What was this bug?

Factual Questions
1

Very early this morning (about 3:30) I was awakened by a loud thumping noise in my house. I soon discovered that it was coming from a box (filled only with packing material) I had recently placed next to my garage door to take out on trash day. I picked up the box, and discovered the thumping was coming from an insect I had never seen before.

It was about the size and shape of a firefly, but it was all brown. I picked it up in some toilet paper and was surprised at how strong it was when it struggled. I could see why the thumping on the box was so loud! [If you are in PETA please stop reading] I was also surprised at how hard it was to crush him, much harder than normal insects [/If you are in PETA please stop reading]

I live in the Dallas area - any ideas on what kind of bug this could have been?

2

Click Beetle?

3

Wow - first post! That’s it exactly!
Is it something I need to be concerned about?

4

This pic is very close to what I was looking at this morning:
http://challenge-services.co.uk/images/click%20beetle.jpg

5

Click beetleon Wikipedia.

Harmless. Often tormented by children, who flip them over to watch them right themselves with their click.

6

It certainly has been hot here lately!
Thanks guys!

7

I’m in North Texas, too, and we’ve been seeing more of these guys this year than ever before. (My kitten loves them - they can keep a cat occupied for a while.)

Their larvae (wireworms) can be a problem, but they’d have to create quite an infestation first for the numbers to be high enough to cause much damage.