Feel-Good Video of the Day!

[Ninurta]

A very satisfying video - couldn't have happened to a nicer guy!

@"Mystic Wanderer" - Why do you hate praying mantises? What did they ever do to you? Why would you want to starve one to death? They don't eat dead stuff. They have to have live prey.

I hate horse flies, deer flies, mosquitoes, spiders, bees - ANY biting or stinging tiny critter with way too many legs. I suffer none to live when I can get to it.

We have assassin bugs around here too. Fun fun fun! They've got a long gizzy like a straw attached on a hinge where their mouths ought to be. They just pounce on beetles and the like, and jab that straw in between carpace plates and suck their insides out. The ones I've seen here are a drab gray color, about 2 inches long. In Central America, they're tinier, but far more colorful.

Hurts like hell when they mistake YOU for a beetle. It's like getting stabbed with an 18 gauge needle.

.

Ever hear of wheel bugs?  I think they're a type of assassin bug, and I hear their bite is excruciating.  I haven't encountered any, which is good.  For them, and for me.

YES! That's the kind of bug I'm talking about, exactly. I never knew they had a name, I just knew they are giant versions of the Assassin Bugs that are smaller and more colorful in Central America. First one I ever saw was on a milkweed plant in Southwestern Virginia, so I naively thought they used that straw to suck sap out of weeds. Boy, was I wrong! Wikipedia says they get up to an inch and a half long, but I've seen them up to two inches.

.