I just saw the ugliest bug ever
 

....and it was in my house. Where the heck it came from or what it was I have no idea. The best way I can describe it is to say it was an extremely large ant-looking thing and it gave me the creepy crawlies.

Did I mention it was in my house? I'm lucky - my little sister or my wife didn't see it - otherwise we would likely be moving.

It was about 2 inches long and very bulky and it looked like and ant with long hind legs (6 legs in total). It was reddish brown.

I could take a picture of the carcus as I scooped it up in a cup and killed it outside. It didn't move fast at all.

Any ideas?

Did it look like this
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1101171085.jpg

These buggers scare the heck out of me. and they are big!

Sure sounds like a water beetle to me. They're pretty fast though, unless it was about to croak. Some folks call those roaches. They're not the German roaches which are smaller.

I didn't see the above pic when I posted. I have seen that thing once before somewhere here in SoCal. Frightening, isn't it?

That's it - What is it?!

I get those ugly things around my place too. Especially around the woodpile. They're harmless but ugly and they screech when threatened.

look at these... they look close to that cricketish thing:
http://images.google.com/images?hl=en&lr=&q=sand+treader&btnG=Search

http://www.nps.gov/grsa/resources/endemic_insects.htm

I think they are called a jerusalem cricket. Don't know if they bite.
I have never seen more than one at a time, so herds of them would be uncommon I hope.
Just know if one of these crawled up into your bed I am sure it would pull the bed sheets off ya so it could get comfy!

The legs on that one are too long and the head is too small. Also the antenna are too long to be what I saw exactly. The first picture is it though...

Man...I am thoroughly creeped out (it doesn't take much in the world of bugs to creep me out though).

I think I've seen one before at my parents old place in florida. It was a little smaller though.

Amateurs.

I've killed one of these in my home, and three in our barn.

http://www.geo-outdoors.info/images/...izona_bark.jpg

that, right there, is the reason why I stay away from Arizona!

i've always known them as potato bugs. there everywhere our here, they like sand and soft dirt, they don't bite. As for the scientific name?

Actually one web site stated this about this cricket...They can be ferocious and cause a painful bite. So beware and use a long stick if you are inclined to observe them and their behavior.
Ferocious!!
Don't you AZ guys have the Gila Monster?

Yep, it's a little scary when the bugs can kill you or your kids. We averaged one bark scorpion a week inside our house during summer the first couple of years we lived here. I took the fight to them and started going out at night with my black light and rubber mallet. It's creepy to see them glow in the dark, but it makes them easy to find. We only found six or so in the house this year.

True story.... A real estate agent friend of mine built an incredible custom home on a hillside near us. When he first moved in I asked him if he had a scorpion problem. He said they recently counted over 50 scorpions. I asked him over what time period. That's what they counted on their back wall AT ONE TIME on one evening! They lived there less than a year before they moved and had to disclose this little issue in their sales contract.

potato bug... creepy looking suckers

Was it one of these guys? I found this one in my back yard last summer. Have found a few scorpions as well... one in my hot tub the morning after I had spent an hour in it!

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1101175527.jpg

Motion - that's him. Thanks for the extra creepy photo.

here we go...

http://www.potatobugs.com/

My wife works in a somewhat rural and arid region east of Phoenix. They go out and find gila monsters occasionally. And diamondbacks. And some sort of giant toad. Actually, that might be her boss.

We also find infrequent black widows in the barn or garage. Always females, though. :( The males aren't poisonous AFAIK.

We've also got fire ants. They sting like hell but are really small. Oh, yeah, and the Africanized ('killer') honeybees.

And coyotes. Outdoor cats don't survive very long around here.

Oh, yeah, I haven't mentioned the "water roaches", have I? Huge f*cking roaches that infest our whole community. Lovely. I pay more for pest control than I do for internet access.

We used to see those things on the flightline at El Toro. Creepy looking bastadges, to be sure

Killed one with some liquid freon one night and walked into our Maintenance Control office with him hidden in my hand. Told the Controller behind the counter I found a bunch of screws underneath one of our jets that some other mechanic left laying around.

When the Controller reached for the "screws", I dropped this guy into his hand. Ya know...for a Marine, that guy could really scream like my little sister! :D

Randy

Water bug? You mean like this?
http://gallery.rennlist.com/albums/z...04_b.sized.jpg

Yes, another shameless post of my wife's New Beetle Turbo! :eek:
-Z-man.

Yep, we got some critters out here that can cause a bit of commotion. Take this Desert Hairy Scorpion, for example...
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1101224984.jpg

Some people say that when they die, they begin to stink as they rot. We once found the remnants of one at our front door. They get about 6 inches long. Some knucklehead pest control guy tried to tell me they get 18 inches. I said "Thanks for your time. Goodbye". Bigger and scarier but the Bark Scorpion is worse. We have lots of Black Widows as well. Actually, more BW's that Scorps.

Damn, I hate black widows! We got a 78 SC in that had sat in some guys yard out in the country... where Black Widows run rampent. Anyways, 23 black widows later, I thought the car was BW free and it sat for another year (the owner didn't want work done right away). 3 weeks ago, i take the engine out to do a top end rebuild, 3 recently dead BW's under the lower air deflectors. Granted they were dead, it still took me 10 minutes to get the willies out of my system.

here's what you do...

Buy a very big spider. That should take care of the insect.

Wait, then you'd have a very big spider roaming around your house.... ummmm... buy a very big lizard to kill the spider. Then a very big bird to kill the lizard. Then a bear. Then a robot. AHHH IT'S A NEVERENDING TRAP!

You guys would S**t living in Florida. I make my bugs pay a share of the mortgage payment. No way to get around having critters in this state.You get used to it.

In florida we always had the advantage of those little lizards...when I told my Grand Father about our spider problem out in the yard this summer he said he could send me some lizards....he had plenty.

my cat eats those while the are still alive. Gotta feel weird going down.

Yeah, we've got four cats. Helps out quite a bit. They're getting fat though, may be time to cut back on the kibble.

We had a huge bug like the one pictured next to the quarter and a neighbor in California told us it was a "potato bug". With a look like that, the bug should be called the "brain sucker" or something more menacing to go with the ugly, scary looks!!

it looks tame compared to those desert scorpion things