# Eeeek! What's this bug??
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/eeeek-whats-this-bug/253458
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [July 4, 2004, 5:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/eeeek-whats-this-bug/253458 "2004-07-04T05:06:55Z")
**Posts on this page:** 4
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Amazon\_Floozy\_Goddess](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amazon_Floozy_Goddess)
#### Post date: [July 4, 2004, 5:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/eeeek-whats-this-bug/253458/1 "2004-07-04T05:06:55Z")
I had the patio door open for some air, and there’s a hole in the screen door that I didn’t notice. And this - thing - slipped through it a few minutes ago.
It snuck up on me and scared the hell out of me. It seemed to really like the stir-fry I was eating, because it kept hovering around it. It’s a scary-looking beast. Probably about an inch long, very much the size of a wasp, but it’s not a wasp. Antlike features but very long and narrow. Black and shiny all over. Big, long, oval-shaped abdomen. It flies, rather slowly with its butt hanging down. It finally landed on the coffee table and I tried to trap it under the glass. It skittered across the table and zipped under the couch. I ain’t going near that couch now. I won’t even try to touch it in case it stings. I’ve never seen this bug before. Any idea what it could be? I live in Southwestern Ontario, Canada, if location helps at all.
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### Author:  [@Amazon\_Floozy\_Goddess](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amazon_Floozy_Goddess)
#### Post date: [July 4, 2004, 5:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/eeeek-whats-this-bug/253458/2 "2004-07-04T05:47:07Z")
Ok, I did some research and it may be something called a stonefly…it looks nearly identical to a picture found [here.](http://zebu.uoregon.edu/~dmason/Mckenzie/bugs/isocapnia.html)
Apparently these bugs are mostly aquatic, though. I’m not immediately near any large bodies of water. Maybe there’s a chance it could be another beast?
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### Author:  [@quiltguy154](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/quiltguy154)
#### Post date: [July 4, 2004, 3:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/eeeek-whats-this-bug/253458/3 "2004-07-04T15:01:08Z")
Similar to a Caddisfly, perhaps.
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### Author:  [@tomndebb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tomndebb)
#### Post date: [July 4, 2004, 3:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/eeeek-whats-this-bug/253458/4 "2004-07-04T15:44:33Z")
If the abdomen is really more oval than the stonefly, (which, to me, looks more cylindrical), I’d say you probably do have a wasp. There are a number of shiny black or blue or purple wasps in North America, typically, mud daubers or related beasties.
[This page describes North American wasps pretty well](http://www.entomology.ucr.edu/ebeling/ebel9-2.html) (search on daubers or _Sphecidae_) although their photos ([such as of this mud dauber](http://www.entomology.ucr.edu/ebeling/figures/fig248.jpg)) are, unfortunately, in black and white.
If it is any consolation: mud daubers only sting when they have been mishandled. They are not aggressive in any way.