This is gonna sound like a weird question

[Raebie]

but what the hell. Can tropical storms bring insects with them? I have lived in Charlotte for 7 years now and I've never seen bugs like we're being inundated with tonight. They look like palmetto bugs with large feelers. 3 freaking inches long. I know they're thick further south of here, but they're all over the place the past 2 days.

Raebie, creeped out

[Mac]

What do they taste like? If they're spicy, they may be illegals from Cuba. Better call immigration and make a report, or you could be charged with harboring.

[Cape Verde]

You're right, it was a weird question.

[Raebie]

Ha! My husband actually said they looked like the madagascar cockroaches they use in the Fear Factor food challenges.

We've had alot of rain this year and high humidity. Maybe the climate is just more condusive to them this year. If that's the case, I'd prefer a drought. The term Palmetto bug alway amused me. I figured it was just the southerner's way of making themselves feel better about being home to 3 inch flying cockroaches.

[caribepr]

I only know that storms/hurricanes can bring out (in the hatching time, which is about right according to your time frame) some real weird stuff down here. Plants I've never seen, bugs, just STUFF - dunno - someone on this board is probably an insect person who could give you more of the why of it but I keep thinking of those shows on the Discovery channel where critters lurk around for years in dry river beds and then POOF! rain comes and they emerge. That's why God made Raid.

[JenyEliza]

Palmetto bugs nest in wooded areas--they are especially fond of Pine Trees (which explains why they're found in great numbers in the south).

The bugs in our area don't seem too crazy about being wet. Our house is on a very wooded lot, most of which is Pine. When it gets really stormy and rainy like this, they seem to take over our garage. They creep me out too.

We've had almost 17 inches of rain between Cindy and Dennis, but I haven't noted an increase in Palmetto bugs (this time).

Jeny

[Agua]

I've seen swarms of non-indiginous small green dragonflies present following a Hurricane when it was light enough to see outside and the storm passed: Georges '98.

[digitaldahling]

Plants I've never seen, bugs, just STUFF - dunno.

Every time a hurricane or tropical storm passes this area, we get a new kind of weed. Haven't noticed new critters, but got lots of new weeds from Ivan.

Agree with the comment about "Palmetto bugs"...call 'em what they are. Those things will make me move faster than any hurricane!

[HurricaneQueen]

We notice after a particularly wet period that the Palmetto bugs and ants like to move in. Yuck! But it's always been a fact of life in the sub-tropics and tends to get worse around August and September. So far this year, no ants but I have seen the occasional Palmetto bug. Time to stock up on Raid!

Lynn

[Derecho]

Tropical waves have carried Locusts from Africa to the Carribean. (I'm not kidding, happened in 1988).

http://cms2.gre.ac.uk/gre_research/Agri ... nberg3.doc

[HurryKane]

but what the hell. Can tropical storms bring insects with them? I have lived in Charlotte for 7 years now and I've never seen bugs like we're being inundated with tonight. They look like palmetto bugs with large feelers. 3 freaking inches long. I know they're thick further south of here, but they're all over the place the past 2 days.

Raebie, creeped out

You've seen Men In Black, right?


Yep. Mmmhmmm. The alien invasion has begun.

[Pebbles]

Lots of rain and flooded ground bring out the buggies for sure. Your high ground to them. Also the winds can bring bugs from areas not to far away. We would get all kinds of wierd things from the marshes (I dunno how far they were maybe 10 or 20 miles from us?) after hurricanes. And frogs, snakes, spiders, mice, those nasty big wood roaches you all talking about too. Don't worry.. they usually die down a bit after everything dries out and they can go back to their natural habitats.

[tailgater]

but what the hell. Can tropical storms bring insects with them? I have lived in Charlotte for 7 years now and I've never seen bugs like we're being inundated with tonight. They look like palmetto bugs with large feelers. 3 freaking inches long. I know they're thick further south of here, but they're all over the place the past 2 days.

Raebie, creeped out

You better hope Emily doesn't come this way, cause we got these BIG black and red grasshoppers that you can put a saddle on. No birds or other normal predators eat them, they only fear large trucks and shotguns. P.s. only exaggerating a little.

[BayouVenteux]

You better hope Emily doesn't come this way, cause we got these BIG black and red grasshoppers that you can put a saddle on. No birds or other normal predators eat them, they only fear large trucks and shotguns. P.s. only exaggerating a little.

Yep. "Devil's Horsemen" is what they call'em down the bayou where my wife's family lives. They're pretty docile actually, but when your a 4-5 inch, apparently foul-tasting bug, who's gonna mess with you? I remember driving down La 1 around Golden Meadow one summer afternoon many years ago and for some strange, unknown reason there were hundreds upon hundreds of them crossing the highway for a stretch of a couple miles...CRUNCH CRUNCH CRUNCH CRUNCH CRUNCH. Tires got a workout that afternoon.

[JenBayles]

OK y'all - you've got my skin crawling and I'm about to hide under my desk! YEEEEEEECCCCCCCCHHHHHH!!!!

[wxcrazytwo]

that was a weird question...

[timNms]

I don't know about them bringing insects with them, but I did see something rather strange the morning after Camille. There were seagulls at the pond across the road from our house!

[wxwatcher91]

ok here I go...

I think that what may occur is that insects and birds can get trapped inside the eye when a hurricane forms... the hurricane basically just forms around them... so the eye wall acts like a cage to keep the insects and birds in. they can only get out when the storm dissapates...

[TreasureIslandFLGal]

I don't know what storm it was, but back when I was in grade school in the late 70's or as late as 81' maybe, the remnants of some storm went over Londonderry, NH and left a FLAMINGO on school grounds. The poor thing was pretty battered and when Fish & Wildlife captured it, they said it was severely dehydrated and near death. They assumed it had been trapped in the storm from way down south.

That was quite a strange story, especially since like 2 weeks later the headline story was about a misguided moose that was angering some lady's toy poodle in her garage.

[msbee]

I have found that after we were struck by Lus in 1995 and to a lesser extent Lenny in 1999, that the whole balance of nature was upset and fior a long time too.
we also had bugs and things we had never seen before.
6 months after Luis there were some kind of weird caterpillers eating all our flamboyant trees. we had never seen that before.
when we inquired, we were told that they had always been there but the birds kept the population down to a minuminm.
after the hurricane, many of the birds were killed or blown away, and so there weren't as many to eat the caterpillars so the caterpillar popluation mushroomed.