BugzRule

05/30/2025

02/13/2023

Can you guess what the newest addition is?

01/03/2023

Monty loves to get stuck in weird places. This time, it's an empty Old Maid box.

12/22/2022

This Larger Florida Mantis (Stagmomantis floridensis) molted, and somehow lost its head in the process! I dug around the entire enclosure looking for it, but with no success. The mantis wasn't bleeding or anything, but even more bizarre was the fact that the mantis could walk and jump perfectly fine without a head. It did eventually die, since long term survival was impossible since it had no way to eat.

12/20/2022

So while cleaning up at my church, I noticed a turtle, which I believe was a Yellowbelly Slider Turtle (Trachemys scripta scripta) that had been hit by a car. The whole front half of the turtle was missing, so I couldn't tell for sure what species it was. I went to move the turtle out of view, and a bunch of eggs fell out of it, nine of which were undamaged. I took the eggs back home, and after doing some research and consulting my friend Joseph Finley of Valhalla Exotics, made a little incubator out of some stuff from Walmart. I'm not sure if the eggs are going to even hatch, but I will continue to update you on how they are doing!

12/11/2022

The Monarch Butterfly (Danaus plexippus) is a large, colorful species of butterfly whose caterpillars feed exclusively on Milkweed plants. The use of pesticides and the destruction of Milkweed fields in order to build houses and buildings has caused Monarch populations to decline steadily in the last few decades, and as of July 2022 they are now on the IUCN Red List, classifying them as an endangered species.

11/29/2022

This Florida Bark Scorpion (Centruroides gracilis) was hungry! She's got one roach in her mouth, and one in each claw!

11/19/2022

The Regal Jumping Spider (Phidippus regius) is one of the largest jumping spiders in the world, and its also a Florida native!

11/18/2022

The Greenbottle Blue Tarantula (Chromatopelma cyaneopubescens) is a stunning arachnid, with its vibrant colors and spectacular webs.

11/17/2022

The Florida Banded Water Snake (Nerodia fasciata pictiventris) is a nonvenomous snake that is very often misidentified as the Florida Cottonmouth, a highly venomous species.

11/17/2022

A bunch of Firefly larvae, aka Glow Worms.

11/17/2022

Just an assortment of tarantula sheds!