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Image: © Briana Blair
When I got up today and opened my bedroom door, I got quite a shock. There was this BIG dark thing squirming around on the floor. It scared the crap out of me at first because I didn’t know what it was. My first thought was that it might be a carpenter bee, because we have a lot of those around here, but it was far too large and had no yellow.
I got a closer look and realized it was a really big beetle of some sort. He’s got to be 1.5 inches long. I went and got a cup and a piece of cardboard and got him up and outside on the deck, where I took the photos. He was moving around, so it was hard to get clear shots.
I don’t know if the cat got hold of him or if was because we have an exterminator spray the house regularly, or if he was just at death’s door in the first place, but he wasn’t doing too well. he didn’t pull his wings in and he was stumbling and rolling over a lot. I was hoping he’d wise up and fly away, but NO! That wasn’t his plan!
Image: © Briana Blair
That little bugger stumbled and rolled over to the door, and here’s what really freaked me out. You see that flat shield on his head? Well, he butted up into the screen door and started prying at it! I was outside watching him, and I could hear the grinding sound as he pushed at the edge of the door. He moved the door! He kept pushing and prying and actually got back into the house!
I opened the door and asked mom to get the cardboard back for me so I could put him back out. He did NOT want to go! I finally got him back out, and he was looking pretty rough by then. I think he was just worn out. He may still be out there, I don’t know. If he is, and he’s dead, he may end up in the little display box with my cicada husks.
So, does anyone know what this beetle is? I tried looking it up on Google but the only image I found that matched was on a web page that didn’t tell what it was. I tried to keep looking, but after several searches and several pages of huge, hi-def bugs on my screen, I started to get the heebies and couldn’t look anymore.
