Bugs

Hi!! I'm trying to get over my overwhelming fear of crane flies, is there any way you could supply some fun facts about them? Specifically pedicia albivitta but there's so many species and not a lot of information I can find about them

Well for starters all crane flies are entirely harmless. They don't have mouthparts capable of biting and can't sting or pinch or anything. If they fly at you it's because they don't see you or register you as something to avoid, not because they're attacking or have any reason to land on you.

Despite common belief and sometimes being referred to as mosquito hawks or skeeter eaters, they do not eat mosquitoes, and are in fact incapable of eating them because they don't have the right mouthparts.

Most adults don't eat at all, but if they do, they eat nectar, pollen, or sap, or just drink water. They really only live long enough as adults to breed (1-2 weeks), so there's not much need to feed.

Some aquatic crane fly larvae are thought to eat mosquito larvae, but I'm not sure I've ever seen a reliable source on that. Larvae can be either aquatic, semiaquatic, or terrestrial and what they eat depends on their environment, but mostly I've seen that they're detrivores, so they help with soil health like other decomposers. They're also a big source of food for other animals like predatory insects, spiders, frogs, fish, and birds. Probably bats, too, I imagine. So they do play an important role in ecosystems!

Also they can be really beautiful! Some of them even mimic wasps with pretty black and yellow stripes. I'll show you my fav species, though, the eastern phantom crane fly:

What a beauty! Look at those stripey socks. Adorable.

Also they sometimes hang from foliage in the cutest way:

Lol. Silly.

Photos by ianmanning and germain_savard

Last night I had a dream that I stumbled across a huge (sorta terrier dog sized) rhino beetle! I immediately wanted to pick it up but my partner warned me that it stings from the horn (lol). I know this isn't true but it got me curious. Do any kind of beetles sting or bite? I've always considered them to be completely harmless.

They don't sting but beetles can and do bite. But it's not medically significant or anything since they don't have venom, so it would just be a pinch. Some are more likely to bite than others, though. People are regularly bitten by Asian lady beetles.

hello!! i’ve been noticing something weird in my area with the wasps, as they’re acting practically identical to how they do during the fall (very antsy, investigating everything for food), and i’ve never seen them act like this before mid-september (and that’s the very earliest i’ve seen them do this)l let-alone mid-july. hornets too, they’ve been very active lately too. any idea what might be going on?

Without knowing where you're located and what it's like in the environment currently, I can't say. But weather and resource availability can definitely change their behavior. I know it's super hot in a lot of areas, and other places are experiencing drought, which impacts plants and other animals and thus food and water availability, so it's not surprising they're acting like they do in fall when resources begin to dwindle.

Are spiders pretty likely to thrive after you relocate them (from inside a house, etc) to somewhere close by but new?

In general, they shouldn't have a problem finding the resources they need assuming you're not taking them outside mid-winter. I would recommend at least finding somewhere sheltered to release them so they're not immediately picked off by a predator. Places like around sheds, garages, barns or other outbuildings, wood piles, leaf litter, and just about any stands of plants, trees, and shrubs are good places to deposit a lil friend.