2000 AD Online Forum

Do they have flies in the north or south pole? Because I am sick of the ******* things and if moving to the arctic is what I have to do to get away from the bloody things then so be it!

Yes I know a can of raid is cheaper but it makes the house smell, plus it leaves a sticky residue over things in its path.

Oh, and also -

I have 2 essays due in tomorrow. And I'm on here asking about flies in cold weather.

I feel like there should be a bit more panic than this. A lot more actually.

Maybe I can deny the existence of the concept of time in order to hand it in late.

Six letter word for what I am. F _ _ K E D. Any guesses?

Someone should start bottling motivation. You'd make a fortune.

O.K enough procrastination.....Would it be faster for a sheep to roll down a hill than to run? Hmm......

Must.....do......work.......

When I was a wee sharkling, my Auntie Jane used to build her own fly traps. All you need is a jam jar with jam (or honey, or something) around the lip, then fill it with water and - hey presto! - an artificial pitcher plant with no chemical stink.

or get some proper carnivorous plants - they're cheap, relatively easy to look after (you just need to collect rainwater as tap water will usually  kill them). Pitcher plants are good, and also sundew (drosensis) are easy to grow - flycatchers and conversation pieces all in one!

I must get some more (I neglected the last lot to death) as we're plagued with those teeny tiny little fruit flies, and the sundews catch those in their hundreds.

2.5 hours left to write a whole essay and half of another.

LETS DO THIS!

(https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/236x/85/8d/85/858d8547057f58e275a8d37ff1c344b3.jpg)

What are your essays meant to be about?

Is there a specialist pet shop near you that deals in reptiles and the like? Some of those places sell boxes of live spiders (as pet food). Get one of them and let them loose in your gaff.

Then you'll need some sparrows to eat the spiders. Then a cat to eat the sparrows. Then a dog to eat the cat. Then a goat to catch the dog. Then a cow to catch the goat. Then a horse to catch the cow. Then an old lady and then, finally, a lawyer.

Well, there are no flies at either pole, unless inside the bases, but sub polar regions are infested with mosquitos during the summers. Hope this helps. Z

Yeah. I don't know why.
Perhaps you'll die?*

*Tangentially related: A friend of mine sang The Old Woman Who Swallowed a Fly song to his infant son and his wife thought he was rather clever for making up such a funny song. She had genuinely never heard it before.

Don't fancy being bitten to death by mosquitoes so perhaps I'll give it a miss.

On the essay front, got em both in with 15 minutes to spare. :D

Thanks for the advice guys. I guess the only place I won't get bugged by bugs is in space....

Try Clove oil for for your fly infestation.

It can also help out with your toothache!

Well the lack of bugs in space thingy might not be strictly true. A lot of experiments are carried out on the ISS using insects. Z

Not forgetting Buzz Aldrin.

I'll get me 'elmet...

Recommend this: http://www.theprairiehomestead.com/2015/07/homemade-fly-trap.html

-pj

Not forgetting Buzz Aldrin.

:lol: Z

o As a rule, insects don't like the cold. Something to do with how much they don't generate their own body heat. Not sure how fire-flies work...My internet hates me right now...so I can't find that correct spelling for that word that may explain it.

So, they may go dormant during the colder months or just migrate to the warmer climes. I guess it's tough  if your a slow moving insect who can't fly or you spent all summer building your nest in snowy mountains.

So, I guess they stick to places that are warmer...hotter. The tropics (http://forums.2000adonline.com/Smileys/default/smile.gif)

If you want to know about Thri-Kreen insectoid-people based on Mantis's is that they hate a certain type of smoke, & are subject to a type of chitin rot that is common in the jungle habitats. Caused by a fungal infection that only applies to them.

They also don't swim, hate water & might drown if forced to stand in water up to their ankles or what pass's for their ankles. because they don't breath through their mouths, they have network of breathing hole the run the entire length of limb's called spericals or something like that.

Internet doesn't like me anymore, so I can't look this up.

Hope this helps, but as you should know, Thri-Kreen supposedly don't exist, but doesn't mean what I just wrote above is completely useless information.

Say it like it is TS.
Insects are poikilotherms thus heat generation is dependent upon external heat sources, although some species use muscle vibration to supplement ambient heat sources. 
In terms of smoke, insects would avoid it as a survival instinct.
Insects are subject to a plethora of diseases including fungal infections.
In terms of breathing: tracheal and spiracle oxygen transferal are the norm in most arthopods, with some exceptions i.e. lung books in arachnids.
Many Insects are expert swimmers notably the Notonectidae family.
Insects do not have anything closely resembling a brain (they do have clusters of nerve ganglia which perform an analagous function). So in terms of liking or disliking you, they would react to you as either a resource, threat or just a part of the environment.  high level functions such as dislike are in my opinion attributable to primates (it is arguable even whether other mammals like or dislike you).

Hope this helps. Z

Nb little or any of the above may be relevant to the Tri-Kreen.

Thanks, & you really know your insects!

Quote from: Zen Arcade....although some species use muscle vibration to supplement ambient heat sources.

The stuff about the internet hating me is kind real & unrelated. More to do with my wonky new internet service not being up to the same standard as the one I had back home. I experienced a this lull last month about he same time while I was trying download & install Far Cry Primal last month. Then suddenly my internet replenished & it was smooth sailing from there onwards for the next fortnight.

I did have something like unlimited GB's bytes of data back home. I might try & contact my server provider just to find out what I'm really entitled to. I don't think my internet was supposed to be this bad, but they do offer me the first six months for free. So maybe if I give them some money.....

Aside from that and about insect again. The thing about them not really have their own brain. Do you mean Hivemind. Like if they were bees, then their hive might be of equal intelligence to a average seven your old human. At rough guess.

As for them swimming or flying to migrate to warmer climes. That is still a hell of thing to do for something some thing so small and there is the Mantis Shrimp.

If you want to know a more about those Thri-Kreen


Featuring as a intelligent & person-sized Preying Mantis people in the Forgotten Realms universe. Although they were a little more known before then, and really got well known with the Dark Sun role-playing universe belonging to Advanced Dungeons & Dragons. A desert world , I currently don't quite remember the name of right now. Populated by Roman (Rome) like cities (Arena's & Gladiators were very big here!)  amongst desert & silt-filled seas. Where the peoples(Elves, (All of them tall & natural runners & a lot like Beduins!), Dwarves (Who are all completely hairless!), Muls (Human/Dwarves cross-breeds who are tall, muscular, always hairless, like their dwarven halves! Also, possessing bonelike ridges around their brows like Klingons (This was another dwarven trait I forgot to mention earlier!) Halfings- Who are nothing like the halflings/hobbits known in other fantasy lore. Possibly more like Kender because they were both really skinny, but these desert dwellers also muscular & cannibalistic towards other races & animals. Just like the early pygmy tribes from New Guinea & South Africa. You don't want to run to them alone & unprepared. They would eat yah alive. They are known as the most dangerous things to run to on this desert world. Half-Giants who were more prone to insanity. There was one who used to wake up each morning just copying, dressing up as & talking like whom ever they thought was the most
social impact in their group a the time. Half-Elves were little more known in this world, & treated just as badly. Humans as always, most of them the best of anything thrown at them! Thri-Kreens[/b] as I told you!. These were all the player races & with some ability scores going over the level of twenty.) worshipped Dragon-Gods, who were really titan-sorcerors who had to find these artefact dragon-orbs to undergo their long transformation into dragon-gods. These ones were all evil, of course & they were opposed by the ones know as Evangions were are just like them, except they transform into giant moth-persons who like to live in the rare patches of forest that still existed on this world. There was also a race of giants that lived off the island of the silt seas, that all animal like heads on their humanoid bodies. People would travelling around on huge wagon-barges that had these gigantic wheels for traversing the silt seas. Considering the wheels might only be 100-200 feet in diameter. The silts sea must not have been quite so deep as some our real ocean are.

I always thought Thri-kreen were cool. Possessing a exoskeleton, giving them a natural armour class before dexerity even happens. Antennae, that allow, them to see in dark places, & navigate through tall grass. Larges bulbous compound eyes. Jaws, separated into segmented mouth parts. Four arms, increasing their manual dexterity & rate of attacks per round. Long limbed & standing at a height of 8 to 9 feet tall. They could much faster than us humans with something like 18-22 movement rate & jump very far as well. They also have chance to dodge missile weapons while performing other actions as many times per round as they were above the 11th level. Like they are really a amalgam of Mantis/Flies/Grass-Hoppers all at once.

Psionics are very big on this world. So, this trait got more development & any was considered wild-psionic while  special few had this as a specific trait.

Forgot what else I was going to say......gee I'm thirsty......

You can buy the rules for this game as download here.

Quote from: pauljholden on 30 March, 2016, 09:13:36 AM
Recommend this: http://www.theprairiehomestead.com/2015/07/homemade-fly-trap.html

-pj

Wow, that's awesome! I'm going to use that in my perpetual war against wasps!

"Aside from that and about insect again. The thing about them not really have their own brain. Do you mean Hivemind. Like if they were bees, then their hive might be of equal intelligence to a average seven your old human. At rough guess."

My views on putative arthropod (particularly insect intelligence) would lead in a different direction. 
Firstly in relation to the vast majority of Insect species wherein individuals lead a singular existence, the individuals are evolved to fit within their ecological niches. In terms of the co-ordination of sensory, feeding and locomotive organs, it does not require massive intellectual capacity, as the survival goals and means of implementation do not necessitate them.
Secondly in terms of social insects; other arthropods and even some social mammal species the concept of eusociality applies.  There is a lot of information available on eusocial strategies, but basically it is the non hierarchical self organisation of closely related individuals within a nest or hive.  The the groups evolve divisions of labour (aided by chemical, visual and sonic communication methods) on a local level, essentially doing what needs to be done with out a centrally directed command structure.  Examples of this self organizing principle are found in Termites, bees, wasps and ants in the class of insects.
The two themes as set out above would indicate a coalescence of behaviors among social insects with no need for hierarchies or psionic communication to enable this. In terms of more primitive species, the simple central nervous systems they have are more than adequate to enable their existences as individuals and as species.

Frank Herbert in his novel Hellstroms Hive and Stephen Baxter in several of his novels (particularly Coalescent) refer to and describe human eusocialities in a very interesting and disconcertingly entertaining way. Z

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-2mmTDT6W7E (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-2mmTDT6W7E)

Anyhow,  stop bugging me. I trying to read the prog. Z

Quote from: ThryllSeekyr on 31 March, 2016, 03:46:57 AM
Thanks, & you really know your insects!

Quote from: Zen Arcade....although some species use muscle vibration to supplement ambient heat sources.

Forgot to address this before......isn't that what Crickets, Cicardas do?

Well they use striation for mating communication. Bees would use it in the early morning to heat up in order to extend their time pollen gathering; conversely they utilise rapid wing beats in order to lower the hive temperature....strictly in a eusocial sense. Z

Quote from: ThryllSeekyr on 31 March, 2016, 03:46:57 AM

Larges bulbous compound eyes.

While this might eliminate the need for them to turn their head (Something that Preying-Mantis's were know to do, because not other insect can actually turn their heads irrespective of their bodies via their neck, because they are the only insects that possess a neck with those points of articulation. So, the head turning is to really give them full 180 or 360 degrees of vision all around!) While this might appears to give them improved vision. I think that & the element of compound eyes would allow them to notice movement all around them. Which is better than nothing. Regarding the compound eyes. I think that instead of seeing slightly different duplicates of  what is directly in front of that segment. They might actually just have this really panoramic view, but they focus only in one direction. Because their real eyes are on these stalks inside those external bulbous segmented lens. The eye stalk swivels in any direction after noticing movement the same way. This could mean their would be easy to distract. Kind of like having eyes that move anywhere inside mostly see-thru skull.

Not too sure.what you're trying to say in your last post TS. Z

Have you ever wonder how the bulbous compound eyes (That gives you the impression they can see all around themselves at once!) of a insect work & what they are really like to see thru.

Hitting the hay kiddo. Reply tomorrow. Basically a lot of insect eyes are compound (consist of multi faceted light gathering components/). They also tend to cover a greater area of the insect head. These two traits combined with nerve connections geared towards movement allow for a lot more basic visual sensory input (try swatting a fly with your hand),  which results in faster reaction times.
It is important to try and get away from attributing these beautifully evolved animals with human faculties. They are entirely different. They have survived for over 450,000,000 years as a class, through divergent evolutionary strategies from those which shaped vertebrates. Z

Quote from: ZenArcade on 01 April, 2016, 12:49:25 AMThey have survived for over 450,000,000 years as a class, through divergent evolutionary strategies from those which shaped vertebrates. Z

Bloody hell.  But tbh I have often wondered, as TS has, what a fly sees through its compound eyes.  Wasn't there some experiment done, though, where they somehow infused the genes for human eyes into a fly, and it still used them to grow a fly's eye?  Something like that, anyway.  It was in Bill Bryson's outstanding 'A Short History of Nearly Everything.'

Quote from: JayzusB.Christ on 03 April, 2016, 09:48:00 PM
Wasn't there some experiment done, though, where they somehow infused the genes for human eyes into a fly

(http://cdn-static.denofgeek.com/sites/denofgeek/files/styles/insert_main_wide_image/public/fly-03.jpg?itok=xEtsK0er)

Well as compound eyes consist of individual dub units which build up into the entire orgsn. Vision-wise they tend to cover greater area of the insects head, therefore they would have a greater field of vision.  They seem better organised to detect rapid movement (good for the reflex action). They also define polarised light better than vertebrate eyes. In terms of disadvantage, they would have less capacity to resolve images. You would appear as an outline with blurred details. Z

Apologies for the typos. Z

Quote from: ZenArcade on 03 April, 2016, 10:28:49 PM
Apologies for the typos. Z

Well what did you expect, proofreading with your pathetic anthropoid eyes.