Any entomologists? help me figure out what was in my bed!

ichthyogeek · Sep 2, 2020

Again: fairly certain it's not an earwig. It didn't have the distinctive "jaws" on the abdomen. It only had a single stinger-thing on the abdomen. Also, it crawled with the jaws facing towards wherever it was heading.

Regarding pond water, I did have a nasty helgrammite infection in the outdoor tub around 3 months ago. But it only looked kind of like a helgrammite to me. I did bring in a 5 gallon bucket with amano shrimp and some hornwort from outside, but it's been months with no feeding of anything in that bucket...

It's certainly not a dragonfly/damselfly nymph....

naterealbig · Sep 2, 2020

in for the resolution

Tired · Sep 17, 2020

That's the larva of some type of diving beetle. Look up "water tiger bug".

ichthyogeek · Sep 17, 2020

I think it's a match! I am now officially paranoid of the amano shrimp bucket...

Thanks @Tired !!!!

Tired · Sep 17, 2020

You're welcome! You may want to check in the bucket (with gloves) to see if there are more, they're predatory. A lid may be in order. Confusing that it got into your bed, they don't usually travel far (if at all) on land. Do you have any mobile pets like a dog or cat, who might have stuck a paw into the bucket and somehow managed to transport the beetle?

ichthyogeek · Sep 17, 2020

Tired said:
You're welcome! You may want to check in the bucket (with gloves) to see if there are more, they're predatory. A lid may be in order. Confusing that it got into your bed, they don't usually travel far (if at all) on land. Do you have any mobile pets like a dog or cat, who might have stuck a paw into the bucket and somehow managed to transport the beetle?

I might actually just evacuate everything into a new bucket really...

The bucket is approximately a foot from the nearest bedpost, but after that it's around 2-3 feet from where I got bitten. I'm actually highly allergic to fur/feathers, so I don't think there should have been any secondary transport...

Reefing_addiction · Sep 17, 2020

This is why I love this forum

vetteguy53081 · Sep 17, 2020

I believe this may be a silverfish- Common house bug and found at or near a bathroom making it through bedrooms

ichthyogeek · Sep 17, 2020

vetteguy53081 said:
I believe this may be a silverfish- Common house bug and found at or near a bathroom making it through bedrooms

Definitely not a silverfish. I know silverfish, and this bug was all fight response and zero flee response...also it didn't zip as fast as silverfish do....

sfin52 · Sep 17, 2020

Tired said:
You're welcome! You may want to check in the bucket (with gloves) to see if there are more, they're predatory. A lid may be in order. Confusing that it got into your bed, they don't usually travel far (if at all) on land. Do you have any mobile pets like a dog or cat, who might have stuck a paw into the bucket and somehow managed to transport the beetle?

I've seen giant water beetles quite a distance from water. If they are looking for water this would explain it. Thier water hole dried up. Late summer this could be the case

Tired · Sep 17, 2020

Oh, sure, giant water beetles can get really far. They fly. Giant water beetle LARVAE can crawl on land to some extent to look for water, but aren't very good at it, due to being long, swimming grubs with short little legs. They don't normally get very far from their water. I'd suspect something transported this somehow.

ichthyogeek · Sep 17, 2020

Tired said:
Oh, sure, giant water beetles can get really far. They fly. Giant water beetle LARVAE can crawl on land to some extent to look for water, but aren't very good at it, due to being long, swimming grubs with short little legs. They don't normally get very far from their water. I'd suspect something transported this somehow.

...I am never dragging blankets across my floors EVER again.

KrisReef · Sep 17, 2020

I think that bug was telling you to do a water change, as in get the bucket out of the house.
Reminds me of college visiting the river to collect bug larvae. Those were some fun trips!

Phycodurus · Sep 17, 2020

;Nailbiting

Tired · Sep 17, 2020

Oh, and probably the reason it hurt that much (aside from surprise) is because diving beetle larvae inject their prey with digestive enzymes. Many water bugs have very painful bites, for that reason. It's not dangerous, it just hurts like hell.

"Toe-biters", giant water bugs, have the most painful non-medically-significant bite of any bug in the US. Scary.

(Something that isn't medically significant is something that doesn't generally require medical treatment beyond basic first aid. For example, most spider bites, or skinning your knee. You won't need a doctor if a waterbug bites you, but it might feel like you do.)

Crustaceon · Sep 17, 2020

Possible water scavenger beetle larvae?

ichthyogeek · Sep 17, 2020

Crustaceon said:
Possible water scavenger beetle larvae?

Ok yeah, it's definitely a water beetle larvae. Now which one it is, I have no clue...and at this point IDK if I even want to know.

Tired said:
Oh, and probably the reason it hurt that much (aside from surprise) is because diving beetle larvae inject their prey with digestive enzymes. Many water bugs have very painful bites, for that reason. It's not dangerous, it just hurts like hell.

"Toe-biters", giant water bugs, have the most painful non-medically-significant bite of any bug in the US. Scary.

(Something that isn't medically significant is something that doesn't generally require medical treatment beyond basic first aid. For example, most spider bites, or skinning your knee. You won't need a doctor if a waterbug bites you, but it might feel like you do.)

Huh...so it's like the whole being wrapped up by a spider and injected with enzymes....but only without the cocoon. How devilishly terrifying. This does explain the rather large pink area on my forearm, since the enzymes probably travelled a little bit down the bloodsteam as well...even though it didn't form a weal or anything.

Tired · Sep 18, 2020

Yeah, that'll explain the welt. Theoretically they could be dangerous if you had an allergic reaction, but that's pretty unlikely and would have been set off already, so you don't need to be worried.

Water beetle larvae are pretty much impossible to tell apart, even when intact, except by rough categorization of size. You have to get them to adulthood. I kept a big one for awhile that hit a good three inches long, but the cat dumped it out before I could find out what it was. Fed it on bits of shrimp I waved in front of it on the end of a wire, since they go after moving prey.