We live on the top floor of a three-story building, and earlier today we heard the maintenance man on the roof, where he was evidently sweeping detritus out of the gutters and elsewhere. He’s still there now, about six hours later.
landed on our balcony. We didn’t see it arrive so we don’t know if it landed there under its own power, or if fell from the roof. My wife found it alive and killed it with roach spray.
What could it be? To me it looks like a mantis or grasshopper, or something related to one of those groups. It also looks like it has evolved to resemble a piece of eucalyptus bark, or possibly a dead leaf. We do have a large eucalyptus outside near the balcony.
Most definitely a female praying mantis. I can understand the alarm by it’s sudden appearance, but they are one of the good bugs - no need to snuff them out next time.
Only if you have a pet grasshopper. Completely harmless, non-venomous and non-toxic - at worst they might give you an innocuous pinch/bite if you harassed it.
However if you are a bug they are a terrifying killing machine.
When I see an unfamiliar bug, the first thing I grab is my “Insects around the house in pictures”-book. Not roach spray. I think it is kind of sad that the " Nuke 'm!" attitude is so common.
Yeah, I got the download thing, too. It seems to happen occasionally, and I’m not sure why: JPEG should be a format that a web browser knows how to handle on its own.
I had a mantis as a pet for a while and fed it flies that I caught outside. It would catch the flies, bite off the legs and wings, then eat the body, saving the head for last. The fly was alive for a disturbing portion of this process.
So, yes… a *saidistic *terrifying killing machine.
