OT, what do you call the stealth insects?

Question

The ones that look like stealth airplanes, stealth bombers, except without the wings (Their wings are usually folded compactly).

Almost 1/2 inch long, brown, no segments, that is, no waist or neck.

They don't have curved sides or edges, just straight edges and flat surfaces.

The front edges are two lines that make an angle of maybe 140 degrees, with the obtuse point at their "nose".

Then two more edges gradually narrowing to the rear,

And then two more edges, narrowing very sharply, ending in an obtuse point at the rear end.

Plus 6 legs. They fly but not well.

There are more around here than every before, a few inside my house no less, and I'd like to learn more about them, so I need to know what they are called.

Thanks

HeyBub · Answer

If they were bigger, I'd say locust (it's that time during the 7-year cycle).

As an aside, it's hilarious to watch a cat, who's never before seen a locust, pick one up in its mouth only to have the locust start buzzing!

Jim Elbrecht · Answer

-snip-I'm with you on stink bug-- but wonder why you'd stick to thatspecies? have a ?normal? amount of the pineapple smelling ones here inupstate NY this year-- but they vary in population from year to year.Jim

Frank · Answer

I also opt for stink bugs. As weather turns cool they're coming in looking for a place to hibernate for the winter and will be a PITA in the spring trying to get out. I try to seal them out and kill any that enter house.

GeorgeD · Answer

They are a new invasive species. They seem to be everywhere (at least in the Central Atlantic States). They come indoors when it gets cold. If I looked I could probably find one ? I looked and indeed found one on the window blinds.

Some people have lots and lots of them. I generally have a couple.

They are annoying but don?t seem to cause any harm. No one seems to know what to do about them. I generally ignore them unless one of them irritates me and then I spray it with bug spray.

Best wishes,

Bob Villa · Answer

You didn't mention them smelling?  Do they have an acrid but not toounpleasant of an odor? (when moved or swatted)

mm · Answer

George, Jim, and Frank have convinced me that they are stink bugs, butno, they don't stink.  What are they doing wrong?Or am I not doing my share?

mm · Answer

Mine don't smell at all. Well, maybe they smell things, but I don't smell them.

Well, I might have 20 inside, that I've seen. Certain bugs I don't like that much, but when the walk on me it tickles and I like it. These are so ugly, and they don't really walk on me anyhow. They usually don't touch me at all, but sometimes they just get between me and the mattress, like a pebble, and I don't like it.

I hate to think that more will be coming inside if it gets colder. (It's 77 to 85 during the day, hardly cold, but 65 or cooler at night. They should be sleeping at night instead of trying to get into my house.

Okay, that's good. Maybe if I spend more time with them, they'll start to look better, like an ugly girlfriend does.

Like little ants versus big ants. The little ones are cute and they tickle. The big ones are ugly and disguting. I sort of hate all grasshoppers but the little ones are not so bad. (I've never had any grasshoppers in the house.)

They only annoy me when I'm in bed, and I'm not using bug spray there. Well I guess I could have when there were ten on the window screen. (They ARE ugly.) Tomorrow is another day.

Thanks for the info.

krw · Answer

AIUI, locust are swarms of certain species of grasshoppers. That is, "Locust"isn't really the insect, rather the insects in action.

mm · Answer

i LIKED YOUR answer so much I checked it out, but it looks like you're wrong.

?noun

Also called acridid, short-horned grasshopper. any of several grasshoppers of the family Acrididae, having short antennae and commonly migrating in swarms that strip the vegetation from large areas.
any of various cicadas, as the seventeen-year locust.
any of several North American trees belonging to the genus Robinia, of the legume family, esp. R. pseudoacacia, having pinnate leaves and clusters of fragrant white flowers. [You have to be careful when these swarm. They can knock down houses in their path.]
the durable wood of this tree.
any of various other trees, as the carob and the honey locust.

Origin:

1150?1200; ME < L locusta grasshopper

?Related forms lo·cust·like, adjective Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2010.

Word Origin & History

locust "grasshopper," c.1300, borrowed earlier in O.Fr. form languste (c.1200), from L. locusta "locust, lobster" (see lobster).

"In the Hebrew Bible there are nine different names for the insect or for particular species or varieties; in the English Bible they are rendered sometimes 'locust,' sometimes 'beetle,' 'grasshopper,' 'caterpillar,' 'palmerworm,' etc. The precise application of several names is unknown." [OED]

krw · Answer

Could easily be, however:

"Locust is the swarming phase of short-horned grasshoppers of the family Acrididae."

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So by this account it is the swarming phase of the critter, not necessarily the critter itself.

That definition doesn't work. They're nothing alike. Cicadas are cute little critters with a sweet lullaby-like song. ;-)

;-)

OT, what do you call the stealth insects?

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