Potato Bug and Gordian Worm
Location: Porter Ranch, California
February 12, 2011 8:40 pm
Hello Bugman!
I spotted this Jerusalem Cricket in the pool this morning (02-12-11), although I had no idea what it was at the time. After I scooped it out and realized it had drowned, I then spotted what I thought was an extremely skinny snake swimming in the pool. I scooped it out also, then took a few photos of the ”snake” and the ”termite on steroids”. I threw the ”snake” over the fence and went inside to get a ruler for size in the photo of the other bug. I wasn’t quick enough because a Scrub Jay spotted him and flew off with lunch before I could take photos with a ruler.
Frustrated, I decided to begin at What’s That Bug and Bugguide.net to identify the bug. Little did I know that the ”snake” was actually a Gordian Worm or I’d have taken more care to get a decent photo. Drat.
Offering gratitude for your awesome sight, although photo perusal did cause me several shivers and a couple of gags. (I like bugs for the services they provide and their place in the world, but it does get a bit creepy to look at their anatomy in detailed images. To that end, I’m attaching my own creepy images.) After finding out what the duo were named, I even found a video online showing a cricket dive into a pool and the worm wriggle out of him. *shiver again*
(I had four pictures – attached are three)
Signature: Regards, Tiffany Hawkins
Jerusalem Cricket
Dear Tiffany,
Thank you for your wonderful email and excellent photos. The relationship between the parasitic Gordian Worm and the host Jerusalem Cricket or Potato Bug is a chilling example of complexity of the web of life on our planet. The chances of a Jerusalem Cricket ingesting the cyst of the worm and then hosting the internal parasite until being suicidally driven to seek out water in which to drown itself are quite slim, yet enough Gordian Worms survive to perpetuate the species. Gordian Worms are also known as Horsehair Worms.
Gordian Worm
Fan letter, no response requested
January 31, 2011 3:50 pm
I have just spent the morning re-visiting your site, one of the very best in the world in my humble opinion. To my knowledge, no one else is doing what you do. Just one reason for your work: songbirds of all kinds are in serious decline, in no small measure due to pesticide use. Private individuals are often the worst offenders in use of widely available, broad-spectrum pesticides. We all need to learn not to unthinkingly destroy invertebrates.
“Unnecessary Carnage” is important as well as entertaining (if tragic), and the entire “Nasty Readership” section has made me laugh more today than anything has in weeks. You guys are incredible. I know it’s a lot to ask of volunteers with important, time-consuming day jobs, but please never stop!
Sincerely,
Signature: Lee White
Hi Lee,
Thanks so much for your kind letter. It is really appreciated.
Update
Me again, sorry — more supportive thoughts
February 1, 2011 1:36 am
I have been sitting here for some time now, re-reading your marvelous responses to irate readers. These are people who have been trained to believe that the customer, however ignorant and infantile, deserves immediate gratification and an ego stroke in the process. “Ooh, was the bug scary? Oh you poor thing! I can’t believe you waited hours for my unpaid labor!” It thrills me beyond words that you don’t play that game.
As to the smash-first response (“But I was scared!” “I feared for the safety of the chiilldrennn…”), how hard is it to brush the critter off and count some legs? Education is everything! As a California child, I feared the dreaded potato bug, but eventually learned to appreciate it as the harmless and charming Jerusalem cricket. Of course, some people don’t care; they smash because they just don’t like bugs, or because “it’s only a bug”. As I recently told my classmate, who smirked while I took some trapped boxelder bugs outside, “they understand suffering as well as you do”. Unnecessary carnage is not okay.
Signature: Lee White
Potato Bug from our archives
Thanks for your additional insight Lee. We have found a nice image of a Potato Bug from our archives to illustrate your passionate and supportive letter.
10
what kind of bug is this?
Location: Pomona, california
December 7, 2010 7:23 pm
As of 12/7/10, my brother found this bug right outside of our garage this morning, we are in southern california on the boarder of LA county and San Bernardino county. I was freaked out by this and went and googled this picture and read something about the Jerusalem Cricket that sounds like the same description as this. Could you let me know if this could be something else or it is the infamous Jerusalem Criket? does it do any harm at all?
Signature: signed
Potato Bug: AKA Jerusalem Cricket
Dear Signed,
You are correct. This is a Jerusalem Cricket or Potato Bug, though it also have other names. It is a harmless subterranean dweller that emerges when there is a soaking rain, hence the countless identification requests we have received since the rain in Southern California Sunday night. If carelessly handled, the Potato Bug might bite with its strong jaws, but it is not dangerous since it lacks venom.
Thank you so much for your kind explaination! greatly appreciate it!
Nicole
¶ Posted 08 December 2010 § ‡ ° Strange bug in NSW Australia
Location: Central NSW, Australia
December 7, 2010 7:22 pm
i found this weird burrowing insect in central NSW, i think its some kind of Weta but cant find any useful information.
please help me identify it
Signature: Australian Weta’s??
Weta, we believe
We are inclined to agree with you on both counts. We also believe this is probably some species of Weta, a group of insects endemic to New Zealand, but with close relatives in South Africa as well as Australia whose closest North American relatives are the Potato Bugs of the west, especially the arid southwest. We also agree that it is quite difficult to find out information on the Australian relatives and that New Zealand promotes these endangered insects like the Royal Society of Biological Sciences website. The long ovipositor indicates she is a female. We will contact Piotr Naskrecki, who specializes in Katydids, to see if he can provide any information.
Weta, we believe
I actually have another question about the bug that i was hoping you could help me with, being a Ground Weta would the hole i found the bug in be its home or could the weta actually be laying eggs?.
thanks for the help i found it to be very useful, now that i have a better idea of what the bug is it will be interesting to keep an eye on it and see how it lives in its environment. The area i found the Weta in is a popular place for New Zealand workers and their families so it is possible that the Weta could have come over to Australia from New Zealand.
Hi again,
We would hazard a guess that this is a burrow that might be used to house a clutch of eggs as well. We are still waiting for a response from Piotr Naskrecki regarding the creature’s identity.
3
Ed. Note: This came to Daniel’s personal email address
Bug man … I need you!
Location: Eagle Rock, California
What’s that bug? It greeted me on my bedroom floor this am! Yikes.. Btw, no unnecesary carnage.. He’s been set free!
Sharon Hendricks
Potato Bug
Hi Sharon,
Like the soaking rain that drenched the area Sunday night, our website inbox has been flooded with identification requests for the humanoid appearing Potato Bug. We see you are using the method for insect removal from the home that Daniel recommends in his book, The Curious World of Bugs, though Daniel prefers the martini glass as the trap, sliding a postcard underneath to seal the opening.
¶ Posted 07 December 2010 § ‡ ° Spotted: Huge insect, looking like a giant ant/tarantula/yellow jacket
Location: San Francisco, CA
December 7, 2010 5:28 am
I am in San Francisco and tonight saw a bug that was so weird. It was huge… about 4 inches long. The photo does not really do it justice… it was almost the length of my palm+pinky finger. It’s abdomen was swollen and very large, stripped yellow and black. It’s legs looked like a spider’s legs, or like a yellow jacket. It seemed to have small pinchers on it’s abdomen and antennae on its head. I think it had three body sections, but maybe it only had two. It had 6 legs. There were no wings.
What is this bug??
Signature: Brooke
Potato Bug
Dear Brooke,
Now that you know that this is a Potato Bug or Jerusalem Cricket, you should be able to locate countless websites with information, including much interesting lore. The recent rains in California have driven this subterranean species to the surface and our inbox has been flooded with identification requests.
¶ Posted 07 December 2010 § ‡ ° Found this scary looking guy next to my front door
Location: Los Angeles, CA
December 6, 2010 10:02 pm
I found this insect next to my front door. It is about an inch/ inch and a half long and about 3/4 inch in diameter! I have never seen anything like it before and I was a child that always looked at bugs. Please help.
Thanks!
Signature: Jazz
Potato Bug
Dear Jazz,
You have had the good fortune to encounter a Potato Bug or Jerusalem Cricket in the family Stenopelmatidae and the genus Stenopelmatus. The Potato Bug represents one of our Top 10 identification requests. This family is found in the western portion of North America, primarily in the arid Southwest. You can read about it on BugGuide and there is much information about Potato Bugs online in other places. Potato Bugs are subterranean dwellers that are often sighted just after a heavy rain, and the Southern California deluge that began Sunday night resulted in at least three identification requests in our inbox. Of the three, you had the best photo.
¶ Posted 07 December 2010 § ‡ ° Tagged: Top 10 A Huge Ant?
Location: Zion National Park – The Grotto parking area (for Angel’s Landing Trail)
November 14, 2010 5:48 pm
I found this creature crawling in a parking lot this past week.
Signature: John
Potato Bug
Hi John,
This is a Potato Bug or Jerusalem Cricket.
Daniel,
I’ve never seen a potato bug 3-4 inches long. They must grow them bigger in Utah than “Colorado.”
John
Hi again John,
You may be confusing the Potato Bug with a Colorado Potato Beetle which is much smaller.
¶ Posted 15 November 2010 § ‡ ° 
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