Just kidding!
🙂
As menacing as that creature looks (up close), the tiny ‘Pseudoscorpion’ is a totally harmless worm bin inhabitant. In fact they can be beneficial, feeding actively on various other tiny organisms we often think of as pests.
I’ve only encountered a handful of these invertebrates over the years – not sure whether it’s because they are somewhat rare, or because they are so small (generally only a few millimetres). Likely a combination of the two.
They seem to be more common in mature systems, especially those located outside. This particular specimen was found in some finished castings I recently harvest from the bottom of my bin outdoor worm bin (more about that in another post).
Anyway – just thought it would be fun to share that picture!
[tags]pseudoscorpions, scorpions, worm bins, worm castings, vermicompost, compost, invertebrates, arthropods[/tags]
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I can’t wait until my worm bin is ready to harvest. It’s been outside long enough that there should be some interesting critters in there.
Thanks for sharing the photo – how did you get it to sit still for the picture taking?
Martha
We actually consider the Pseudoscorpions our “tiny yet aggressive” friends. They have long been present in our systems and after the initial shock of having “scorpions” living along side our worms we learned a few interesting facts. (1) We haven’t ever seen them attack a worm. They are often very present and in close proximity to areas occupied by the worms and seem to pay no attention to each other; (2) we have seen them attack flies that land on our worm beds – and the attack is usually in a pack type formation (very aggressive in nature). We actually have a photo of them bringing down a fly if you would like to see it.
Martha – I was certainly surprised to be able to capture the image. For whatever reason, this particular pseudoscorpion had crawled up the side of the bin and was just sitting there.
Shawn – thanks for sharing that! I for one would LOVE to see the photo.
Yes, please post the photo.
Martha