A while back I asked about a bug I had creating trouble for me, it croaks like a small frog, it burrows, and when touched around the rear end where the 2 prong looking thingies are it squirts a thick gooey stuff that smells shocking. Thanks for any help as to what it is and how do I get rid of it, ive a feeling they are going to be a problem if I don't get to them. Peace and Blessings from Norm . . .
Edited for spelling
This message was edited Sep 2, 2008 10:47 AM
another shot
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Norm,
your bug is a Mole Cricket, similar to this Dark Night Mole Cricket - Gryllotalpa monanka: http://davesgarden.com/guides/bf/go/313/
which I find in my garden in Victoria, but yours will be a different species. There are several Western Australian species.
I am surprised at their being a problem. Ours live under the ground and though we hear them a lot at night, we rarely see one. I have no idea how to get rid of them. Living underground as they do I think it would be very hard to eliminate them,
Kennedy
Norm, I saw a lot of these when I lived in WA. I have never heard of them being a pest though. As Kennedy says, they live under ground and do their own thing. If you have a problem , I would look for whatever else in in the area. Some bugs are very sneaky and you can never see them except for their damage.
We may be wrong and find the Mole cricket is your culprit, but I've never heard anyone complain about them before.
Jean
My Mum lives in a retirement village about 15km north of the Adelaide CBD. She had about 3 or 4 of a South Australian species of Mole Cricket wander into the house last year and I had to ask the South Australian Museum for an ID. As far as I know they are all pretty harmless (apart from the stink). Unlike some of the American species they rarely appear in great quantities in one place. In fact they may be an ally in the garden as they can eat smaller pest type insects. I suspect that they may be a bit like slaters in a way - mostly they eat rotting vegetation and you only have to worry about controlling them around the tenderest of garden seedling like lettuces, and putting them out of the house if they sneak inside. Actually the Museum got quite excited here as they said the ones that Mum had were consdered quite rare. Here's a reasonably decent website on them http://www.museum.wa.gov.au/collections/natscience/invertebrates/documents/Molecrickets.pdf
Ciao, KK.
Hi all, thank you so much for your input and answers to my question, as usual you all here at Daves Gardens are a wealth of information and very helpful. thanks again. much peace and many blessings to you all.
Norm . . .
