The mere mention of creepy crawlies gives rise to some interesting reactions- some get covered in goose bumps and their hairs stand on ends. Few individuals enjoy being around bugs. Their appearance, movement and behavior are often disturbing and frightening. Some say that these creatures are misunderstood as there are several cool funny facts about them that people do not know. Without getting freaked out, let’s look at five of these facts.

1. Listen with Legs

There are insects such as crickets, grasshoppers, locusts and katydids referred to as orthopterans that hear with tiny ears that are located on their legs. Yes you read right- ears on their legs. Certainly their ears aren’t large structures like ours. Rather, they are tiny ears found on their front legs just behind the knee. It is an opening that leads to a chamber in the leg. They can detect vibration-induced sound waves. The sound waves are first collected by the cricket’s ear, which then transforms, amplifies, and analyzes their frequencies. A cricket can locate the source of a sound by turning its body in that direction.

2. Show Motherly Love

Rarely are insects described as motherly but in the case of earwigs, they really are. The mother earwig guards and tends to its eggs for weeks. During this time they may move their eggs to a safer location, groom the eggs and remove any fungi that may be harmful. When the eggs are hatched the mother continues to care for the young. They feed their young with food from their stomach. Before becoming adults, earwig nymphs go through five molts. The mother looks after her offspring until after they molt for the second time.

3. Suited Up

Some insects such as beetles have armors. Although their armors are not made from steel, they serve a similar purpose, that is, protection. Beetles only use one of their two pairs of wings for flying. Elytra, which are different pairs of wings, are rigid and act as a substantial layer of armor, protecting the beetle’s sensitive body and delicate wings. They are often referred to as faux wings.

4. Sewing Their Nest

Well weaver ants have been found to possess the ability to make their own nests. They are true designers and seamstresses. They weave leaves together with silk to build their arboreal nests, but oddly only larvae make silk. As a result, the workers employ the larvae as silk dispensers while holding them in their mandibles and moving back and forth from one leaf to another. To get the leaves in the canopy of trees to touch each other, the ants hold each other at the waist and form a conga line. They continue doing this until the large nest is formed.

5. Play the Violin

You have seen pictures of grasshoppers playing a violin, but what’s the connection? Well the meadow grasshopper makes the melodious tune of the violin. The small creatures make the sound by rubbing its hind legs against its forewings. The wing vibrates and the sound is made only by the males. The females hear and respond by following the call to find the male. The noise is also made to warn away the grasshopper’s enemies.