For your amusement and my edification

[Kimmers]

I hope you get a laugh and ultimately someone can answer my question. Read on.

Last December (yes 7 mo. ago!) I purchased an orchid from a big home improvement store and put it in Elodin's cage. I've had great success with orchids in his viv. It just takes moving it around some and an occasional timeout to keep it from getting waterlogged. It adds color which I enjoy and who knows maybe El does too. Well when the last bloom fell I took the orchid out and set it on my desk in the same room, planning to do something with it later but just not getting there. It sat on my desk TWO weeks.

Yesterday it poured all day so I took the opportunity to clean and rearrange Elodin's viv. This morning, while finishing putting the room back together, I finally got around to taking care of the orchid. I removed the spent stem, the stick, and clips from the orchid. The plant itself was in a thin walled plastic cup with holes, surrounded my sphagnum moss inside a glazed terracotta pot. (It originally had lava rock which I remove before putting it in the viv.) As I casually removed the plastic cup from the pot ...

First let me say I have been camping and hunting in WI and MN all my life. I am NOT afraid of snakes, spiders, leeches, ticks, worms, dragonflies, and all other manner of bugs. I am an avid gardeners and have encountered some freaking amazing bugs. But, as I removed the cup I was greeted by this thing. Yes, I screeched. It sat in the pot, on my desk for TWO weeks! The orchid has been here 7 MONTHS! The crawly is about 3/4 inches long and is trapped in the pot. On my deck. Orchid is sitting there too! So, what the hell is it????

 

[Lathis]

Australian Cockroach! Probablt came with your orchid originally. They are invasive to warm parts of the US, but are an outdoor roach. They typically won't infest a house. Smoosh him and relax

 

[Kimmers]

Thank you!

I had the plastic cup out of the glazed pot several times over the months. First removing the lava rock and excess sphagnum, then occasionally dumping water when it got soaked and trimming roots. Do you think it was there the whole 7 mo. or did it hatch?

It was just such a shock! I've had a brown recluse come home in bananas once. That was shocking too but at least I knew what it was!

 

[Lathis]

Yeah, it was probably there the whole time . I caught a smaller one out of a bromeliad last year and had to look it up. I had never seen a yellow roach before.

I've had spiders come out of grapes, too. Not sure what kind it was originally, but it was a pancake spider when I was finished.

 

[MelissaB]

I had an anole egg hatch out of a potted palm tree, last year. I was glad it was a cute baby lizard and not a big hairy spider.

 

[junglefries]

pancake spider

I am not familiar with this species. I googled and wiki'd it and couldn't find it. Did you mean you flattened it? I am right there with you. I can handle anything but spiders and roaches. I just don't like them!

 

[nightanole]

I had an anole egg hatch out of a potted palm tree, last year. I was glad it was a cute baby lizard and not a big hairy spider.

Since i was on a first name basis with my vet, a lady dropped off a plant from florida with a gimpy anole hanging with it. "Gimpy" lasted 7 years...

 

[nightanole]

I am not familiar with this species. I googled and wiki'd it and couldn't find it. Did you mean you flattened it? I am right there with you. I can handle anything but spiders and roaches. I just don't like them!

Maybe she meant the Shamrock weaverk, they look like walking hamburger buns

 

[Lathis]

Hahaha no I meant a squished spider

 

[Kimmers]

Thank you all for sharing

La cucaracha is no more. The pot the orchid came is tall. I think the next one I get I'll just transfer the new orchid to it. That way should another appear it will be contained!

 

[Olimpia]

Lol Ick! I live in Florida so my plants come with all sorts of surprises in them. Some fun, others not as much.

I once bought a fern to go atop one of my bedroom bookshelves, back when I was naive about what lives in nursery plants here. When I woke up the next morning I look over at the wall next to my bed and there's this large frog, covered in long dog hair, sitting there halfway up the wall! I rinsed off the poor thing and let it loose.

Other times it's been geckos, on occasion VERY large spiders. Like the huge water spiders that are practically tarantulas. Those I hate finding! lol

 

[FSchams]

My cousin's fiancé who lives in Knysna South Africa told me that there is a nursery near their home with B. damaranum all over the plants. He said that he roughly counted 20 one time when he was walking through there. I bet you guys wil like a surprise like that! That is truly one amaising thing about SA we are blessed with AWESOME wildlife like the dwarf chameleons