Insects in Japan

thomas · 13 May 2002

I've split this thread and posted it as a new topic.

Yair asked about insects in Japan:

Another question:

For some reason, centipedes (mukade) seem to be popular in Japanese children stories. Do a lot of those critters (brrrr, they give me the willies) scamper around in Japan? If yes, how big are they?

Difficult subject for my wife. Is there something called insectophobia?

Although I have never seen them myself, mukade seem to be widespread in Japan. They're poisonous, their bite is comparable to a bee-sting.

There's some info on a web site maintained by the Osaka Prefectural government:

- Form

Consisting of a head and a large number of segments, generally the flat body has a long and slender form. There are a pair of antennas in a head, and there are a pair of legs in each segment. The number of segments ranges between 15 and 21, 23 with the larger Ishimukade, large-sized Oomukade consist of up to 117 segments. Colours vary from dark brown to green.

- Ecology

Mukade live in damp dark places under fallen leaves or a bark etc. under Kutsuki or a stone and moves about quickly. They live on insects and other small animal. They lay eggs in spring and early summer, mothers have the habit of protecting their eggs. They have a lifespan of 5-6 years. Mukade are nocturnal predators and also invade houses.

- Damage

Mukade can cause a lot of damage during the rainy season, in particular the large-sized Oomukade. They climb on ceilings and in shoes. Their bite causes intense long-lasting ache. Etc. etc.

Cute.

Japan must be a paradise for insectologists. I know that Japan is inhabited by the largest kind of hornets on earth. Spiders are also abundant.

See Wendy's Life in Japan, she narrates one of her many close encounters of the creepy kind ("Japan Stories" >> "Creepy Crawlies in Kamakura"). Very entertaining.

Yair Lahav · 13 May 2002

Hi Thomas,

You mentioned insectophobia. Well, I know it well, especially on occasions when I am summoned by my female family members to deport a wayward spyder. So I certainly apologize if I happened to touch a subject Nahoko may have preferred to avoid . Personally, I have no problems with insects (except large centipedes and scorpions with whom I had some run-ins while living in the Middle East). This is good, because we have an abundance of black widows and brown recluse spiders in this part of the country.

Thanks for the Osaka web site. The picture was particularly upsetting. These things ought to have been declared illegal and banished to Siberia. I wonder if the Osaka folks published it in order to promote tourism there?

thomas · 13 May 2002

No harm done, Yair. My wife has had some traumatic childhood experiences concerning insects. I myself dreamed of becoming insectologist during my school days. While I have chosen a completely different metier in the end, the interest in critters and creepers is still alive, much to my wife's horror.

moyashi · 13 May 2002

Yummy, too bad that they must be a Honshu thing. I haven't seen any up in Hokkaido.

Hokkaido has problems with pill bugs. These pill bugs are a little strange, they refuse to curl up into a pill !!!

Lot's of mosquitoes though :|

Yair Lahav · 13 May 2002

>too bad that they must be a Honshu thing. I haven't seen any up in
>Hokkaido.

Well, we can send you some. The toy shops here carry a large variety of horribly lifelike centipedes, spiders and cockroaches (plastic ones, of course, made in Thailand). Should you want to have some interesting action from female friends, just smuggle one or two in their purse (pocket, bed, decoltage). I can assure you it will provide them with a conversation topic for years.

Concerning the reluctant pillbugs: I cannot help but imagine that someone in Hokkaido, perhaps right now, may be occupying himself with poking poor little pillbugs .

Hehe. Sounds like something I would do...

thomas · 13 May 2002

Pillbugs, we have plenty of them here too. As for centipedes, they seem to prefer tropical and subtropical habitats. Okinawa must be their Eldorado, also for cockroaches.

In Tohoku region they have these huge moths, really impressive. Their wingspan exceeds the size of a human hand.

moyashi · 13 May 2002

LOL ... we got the moths here too.

Late Fall, they all die and drop on the roads and look like fallen leaves. Gives you the hibby jibbys running over them with your cars. Hmmm, they also smear pretty badly on windshields.

hehe, I poked my share since it was so strange that they didn't curl up.

LOL, plastic bugs ... Japan has a afflication with plastic doggy turds LOL ... have no real clue why. oopps, turning into a gag goods thread ... hey, thomas start a new thread will ya!

thomas · 14 May 2002

Found a pic of that beast called "Oo-mizuao", see below.

Japan has a affliction with plastic doggy turds LOL ... have no real clue why. oops, turning into a gag goods thread ... hey, thomas start a new thread will ya!

Go ahead, no problem, but don't expect me to post images.

shintemaster · 24 May 2002

Hey just a quick point, not completely related. When I was living in Japan I never noticed that much in the way of insects. I didn't see many spiders and the much vaunted cockroaches weren't seen often by me...

Could just be me of Fukuoka......

........Or perhaps I'm just used to too many because of living in Australia.....

jus_defy · 22 Jun 2002

Aren't crickets considered good luck...

in Japan or is that China? I hate most bugs and would prefer my hubby to kill them for me...if not, I either take a wad of tissue (gotta be a BIG wad so when I pick it up I can't FEEL the critter) and drop it in the toilet. We have black widows here and supposedly brown recluses but haven't come upon any YET. I do not scream and stand on tables when I do see a bug otherwise I would probably get nothing done around the house...we have a MAJOR problem with "earwigs" over here...we call 'em "pincher-butts". Do they have milipedes there?...like the ones in Texas?

samuraitora · 24 Jun 2002

I hate earwigs...the look of them is kind of creepy.
We have a lot of them here in Michigan too

thomas · 26 Jun 2002

More J-critters on Aaron Johnson's website

=> http://www.geocities.com/aaronjohnson1974/bugs.html

samuraitora · 27 Jun 2002

Great site...thank you

jus_defy · 27 Jun 2002

UGH!

Just looking at the pictures gives me the creeps...as I get older I don't get as startled by bugs but before we had our sunroom put in we used to leave the glass door open at nights during the summer with just the screen door between us and the night air. There was a gap below the screen door and we would get slugs coming in fairly often. I assume slugs and snail are pretty common there in Japan like here.

larry_s · 28 Jun 2002

These mukake look really horrible. I wonder how fast they are.

moyashi · 19 Jul 2002

Why do folks get bugged by bugs?

Gee, all you gotta do is smash it, clean up the guts of the bugger and move along.

hehe, I hate snakes though

gitte · 3 Nov 2003

can anyone id this spider?

In Kyoto recently I wandered off into the woods from the philopsher's path, and came across a group of really large, beautiful spiders. The bodies were a bright lime green color, about the size of a walnut. The legs were thin, smooth with bends in them - mostly black with red bands. I was too intimidated to get close enough for a photo...anyone have an idea what these might have been?

Iron Chef · 3 Nov 2003

Here's an interesting link our aspiring Entymologists might find useful:

In Harmony with Neighboring INSECTS and SPIDERS

Some info and pictures of insects and spiders. I hope that 'spiders' will be really appreciated all over the world. And, I hope that people and 'spiders' can coexist, side by side, in harmony.

web.archive.org

Oh, and if you follow the "Common Spiders in Japan" link that's shown at the aforementioned site you will find quite a few color pics and illustrations like the one below (look similar to what you described Gitte?)

ghettocities · 3 Nov 2003

I heard it's pretty popular, especially among house-wives with nothing better to do other than think such things, supposivly they ritualistically box lunches everyday for their children and yeah, it creeps me out.

Josh

neko_girl22 · 3 Nov 2003

Re: can anyone id this spider?

Originally posted by gitte
In Kyoto recently I wandered off into the woods from the philopsher's path, and came across a group of really large, beautiful spiders. The bodies were a bright lime green color, about the size of a walnut. The legs were thin, smooth with bends in them - mostly black with red bands. I was too intimidated to get close enough for a photo...anyone have an idea what these might have been?

oh yes I've seen those too, first time I've ever called a spider beautiful. Unfortunately I only had my cellphone camera which couldn't get close enought to take a good photo. I also saw ones with red bodies and black bands on their legs, but I liked the green ones best!
I'll see if my hubby knows what they are.....

gitte · 3 Nov 2003

They're a much brighter green than the one in the photo Iron Chef found, and the body isn't segmented. If I saw them in any other setting I'd assume they were fake - too colorful, too big! Nzueda, it sounds like you were pretty confident about getting close to them, they're not poisonous?

samuraitora · 3 Nov 2003

Really, they're not poisonous?

neko_girl22 · 4 Nov 2003

apparently...., there are no native poisonous spiders in Japan, except for red backs or black widows that jump off boats from other countries.
I was with my hubby (Japanese) and a Japanese friend at the time and they didn't say it was poisonous.... they're really common too, so I guess someone would've told me if they were...
(really really hoping no one proves me wrong ...hehe)

btw I was going by your ID and not the photo, I know the one you are talking about

samuraitora · 6 Nov 2003

I am shocked to hear that there are no poisonous spiders in Japan. There really aren't that many here in the states either. I can only think of the Black Widow. Surely there are more.

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