Giant Waterbug
Hey Bug man,
i saw all the pics of water bugs and thought i would send in my pic of the notorious "Laredo, Texas Toe Bitter". NO Bugs were harmed during photo shoot!
R.Brand

Hi R. Brand,
What an interesting use of scale to demonstrate the size of the Giant Water Bug or Toe-Biter.

Eric Eaton is also amused!!!
(08/13/2007)
Daniel: This just in: Super aggressive toe-biters are now assaulting humans and taking their money! Film at eleven. LOL! I love the image of the giant water bug on the dollar bill. I wonder if the submitter simply volunteered the money, or if the water bug was packing heat? Hahahaha! Have a great week. Oh, the field guide is going into a second printing. Already!
Eric

Mating Water beetles?
Been a while, but here is one I just couldn’t pass up! We have these little guys in our pool all the time in NW Indiana, yet this was the first time I saw some amourous activities happening….. These little beetles can fly if they are out of the water long, and were coupled for many minutes and not really interested in my closeups.. Hope you enjoy!
Michael Kovacs

Hi Michael,
These are Backswimmers and they are not beetles. They are True Bugs with piercing mouthparts in the family Notonectidae. Thanks for sending us your wonderful image.

Toe Biter
My friend and I found this while walking late at night. We’re in Iraq, based in Balad Air Base. He was basking in the light of a standalone, stadium light, generator. He was pretty unresponsive for the first few touches, then he started to run away. I have a short video of him crawling across the ground if you would like.
Nicholas

Hi Nicholas,
We bet you wouldn’t be taunting that Toe-Biter that way in your bare feet. Though ungainly on land, Giant Water Bugs are extremely efficient swimmers and quite aerodynamic in flight as well. They have earned their common name due to the painful bite experienced by chance encounters with swimmers. We have been wanting a compelling new photo of a Toe-Biter for our homepage because this is one of the insects that are constantly featured there, along with Pseudoscorpions and House Centipedes.

Do you know what this bug is???
Here’s a challenge for you. We live in Ontario, Canada and have a cottage NE of Kingston. Do you know what this bug is? It’s quite large. Thanks for any help you can provide.

If you really want to challenge us, don’t send one of the top 5 query subjects we receive. Toe-Biters, like your specimen, along with House Centipedes, Potato Bugs, Hummingbird Moths and Dobsonflies, represent a significant percentage of our identification requests. Toe-Biters are also known as Giant Water Bugs and Electric Light Bugs.

Wow! Did we know where to go to get an expert opinion!!! Thank you so much. Believe it or not, we’ve been going to the cottage on Beaver Lake since 1958 and NOBODY has seen this bug until last year when we found it in the eavestrough near the night light. Coincidentally another friend who has a cottage in the Muskoka region came across one recently and he asked us what it was. To make a long story short, we searched the web for quite some time unsuccessfully until a google search led us to you. Since your email we’ve learned quite a bit about this Giant Water Bug and a healthy respect for it as well. Thanks again for your help!

Low Priority: additional Giant Water Bug pics
Hi there, thank you for your site! Very nice! I don’t need help identifying this fellow having recently learned what it is, but I thought I’d pass along a couple of pics. (Don’t feel obligated to respond, seeing as I know what it is and you have loads of pics already, but you certainly may if you wish.) I was quite comfortably holding this critter well before learning about the painful bite it could have inflicted. (Phew, lucky me.) Finding it rather docile, and not seeing any scary looking mandible-type parts, I thought it’d be pretty safe to pick up and look over. It was actually just "hanging out" on my sweater as I was searching info. online. I liked the big, praying mantis-like eyes and strong front arms. Very neat. I found it, like in another post I read – in a WalMart parking lot – at night, in Napanee, Ontario, Canada.
Sandra Reid

Hi Sandra,
How could we help but to post your submission. It has all the necessary qualities. It is polite, informative, personal, and has an awesome image. Thanks for sending it our way.

We found it in the pool
We found this in the pool in Muswellbrook in the Hunter Valley in NSW, Australia – I have never seen one before and hope to never again.
Michelle

Hi Michelle,
Thank you for sending us you most awesome photo of a Water Scorpion in the genus Nepa. We often get photos of their relatives, Water Scorpions in the genue Ranatra as well as Giant Water Bugs known as Toe Biters, but we rarely get these broader Water Scorpions in the genus Nepa. They are not deadly, but the bite is quite painful.