Got Insecticide?

Kids (and grown up kids) will love this cache of creepy crawlies. Be careful of the traffic. Keep scrolling to read some insect trivia.

Generally I like to hide my caches in beautiful (or at least, pleasant) locations. If the location isn't pleasant, then let's at least make the cache itself interesting! So it is with this cache. Plain location, interesting cache. You're looking for a sturdy metal ammo can. Please do not take insects from the cache.

I am fascinated by insects! My mother tells of a time when I was a toddler. She found me with half a locust in my hand and yellow juice dribbling down my chin. This was in Africa, where I grew up. Locusts, or swarming grasshoppers, breed rapidly and many fly together in search of food. They are not common in the United States anymore, however in Africa, Europe and Asia, a large swarm may eat up to 80,000 tons of grain and other vegetation in a day. I remember seeing a locust swarm fly past my house. The sky darkened as the living cloud passed. Truly, it did.

I used to keep bees. They died. I suspect that someone in my neighborhood sprayed insecticide on their trees or shrubs. Insecticides kill more than just bugs. Insecticides kill people and animals too. The World Health Organization estimates that over a million people are seriously poisoned by insecticides each year. Please keep little cachers safe from those poisons. Where do you store yours?

Insect Trivia:

1. How fast can insects fly?

The male deer bot fly is reputed to develop flying speeds of several hundred miles per hour, but this is probably an exaggeration. A tabanid fly, related to horse flies, has been clocked at 90 miles per hour. Hawk moths have been timed at 33.5 miles per hour. A dragonfly of the species Anax parthenope has been clocked at almost 18 miles per hour. Honeybees fly at about 7 miles per hour, and have to beat their wings 190 times per second to do it.

2. How fast can insects flap their wings?

Insects with the fastest wing beat frequency are the no-see-ums, or very tiny midges, which beat their hairy wings 1,046 times per second. Male mosquitoes beat their wings 450 to 600 times per second. Cabbageworm butterflies beat their wings nine times per second.

3. How far can insects jump?

Fleas jump 200 times their body length -- like a human clearing a 70-story building. Grasshoppers jump 80 times their length -- like a human jumping 1 1/2 football fields. Flea beetles 1 inch long can jump up to 2 feet -- like a human jumping over 15 cars.

4. How strong is an insect?

An average man can pull about 0.86 times his own weight, but a leaf beetle (Donacia) can pull 42.7 times its own weight. Horses pull half their weight, ants pull 52 times their weight (which is comparable to a human pulling 4.5 tons).

5. What type of insect has been on Earth the longest?

The oldest group of insects are the cockroaches. Scientists estimate they lived here 300 million years ago.