josiegraydon's Identifications

We have had this very loud, continuous, electrical sound in our garage lately. It quits when we walk around, so we think it is an insect. This very large insect was crawling on the wall today, and I’m wondering if this could be the critter. ID help would be appreciated. Google lens says Roesel’s cricket, but they shouldn’t be here. INaturalist said it couldn’t be certain but maybe genus nedura.

Was thinking this was probably a Northwestern Salamander larva when I saw it although it did seem a bit big. The spots made me wonder about giant salamanders, at least I'd not noticed them on the NW Salamanders before (but had not seen large larva before)

This was from the muck of a local pond. An excavator was pulling buckets of encroaching aquatic vegetation from the shore then dumping on the bank. I followed behind as long as I could, tossing several salamander larva back in the water, and a couple bullfrogs not quite big enough to free themselves with heir legs. People don't realize that mud will set practically like concrete, and dry out. When mud is out of the water the particulars are no longer a bit soluble in the water, and anything in the mud is trapped and unable to overcome its weight or to overcome other factors, like suction, etc. It's all physics actually.

Source: 09/08/23