He was on my towel when I went to dry my face. I’m fairly well traumatized. I’ve never seen a bug anywhere near like this in my house. Any house. He’s between 1-1/2" to 2" long. Maybe. I’m not sure. I really don’t want to get a closer look.
silly bug from a bush…beetle…like a lightning bug…spider food.
I’ve never seen a beetle this big. I don’t want to live in a world with beetles this big! Bugs grow this big in warm places, not New England!!!
Try poking around this site. It’s a decent bug reference I’ve found helpful in the past.
Looks like it might be one of the ‘ponderous borer’ beetles . Sounds like one of my coworkers.
(click on page 2 of that link - there’s a pic of one on someone’s arm. Big bug, that one…)
Longhorn Beetle. Probably something in the Prioninae, like Ergates spiculatus. Harmless, unless you are a tree.
ETA: And sangfroid beat me to it :).
I live in a log cabin.
The heaviness of the antennae make me think of tile-horned prionus.
Then that is probably exactly where it came from. Little guy likely came right out of your bathroom walls - look for a little round or oval hole. I used to see them at work “a lot” ( like three of them ) during a one year period when a neighboring lot was being used to store scrap timber.
You will all be very happy to know that once my boyfriend came home (to protect me - yes, I am a wuss), I was able to muster my inner Doper and future Biology major.
I decided to go the mealworm larvae root and investigate him (a bio lab on mealworms got me over my fear of them and their larvae).
I picked him up in a glass and dumped him in the (dirty) kitchen sink so he couldn’t escape. I got some really good pictures of him and even got within about 2 inches of him with the camera and the spoon I used to flip him over. I even let him stand on my ruler.
I didn’t work up the courage to touch him but I did give him a kind release in the grass at the end of my driveway.
He is wicked cool looking.
I’ll have to talk to the Terminix guy tomorrow. We’ve been getting regular treatments for wood boaring (how the hell do you spell that?) insects since a month before we even bought this place. He’s been treating for carpenter bees and ants and keeping an eye out for termites but the subject of beetles has never come up. Probably because we have never seen one before.
If he came out of the walls, he would have come from the bedroom (where the towel was initially). My bathroom is the only non-log room in the house.
Nice!
I’m thinking maybe a Derobrachus.
Is it common for them to be so far out of their usual range? The bugnet site said they’re usually in the Florida to North Carolina region. Massachusetts is just slightly out of that area.
I think I found him.
Orthosoma brunneum aka brown prionid
Mr. Buggy aka little bastard who scared a naked and blind chick.
I think you are right :).
The annoying part is that there’s not much detailed info that I can find. But, I’ve seen the word borer in enough searches to have me concerned so I’ll definitely be calling the bug guy tomorrow. Not only do we live in a log cabin, our lot is mostly wooded (as is a large part of the neighborhood). If there’s one, there’s a chance of more - especially now that I released Mr. Buggy.
OK future biology major; it is a beetle, not a bug. Bugs have sucking mouth parts. This one clearly has jaws. I’m glad you released it, though. I loathe killing anything just because it was where you didn’t want it.
It is similar to the longhorn beetles we have out west here. Once I got a latte from the espresso cart at Snohomish Falls. It was good. I enjoyed it. As I tipped the cup to drain the last bit of coffee, I felt something bump against my lips. I popped the lid off, and there was a gigantic longhorn, steamed to limpness in all its joints, who did not enjoy the latte at all.
Just be thankful you don’t live out here.
We get Palo Verde Borers that make your beetle look like a pup.
Photo here, if you dare…
I had no idea that beetles are not bugs. Honestly, I’ve had a decades long fear of beetles (room infestation, bed full of them, sleeping child - not good) so I’ve kind of not bothered learning about them. I am really trying to deal with my creepy crawly issues because of my choice of major and future career. I have found that learning about them really does help and I wish I had started earlier.
“Bug”, in the colloquial sense, includes beetles. “Bug”, in the zoological sense, doesn’t. Bugs and beetles are two different orders in the Insecta.
Prepare yourself. The great evolutionary biologist J. B. S. Haldane supposedly said “the Creator has an inordinate fondness for beetles,” although that comment has not been sourced definitively. He was referring to the huge number of species.