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noexcuse4you · Posted: Sun Jun 29, 2008 12:16 pm Post subject: Giant Water Bug

I just read Andrews thread on Giant Water Bugs and thought I'd share that I'm trying my luck with them. I'm keeping one in a medium sized KK filled with water with a fake plant in it. Its eaten a roach so far (girlfriend won't let me feed it fish). I think they're pretty neat bugs!

Its hard to take pics through the water, but here it is.

Celeste · Posted: Sun Jun 29, 2008 1:37 pm Post subject:

Very cool! Looks almost like some kind of aquatic mantis! Are they related to mantids?

-- Celeste
_________________
"Tarantulas are friends, not food" (but I bet they taste pretty good with butter and lemon!)

noexcuse4you · Posted: Sun Jun 29, 2008 2:59 pm Post subject:

They aren't related to mantids. They're closer to assassins since they are a true bug. Their feeding habits are interesting! Instead of just grabbing onto their prey and just eating it, they first grab it, bite it, wait for it to die and sink to the bottom, then go down there and start feeding! Its bite can kill a roach in a matter of seconds! I'd sure hate to be bitten by one... Here's one feeding on a roach.

Krawll · Posted: Mon Jun 30, 2008 12:28 am Post subject:

Celeste is right, it realy does look like some kinda Aquatic Mantid :-)

Very nice pet you have there :-)

Pulk · Posted: Mon Jun 30, 2008 10:57 am Post subject:

Abedus or Belostoma sp.

noexcuse4you · Posted: Sun Jul 13, 2008 1:42 pm Post subject:

My water bug molted on Saturday morning. I believe it is mature now since it has wings.

BugMom · Joined: 19 May 2008 Posts: 208 Location: Santa Clarita

I've been wanting to try those. I've heard they fly, though, and my husband isn't crazy about the idea of a big bitey flying thing potentially escaping in the house. Have you seen it fly?
_________________
Mommy loves her little Monsters.

noexcuse4you · Posted: Mon Jul 14, 2008 8:42 am Post subject:

I haven't seen them fly. I keep them in a KK with the lid on just in case! Smile

_________________
Kyle Dickerson
www.kyledickerson.com
My Photo Thread
http://www.arachnoboards.com/ab/showthread.php?t=133202

Celeste · Posted: Mon Jul 14, 2008 10:00 am Post subject:

Yeah -- or if you keep them in an aquarium, just put a screen top on it.
_________________
"Tarantulas are friends, not food" (but I bet they taste pretty good with butter and lemon!)

Steven · MOD - Greenthing General Joined: 03 Aug 2007 Posts: 1049

10x14x3 clear plastic tray like "enclosure". No lid needed all this time ...bugs caught on first or 2nd SCABIES hike!! I keep 3/4" water in there ...or so. No substrate ..just a few stones and a couple loose roots.
_________________

jet trail in the sunset
a long way away
cutting 'cross the horizon
at the edge of the day
and it calls Jimmy
come fly away

but I've been
too long in the wasteland
too long in the wasteland
I believe I'll have to stay

yeah, I've been
too long in the wasteland
too long in the wasteland
I believe I'll have to stay
--James McMurtry

BugMom · Joined: 19 May 2008 Posts: 208 Location: Santa Clarita

How many do you keep together? Are they cannibalistic at all?
_________________
Mommy loves her little Monsters.

noexcuse4you · Posted: Mon Jul 21, 2008 9:23 am Post subject:

Don't know why, don't know how, but I woke up this morning and my water bug was dead. Poor little guy. RIP.
_________________
Kyle Dickerson
www.kyledickerson.com
My Photo Thread
http://www.arachnoboards.com/ab/showthread.php?t=133202

BugMom · Joined: 19 May 2008 Posts: 208 Location: Santa Clarita

Oh, I'm so sorry to hear that!
_________________
Mommy loves her little Monsters.

Steven · MOD - Greenthing General Joined: 03 Aug 2007 Posts: 1049

I had 3...peter, paul & mary. But, my female died when the water got really low while I was away (darn humidity dropped to the lower teens and just sucked the water dry) ...she got flipped over and it looked like she just couldnt get flipped back...like a screwed turtle.

They constantly produced young but I was never able to raise the young past 3rd or 4th molt. 1 got to about 3/4" and just freakin died. I gave it many honest attempts...trying different things.
From what Ive gathered ...read, observed, etc. Strong running water is the key when it comes to raising the young.

Pulk · Posted: Mon Jul 21, 2008 12:10 pm Post subject:

steven's thread

http://www.arachnoboards.com/ab/showthread.php?t=90127

Celeste · Posted: Mon Jul 21, 2008 5:42 pm Post subject:

Sorry to hear, Kyle. Do we know how long they typically live after their adult molt? (Maybe they normally just reproduce and die after their adult molt).

I hope you can find another one and try again sometime. That was a cool bug!

-- C
_________________
"Tarantulas are friends, not food" (but I bet they taste pretty good with butter and lemon!)

Pulk · Posted: Thu Jul 24, 2008 12:05 pm Post subject:

this one has been alive for 39 days so far

WBurke17 · Posted: Fri Aug 01, 2008 9:07 am Post subject:

By wburke17 at 2007-06-11

By wburke17 at 2007-06-11
_________________
“Look down at me and you see a fool;
look up at me and you see a god;
look straight at me and you see yourself.”

elportoed · Joined: 05 Dec 2007 Posts: 206 Location: Southbay

That's so cool, I didn't realize that they are common here too.

http://www.sptimes.com/2003/06/21/Tampabay/The_invasion_of_the_g.shtml

I was raised in Thailand, and I have eaten them. They are actually very good steamed (female). The male are aromatic (to the Thais at least), so they crush them up and use them to flavor up a type of chili sauce. Should anyone brave enough to try, see the below

http://www.typhoon.biz/dinnermenu.html

Celeste · Posted: Fri Aug 01, 2008 6:04 pm Post subject:

O.K., now I have to tell my dad's "kochua" story. (Forgive me if I've told this one on scabies before).

My dad was in the Navy, and was stationed in Vietnam around 1966. While he was in Saigon he used to eat in a little hole-in-the-wall restaurant. One of his favorite dishes there included a spicy fermented dipping sauce. The restaurant owner didn't speak English, and my dad didn't speak much Vietnamese, but the owner managed to communicate that the dipping sauce that my dad loved so much was made with "kochua".

One day not long thereafter, my dad was walking through the lobby of a hotel when a bunch of porters and bellhops ran through the lobby chasing a large flying water beetle and yelling "Kochua! Kochua!"

;-)

(Apparently, Kochua brought a pretty penny in the marketplace if they could catch it!)

I would love to try the ones at Typhoon, but they are stuffed with Chicken and I don't eat Chicken... I wonder if they would make them without the Chicken?

-- Celeste

Steven · MOD - Greenthing General Joined: 03 Aug 2007 Posts: 1049

Fantastic pics btw.

My last one died ...it was either Peter or Paul (never could tell the 2 apart).
_________________

jet trail in the sunset
a long way away
cutting 'cross the horizon
at the edge of the day
and it calls Jimmy
come fly away

but I've been
too long in the wasteland
too long in the wasteland
I believe I'll have to stay

yeah, I've been
too long in the wasteland
too long in the wasteland
I believe I'll have to stay
--James McMurtry

Habibi18 · Posted: Tue Oct 07, 2008 2:12 pm Post subject:

James H · Joined: 25 Mar 2008 Posts: 48 Location: Flagstaff, Az

I was luck enough to collect 3 last summer. One larger one and two juveniles. By the time I got home the larger one had killed the two smaller ones. I still have the larger one in a 10 gallon ¾ full of water, with some large rocks, live plants, and sticks and large pebble gravel across the bottom. I have it in with 5 or 6 sunburst diving beetles (Thermonectus mamoratus) and some small leaches that I have found.

With the pond grouping that tank I feed some frozen bloodworms, and freeze dried krill. I also collect damselfly larva and other aquatic inverts that never seem last long. If I don’t feed them for a couple days I come back and I am always missing a couple bugs.

This summer I am going to try to set up my 25 gallon tank (36x9.5x18) and put in a whole bunch of different aquatic insects and see what happens. I really want to get a nice tank of these guys and the T. mamoratus see if they will breed for continuously for me.
.
_________________
James Hall
Flagstaff Az, 86004

Steven · MOD - Greenthing General Joined: 03 Aug 2007 Posts: 1049

Herpetologyfrk · Joined: 23 Sep 2008 Posts: 479 Location: Riverside ca

I would love to try keeping these. Where would I go about finding a couple?