Bugs in basement
Location: Cinicinnati, OH
June 30, 2011 7:43 pm
Hello,
I have seen several of these bugs crawling around in my basement. Although I thought I saw wings on them, I never see them fly. I thought I saw pincers on their head, but don’t see one in this picture. Could that be a pincer on it’s bottom? I am curious to know what this bug is and if it’s harmful or dangerous. Seems to have yellow colored stripes. At first I thought I was looking at some sort of bee, but it is just crawling around and not behaving like one!
Signature: DN
I think I got it
Location: Cincinnati, OH
June 30, 2011 8:15 pm
I just submitted a picture to the site. I will attach it again. After some reading online, I think it might be a Embioptera. What do you think?
Signature: DN
Dear DN,
This is a Rove Beetle in the family Staphylinidae, and we believe it is a Hairy Rove Beetle, Creophilus maxillosus, which we matched to images on BugGuide. There is no way we can bring this up delicately, so we will just quote BugGuide which indicates Hairy Rove Beetles feed “on carrion and dung.” We suggest that you look in your basement for potential food sources.
Thank you.
that makes sense. We recently had a dead mouse, that then caused a fly infestation that finally has gone away. but i am sure we have a few dead maggots hiding in the basement!