Paederus Rove Beetle: Creechie Bug

Posted by danielj August 3rd, 2008 at 12:00 am

Categories

Strange Bug in Ethiopia
Dear Bugman;
I am in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, and we have seen a few of these bugs around our house. An Ethiopian has told us they are "very bad", but couldn’t tell me why they are very bad. It looks like they might have a stinger on the end. Please reply because I need to know if we should tell our kids to avoid these. They are about 3/4" long. Puzzled in Ethiopia,
Christy Johnson

paderus rove ethiopia Paederus Rove Beetle: Creechie Bug

Hi Christy,
In January of 2008, we received a letter and images from missionaries in Cameroon, and the subject was the Creechie Bug or Paederus Rove Beetle. This is your insect and it is known to cause contact dermatitis. We found a website called DocFiles that confirms this.

I like This

Comments 1

manette wrote:
I just lived for 10 months in Cameroon. I was attacked by the Paederus many times, three times it was pretty bad. Once in my left eye, once in my right, once on my neck. I was told that the bug is called Creechie in the Anglophone part of Cameroon and Caterpillar in the French speaking part (because it is striped). When it gets in the eye it causes about 10 days of damage, with itching, pain, puss, and bloody eye. On neck it was very bad, with pain and itching and scaling. Those around me said they hardly ever got it and my daughter only got a sprinkling of it once. Maybe it is drawn to certain people (mosquitoes also love me). The only thing to do is try not to be inside at night with a light on and a window open. Then you just wait; I did not think the creams helped. Well, I also had several toe dchiggers, but that’s another story . . .
Posted 07 Aug 2009 at 6:03 pm ¶

Trackbacks & Pingbacks 1

From Announcing a New Tag: The Big 5 | What's That Bug? on 19 Jul 2011 at 5:11 pm ¶
[...] sting, but it can cause an horrific skin reaction by merely touching it. Most of our reports of Creechie (African name) where it is also called the Acid Bug, AKA Cari-Cari in Malaysia, Potó in Brazil [...]

Notify me of followup comments via e-mail. You can also subscribe without commenting.