Beetle-Mania

These are just a few of the bzillion rhinoceros beetles
Cole & his cousin found on the playground at work/church this afternoon after VBS. At first they were freaked out by the size and quantity of bugs all around them. They really are HUGE!!! But eventually, that little boy curiosity about all things creepy overcame their fears & the bug-party began. First Cole 'caught' just one. After studying it & learning that they don't bite or sting - he went back for more. This time he ended up with a female & 4 males. Hmmm...must be something irresistible about those 6 creepy legs & that hard body - cause the guys sure liked her! THEN they went back for more bugs.... 13 in all. All crawling around the plastic box like crazy - the males fighting with each other, and the females just trying to deal with the 'friendly' males. That makes 13 bugs X 6 legs=78 legs all making that creepy crawling 'let me out of the box' sound. EWWWW! One persistent beetle keeps getting out of the box. Cole almost stepped on it...which startled him, to say the least. The beetle is almost as big as his foot! Then later I was drying my hands on a dish towel & got a surprise...a big stinkin' beetle clinging to the towel. I'm surprised we didn't have bug nightmares! While all this has been fascinating and educational,... I don't think I mentioned how they stink. It's a real funky smell. The dog & cats literally run from them...all because of their smell. I think these bugs are headed back outside pretty soon! Rhinoceros Beetles....cool, but creepy.

UPDATE I : We let the first box of beetles go, but Cole caught 7 more the next day & brought them home. He wants to 'study them' & see how they change and grow. Ok -that's educational & interesting. We found out the study of beetles is called 'coleopterology' - COLE really liked that name....COLEopterlogy, get it!?! Anyway...everything was fine, the beetles are in a plastic shoe box with a lid. They stayed put all night long, & they seem happy to eat mulberries and grapes Cole provided. The livingroom smelled funky this morning, but I keep telling myself that this is just for a couple of days. BUT now we have a problem. 2 of them have escaped!!!!!!!!!! Cole found one...but we still have a huge stray beetle on the loose in the house. The cats & dog won't have anything to do with them...completely shy away from them. So we know they didn't eat it. All I know is if I step on it...or worse, it crawls up the bed, you'll be hearing about it on the evening news. It will be the scream heard 'round the world.

UPDATE II: I'm happy to say Cole finally found the missing beetle. It had somehow fell into an antique coal holder thingie on the other side of the living room. HOW it got inside the thing, I'll never know. Maybe it climbed up the mantle & fell backwards into it? It couldn't climb back out, so the noise of it's crawling/climbing/crawling gave away his hiding place. (Thank you, Lord!)

I'm even happier to say all the beetles have been banished to the garage. They really stink - so out they went. We'll keep them for a couple more days, then Cole will "release them back into the wild."