Content tagged with "Insects, Spiders and Kin"

Soil centipedes are abundant, common and harmless to humans. About all you have to do to find them is lift up stones and logs!

These long-legged, dark-colored water spiders are distinctive in that the oval abdomen is smaller than the broad cephalothorax. The rim stripe surrounding the dark carapace, and sometimes the abdomen, is whitish-yellow. On top of the dark brown abdomen, three distinctive pairs of minute white spots create a connect-the-dot pyramid or run mid-line down the back. The brown legs are robust and dotted with white hairs.

Young striped scorpions are pale yellowish-brown, usually with two lengthwise dark stripes on the abdomen; older scorpions are uniform dark brown with the stripes faint or lacking.

Some of the most problematic animals in Missouri, ticks drink the blood of humans and other mammals. The idea of blood-sucking parasites is hideous enough, but ticks are known carriers of serious, sometimes deadly diseases. Learn more about these large mites and how to protect yourself from their bites.