wrongfully accused cockroach
Earlier today at the ungodly hour of 7:30 am when all sane people are just going to bed, my younger sister saw fit to burst into my room claiming she had just found a ‘giant cockroach’ on the driveway and required my assistance in removing it. I knew it was not a house cockroach as soon as I saw it, but any identification more precise than that evades me. The days of my etymological expertise (ages 6 through 12) are long gone now, so I felt I my need some assistance in naming this particular bug. I apologise if the photos are not as clear as they could have been, he is feeling a little camera shy and scurries to the other side of the ice-cream box whenever the camera flashes, so they are a little blurred. Thanks for your help,
Franko,
Queensland, Australia
Hi Franko,
In America, the Giant Water Bug is known as the Toe-Biter, a well earned name, but we were curious if any colorful local names are used in Australia, so we researched. The Wildlife os Sydney site uses another name common in America, the Electric Light Bug, but also calls it the Giant Fish Killer. Lethocerus insulanus is found in nearly all parts of Australia..
Strange water bug near Tucson
Hello Bugman!
Thanks a lot for informing me on the Dolomedes spider! First described 1973 – really rare arachnid, as it seems! In a pool nearby some of these poor creatures were swimming – in a pond one inch deep! The sun was shining directly onto them; and they could only hide under some small rocks. I don’t know if they made it to the next monsoon season. I took this guy and threw him into a larger pool with lots of amphibia larvae. Hope he didn’t eat ‘em all up! Do you have any idea what kind of water bug that might me? About 3 cm long; and with a fang of at least 4 mm, as I observed on a dead speciman. Thanks a lot!
Greetings from Daniel Jestrzemski
Hi Daniel,
This is a Giant Water Bug in the family Belostomatidae. They are frequently called Toe-Biters. This is not one of the species in the genus Lethocerus, the most frequent submissions to our site. We believe this is Abedus indentatus, but sadly, there is only one image on BugGuide of a male encrusted with eggs and that image does not show the outline of the insect. Charles Hogue describes the species in Insects of the Los Angeles Basin, but once again, the image is of a male encrusted with eggs. If this is not Abedus indentatus, then it is in the genus Belostoma, also pictured on BugGuide. Our reasons for believing this to be Adedus as opposed to Belostoma are based on the shape of your specimen. The abdomen is rounded as opposed to pointed and the thorax of your specimen is shaped differently than Belostoma as well. Perhaps when Eric Eaton contacts us, the mystery will be solved.
Daniel:
I believe the toe-biter in question is in the genus Abedus. Not sure how many species there are in California.
Eric
¶
Posted 19 January 2008
§
‡
°
Water Bug? January? In Michigan????
I went to one of our pet stores to get a couple of fish. I saw in the tank a wierd looking but that looked like a walking stick in the water, I know nothing so I didn’t even know what to say. All I said was, "Can I have that thing?" They had no idea what it was and they told me to go ahead and take it. What is this thing?
Melissa
Hi Melissa,
This is a Water Scorpion in the genus Ranatra. You don’t want to keep it with your fish as it is a predator that might eat them.
¶
Posted 09 January 2008
§
‡
°
Giant Water Bugs
I have enjoyed reading your informational site. I borrowed one of your photos to illustrate the portion of meat I ate when stationed in Thailand in 1969. The Giant Water Bugs were collected under the street lights at the Korat Air Base, in central Thailand. The native guards would roast them over a little campfire. They taught me to stick a bamboo skewer into the abdomen and slowly roast them. They peeled the exoskeleton behind the head to reveal a tasty morsel of white meat. The taste reminded me of a small sweet scallop. The guard did not have me eat the whole bug, but I understand they can be fried or roasted and eaten whole. At the time the locals called them Baht Bugs because the people could sell them for 1 Baht each at the market. The value was 5 cents at the time. That was fairly valuable since a man working hard labor in the hot sun would only make 15 cents per hour. Our guard supplemented his income by collecting dozens of the Water Bugs, putting them in burlap bags.
I forgot to add my name Thanks for maintaining such a great website.
Lucky Ketcham
San Diego, CA
Hi Lucky,
Thanks for the great anecdote. We will post your letter to our Edible Insects page.
Giant Water Bugs
We found some of these in our pool today when we were closing it up for the winter. How do we get rid of them so they won’t be there next year when we open it back up for the season?
Jay & Charline Everson
Gilmanton IW, New Hampshire
Hi Jay,
There is not much that you can do to keep your swimming pool from appearing desireable to Giant Water Bugs, or as we like to call them, Toe-Biters. Giant Water Bugs can fly quite well, so next year, you may get a whole new population when you uncover the pool.
¶
Posted 09 November 2007
§
‡
°
who am I
I found this guy walking across the softball field where I was umpireing in minneapolis tell me is it dangerous or should I let him go? Thanks
Dan
Hi Dan,
This is a Giant Water Bug, also called a Toe-Biter, because they are known to bite the toes and other body parts of unwary swimmers and waders, or Electric Light Bugs, because they are attracted to electric lights at night. Because we cannot imagine that your softball game was in a marsh, we are guessing it was a night game and this Giant Water Bug was attracted to the strong night lights on the field. Our big curiousity remains though, however do you find the time to work on quilting while umpiring a game? Or perhaps, a quilter’s Omnigrid serves some other purpose during a softball game? Though the bite of a Toe-Biter is quite painful, they are not dangerous to humans.
¶
Posted 10 October 2007
§
‡
°
Water Scorpion, Toe Biter
Hi, I currently live in China and found this guy. Thanks to your site I think I’ve indentified him as a toe biter, but thought you might like the photo. The body was around 3", not including the snorkel, tail thing.
Jeremy Daum, Kunming, Yunnan, China
Hi Jeremy,
This is a Water Scorpion in the genus Nepa. Thanks for sending us your photo.
¶
Posted 30 September 2007
§
‡
°
Water walking stick
Hello, Bugman –
Enjoyed your web page in the search for an ID for a bug. Our friends found this critter (photo attachment) in the pond in their back yard in South Carolina in August. It doesn’t seem to have the two-stripes you describe on your web page for the Anisomorpha buprestoides , plus it was quite at home in the pool rather than on a tree. What exact species/genus is this and what else can you tell me about it? Is it a type of scorpion? While I’m at it, they also do not know what type of yellow spider this is, also from their back yard (photo attached). Thanks!
Heidi/Where on Earth?
www.tellmewhereonearth.com
Hi Heidi,
We had to visit your website and have to admit we find it terribly tempting. You just might be getting an order from us in the near future for Insects in Amber or perhaps Christian Dior tails. What we would really like to find is a replacement set of antique tuxedo studs and cufflinks that were rhinestone studded Art Nouveau flies that somehow vanished from our possession over 15 years ago. Your mystery water insect is in fact called a Water Scorpion. It is in the genus Ranatra. The spider is Nephila clavipes, the Golden Silk Spider.
¶
Posted 21 September 2007
§
‡
°
Rescuing fish…!
Hi Daniel,
Many thanks for sparing your time to identify my whipscorpion. The poor little thing was probably snoozing somewhere nice and dry under the big pot – I feel guilty now about putting it back in the waterlogged yard ! Looking at the all the whipscorpion pics, it looks like I found one of the less scary looking ones! On a slightly different tack, you mention elsewhere that toe-biters are a delicacy in Thailand, so I thought I’d send you a couple of photos of these tasty snacks at a roadside stall in Bangkok. Mmmm…Yummy ! ( Actually that’s me quoting somebody else. ) Also, I’ve just looked at the ‘ About WTB ‘ for the first time, and am delighted to find you’re not nerdy boffins, but outrageeous artists !! Love the I da Ho sweater ! Cheers,
Graham.
Hi again Graham,
Thank you so much for adding to our Edible Insect archive with your Toe-Biter Fast Food images.
Unknown Bug
Hello
We have these bugs that just show up this time of year. We live just out of Dawson Creek B.C. Canada. They don’t live long as it gets cold at night. We have checked the web and can’t seem to find what they are. I think they come with the warm winds we get this time of year. One got on my husband finger when he was taking the pictures and he said it felt like it had little barbs like a blade of grass. It sure would be nice to find out what they are. Thanks
Debbie
Hi Debbie,
We find your potfull of Toe-Biters, or Giant Water Bugs, quite amusing. Larger relatives of the American species are eaten as a delicacy in Thailand.
¶
Posted 11 September 2007
§
‡
°
Creeepy!
OK what is this thing. This jumbo sized beetle-thingy was going toe-to-toe with my cat for a while and the scary part is I wasn’t sure who was going to win. I managed to rescue the it once the cat backed off and put it outside but it seems to have taken some serious damage as it no longer wants to move or do much. But living up here in Maine I rarely see bugs this large.
Brent
Hi Brent,
This is a Giant Water Bug or Toe-Biter. This is one of several images we have received lately with what appears to be Toe-Biters making off with cash.
¶
Posted 27 August 2007
§
‡
°
Bug Identification
Hello,
I live in Nova Scotia, Canada and I took this photo by a stream in my neighbourhood. I have looked on your site and it appears to be a giant water bug, but this one was only approximately the size of a thumb nail. I have grown up around brooks and lakes and this was the first and only time that I have ever seen one of these bugs. Is it possible that it’s just an immature bug or this is a different species altogether? Thanks.
Lindsay
Hi Lindsay,
Not only are there different species of Giant Water Bugs, there are different genera as well. This looks like a member of the genus Belostoma whose representatives are much smaller than those in Lethocerus.
¶
Posted 20 August 2007
§
‡
°
rss
