Big Black Bugs

No, I did NOT take this picture. And NO that is not anyone I know or am related to holding it. Read on to understand why not. In real life these Broad Neck Root Borer Beetles are 2-3" long and ugly as sin. Why am I telling you this?

Well I have a little story. It rained for quite awhile yesterday and as you can read in my previous post, Quinton enjoys playing in the mud. In a failed effort to keep him from totally covering himself in mud again, he found other ways to amuse himself. I was inside reading a book and Tim and the little girls were outside. I hear Emma shrieking that Quin has a bug... "DAD, HELP!! HE HAS A BIG BUG!!!" She was really yelling good, so I thought this had to be interesting. Silly me, thinking he had a Daddy Longleg or a stink bug, put down my book and casually went outside. Tim also must not have thought it was too much of an emergency as neither of us were really hurrying to see what the commotion was all about. We met outside the garage on our way out back toward Quinton. Faith and Emma, at this point, were literally jumping up and down. Quin walked around the corner of the house with his prize. Yes, as you might already have guessed, he had one of these big ugly nasty bugs. Tim picked up Quin and pried the bug out of his hand. Once in the grass it immediately tried to bury (bore?) down under the grass. Can you blame it? It was probably as freaked out as Emma and Faith (and me.). So what does Quin do next? He screamed and cried to be let down and then picked the ugly thing back up. I couldn't believe it. The bug was bigger than his hand. When he grasped it the thing looked like a guinea pig in an adult's hand. He was not the least bit scared of this thing and quite to the contrary, was rather mad that we took his new toy. Finally something that doesn't require batteries! We had to pick the ugly bug up (with a shovel) and carry it back into the woods so Quin wouldn't chase it down. Of course, as soon as he was back on the ground, Quinton headed for the woods on a bug hunt. Yuck, ick, ick. So, I do not have an actual picture of this thing because I was too grossed out to go get my camera. I'm still shocked the thing didn't pinch him. Ick. Ick. Ick. It was really big and really creepy. When I know that everything he touches he also tastes, my imagination runs wild and I feel a bit weak in the stomach. Can you imagine??? EEEwww.