• @TwoBeeSan
        link
        English
        396 days ago

        They roly and they poly. No better names exist.

      • @AngryCommieKender
        link
        English
        35 days ago

        Re: your username: Is a Replicant Batty Coda just a normal Batty Coda? He’s already a cyborg with crappy/ intermittent reception.

        • @[email protected]
          link
          fedilink
          English
          25 days ago

          I had to look that up lol, I’ve never seen Fern Gully. The username is a reference to Roy Batty, the character from Blade Runner.

          • @AngryCommieKender
            link
            English
            3
            edit-2
            5 days ago

            Ahh, gotcha. It’s a good movie. Kinda sad looking back. They played it in schools in the '90s and drilled the message in that we were already doing clear cutting of forests without “The Leveler.” This was back when they “cared about global warming, and we will have to do something about it soon.” Rather than just claiming it doesn’t exist.

            Robin Williams played Batty Coda, so I remember the character fondly.

    • @someacnt_
      link
      English
      24 days ago

      Do you mean the bean bug?

  • @[email protected]
    link
    fedilink
    English
    195 days ago

    It’s because they roll up into a cute little ball and it tickles us in a way nothing else does

  • @Heavybell
    link
    English
    246 days ago

    Probably the cutest insect, and they do us no harm. Unshocking they have a collection of amusing names.

    • @ZeffSyde
      link
      English
      25 days ago

      I’m my head a doodle bug is more like a beetle with long segmented legs that kind of bobs around as it doodles along.

      • @Sam_Bass
        link
        English
        25 days ago

        Yeah, we all have our own tags for critters. Went looking online for doodle bugs and most all of the links pointed to ant lions. We called those sand diggers when I was a kid.

  • @[email protected]
    link
    fedilink
    English
    145 days ago

    This is a weird question but everyone else could smell these, right? Like a weird bitter, musty smell. That post about people smelling ants a while back made me wonder what other bugs not all people smell.

    • 🐋 Color 🍁 ♀
      link
      fedilink
      English
      225 days ago

      They excrete ammonia through their exoskeleton because they don’t actually pee! I’ve only noticed a smell from them when they’re in large groups. They may be a bit smelly, and a lot of people mislabel them as insects, but they’re actually terrestrial isopods and are related to crabs and shrimps!

      • Boxscape
        link
        fedilink
        English
        35 days ago

        stinky wood/almonds

        Isn’t almonds also the scent reported by those genetically-equipped to smell cyanide?

      • @[email protected]
        link
        fedilink
        English
        9
        edit-2
        5 days ago

        Certain ants are pretty distinct. Thatch ants spray formic acid as a defense, and will have a sour smell (and taste, or so I’ve been told). Odoriferous house ants are named so for obvious reason, and smell (to me) like pen ink. Assuming they taste terrible, but I dunno anyone who’s tasted one.

        Also, for what it’s worth, my entomologist father refers to the thread’s subject as “sow bugs”, so that’s how I know them, but pill bugs and rolly polly are common here.

        • @[email protected]
          link
          fedilink
          English
          15 days ago

          That’s very interesting. I can’t smell ants at all and [threads subject] smell like dirt to me (I assume because they live in dirt)
          Thanks for explaining!

      • @[email protected]
        link
        fedilink
        English
        45 days ago

        I’ve never noticed an ant smell, if I had to guess I’d assume it’s some different chemical I’m picking up on from the pill bugs.

        • @[email protected]
          link
          fedilink
          English
          25 days ago

          I think so! I love them but I haven’t smelled them. What’s your stance on cilantro? I love genetic smell/taste traits.

          • @[email protected]
            link
            fedilink
            English
            2
            edit-2
            5 days ago

            I’m a soap-taster, unfortunately, but it smells really good to me! I just wish it tasted like it smelled

            • @[email protected]
              link
              fedilink
              English
              25 days ago

              I don’t think it is, but I wonder if it’s related?! Neat!

              I wish it tasted to you like it does to me :c I LOVE cilantro!

    • @cholesterol
      link
      English
      25 days ago

      Doesn’t ring a bell. Earwigs have a distinct smell, though.

  • Styggen på ryggen
    link
    English
    15
    edit-2
    5 days ago

    Norwegian, a loved one goes by many names…

    Melkedyr: Milk bugs

    Benkebitere: Bench biters

    Kaffetroll: Coffee trolls

    Munkebiller: Monk beetles

    Kaffelus: Coffee lice

    Munkelus: Monk lice

    Moldokser: Mold oxen

    Kaffedyr: Coffee bugs

    Tusselus: Goblin lice

    Paddelus: Toad lice

    Potetroll: Potato trolls

  • @RebekahWSD
    link
    English
    45 days ago

    I was taught they were called pill bugs. Although I knew them as also roly polys. My mother called them pill bugs, the other kids called them roly polys.

    She told me it was an east coast versus west coast name and clearly is more “every group of people had decided they wanted to name this thing themselves” XD

  • @[email protected]
    link
    fedilink
    English
    35 days ago

    I mean I have a pair of aquatic sowbugs I’ve been keeping in an empty yogurt cup. They look like regular sowbugs but they’re underwater, hence aquatic sowbug.

  • @Nounka
    link
    English
    14 days ago

    It is called a pissebed in Dutch…

    Yet where i live we call them verkskes ( little piggies )