infestation, I saw the results of it! In every crevace, there was bug doo-doo that looked like little beads of dirt. We had to wash all of the kids plastic toys in the dishwasher and everthing else we had to wash by hand.
Most people with allergies to dust are actually allergic to the excretion of the dust mites that live in the dust. My need for allergy medicine and mite-proof pillows is sad evidence of bug poop.
Okay, maybe I wasn’t clear in my question. I have no doubt that bugs do, in fact, poop. But has anyone actually seen one take a dump? Or, do they defecate in such a manner that you wouldn’t even notice it if one was “going” right before your eyes?
Bug defecation is fairly obvious in the case of roaches where you have a bunch of very small grains littering
the area where they feast. The most visible bug spoor I have ever seen is the large droppings of the tomato hornworm catapillar. These mouse poop (or larger) size droppings are often the best indication that your plant needs to have the offending beast located and removed.
From Encylopedia Britannica (to clear up any lingering doubts some may have had on the fact that insects excrete)
The digestive system consists of a foregut formed from the mouth region (stomodaeum), a hindgut formed similarly from the anal region (proctodaeum), and a midgut (mesenteron). The foregut and hindgut are lined by cuticle continuous with that on the body surface. The mouth is followed by the muscular pharynx, which functions in sucking and swallowing, and the esophagus, which may be enlarged to form a crop. The crop discharges into the midgut, sometimes, as in cockroaches, by way of a muscular gizzard or proventriculus. The termination of the midgut is marked by the attachment of the malpighian tubules, the chief organs of excretion. The hindgut commonly consists of a narrow ileum followed by a larger and often thick-walled rectum, which discharges at the anus.
…
The hindgut receives food residues from the midgut as well as waste products from the malpighian tubules. The end products of nitrogen metabolism are uric acid, small amounts of amino acids, and urea; in aquatic insects, ammonium salts may be a major form for nitrogen excretion. In the rectum, the epithelial cells lining the gut wall often are enlarged, particularly in restricted areas where they form rectal glands. The epithelial cells of these glands are supplied richly with tracheae and function in the reabsorption of water and ions. The rectal contents of insects that inhabit dry environments commonly are reduced to dry fecal pellets prior to discharge. In many insects, particularly those which feed on relatively dry foods (e.g., beetles infesting stored grain), the upper segments of the malpighian tubules are bound by a sheath to the rectal surface and form a cryptonephridial system that serves to increase the capacity of the rectum for reabsorbing water and salts. The products of digestion, discharged into the hemocoele, or general body cavity, are transported by the circulatory fluid, or hemolymph, to the organs.
So in other words, they do poop, but most insects are so small that you won’t see them doing it.
I dont know that anybody has actually witnessed a but squat down and grimmace and grunt while emmitting tiny little farts if thats what your getting at.
Well, I have seen bugs dump all over the place. I had a moth, a grasshopper, a beetle, and variouse catipilars (so I can’t spell, so what!) crap on me or my friends. If you are really desparatly wanting to see a bug in the action, catch one, then squash the s@#% out of him!!!
You’re Welcome!
All this talk about bugs and their backsides reminds me of an old joke:
Q What’s the last thing to go through an insects brain as it smashes into the windscreen?
A its arsehole.
Because you just can’t say enough about bug poop – Several years ago, the population of honey bees took a dive over the winter. Evidentally, bees usually make a short trip out during the usual brief February warm-up to defecate the results of three to four months worth of metabolism. However, that winter it remained so frigid during the month that the bees weren’t able to leave the hive and do so. As a result, a great many bees died of constipation and poisoning from the backed up feces.
If the thought of 30,000 little bees crossing their legs, clenching their little bee buttocks, scrunching up their little bee faces and looking outside to see if it has stopped snowing yet doesn’t bring a tear to your eye, nothing will.