Insect eggs or droppings of some kind?

[Monique]

Insect eggs, cocoons, or droppings of some kind?

All over my terrace I am finding strange grey balls, does anyone have a clue what they could be? They're about the size of a rolled up pillbug, smooth surface with a matt gloss.

I've never seen them before, maybe some nice bug is inside or 1000s of tiny spiders could emerge from them... kind of creepy.

 

[Greg Bernhardt]

Crack one open :)

 

[Monique]

I don't dare, who knows what's inside

I did manage to identify a strange bug as a ladybug larve, but unfortunately their eggs and cocoons don't look like the ones I found.

 

[adjacent]

Crack one open :)

Remember to have an insect spray before attempting

I don't dare, who knows what's inside

Crush them!

 

[Monique]

Crush them!

That'd be cruel, and they're hiding everywhere. Some more:

 

[Greg Bernhardt]

I don't dare, who knows what's inside

haha are you not a biologist!?

 

[Borek]

Light? Heavy? Hard? Soft? Styrofoam?

 

[russ_watters]

I'm going with thousands of tiny spiders.

 

[Monique]

haha are you not a biologist!?

Not a real one, but I dissect fruit fly larvae and brains like a pro

Light? Heavy? Hard? Soft? Styrofoam?

Gee Borek, these things creep me out and surely I don't dare to touch them. Definitely not styrofoam though.

I'm going with thousands of tiny spiders.

That's what I'm afraid of. That, or ticks are using my terrace to store their blood-filled sacks for later use.

I've put two of these mystery objects underneath a glass, let's see what happens..

 

[AlephZero]

I'm going with thousands of tiny spiders.

Could be, but I've never seem spider egg cocoons scattered around on the ground. They usually attach them to somewhere that will be dry and sunny.

They look a bit like horticultural perlite or vermiculite. Has somebody knocked over a plant container on the terrace recently?

 

[Astronuc]

Gee Borek, these things creep me out and surely I don't dare to touch them. Definitely not styrofoam though.

Get tweezers and a microscope.

 

[dlgoff]

Does this look like one?

compliments of http://pk-photography.blogspot.com/2008/07/spider-egg-sack-case-pictures.html

 

[Monique]

omg omg omg, it looks like wolf spider egg sacks

AlephZero, perlite crossed my mind, but then I should've recognized it. The perlite I know is white and irregularly shaped, not smooth grey. Also the fact that those things look so clean makes me think they are fresh, rather than coming from the ground. In the second picture you clearly see they are on top of the organic material.

 

[Borek]

Can't you just tear one apart of the with pincers, scissors, needle, whatever?

First time I hear about a biologist with greyballphobia

 

[tridianprime]

Hahaha, I would get a small scalpel and a microscope, or magnifying glass, and just carefully make an incision. People do this with reptiles all the time when breeding. It will most likely be very fiddly at first but just try digging around with that scalpel! You should eventually be able to see what it contains, hence the microscope. Try and identify it from there if it is fully formed and, if so, what it is. How long have they been there? If you think they have been there a while it should be fine.

 

[dipole]

Wolf spiders care for their egg sacs and will carry them around until they hatch, and even then the mother usually carries the babie spiders around on her back - so I highly doubt it's spider sacs.

Just wear some gloves and cut one open in a dish so there's no mess/escape - they probably are from plants more likely than anything.

 

[drizzle]

*does funny paralyzing moves then faints*

 

[WWGD]

"Insect eggs or droppings of some sort"? That was the lunch special in my school's cafeteria today! What re the odds?