Day 149
It was an exciting late afternoon.
I went down to the basement this afternoon to throw in some laundry. Yes, woo-hoo, exciting!!! I was barefoot (I would have made a great child of the prairie for that reason only). I am usually barefoot. I mean, hey – it’s summer, I’m in the house – who needs shoes?
From now on … ME!
My basement floor is covered with a brown and black mottled (super ugly) linoleum tile. I’m sure it was discounted 90% for sale when purchased because there is no other reason why anyone would have purchased this flooring. It’s awful And dark. And it hides things …
Like RHINOCEROS BEETLES!
I am not lying. I was on my way up the stairs when at the base of the stairs a skittering movement caught my eye. Too small to be a mouse and too dark. I said out loud, “You’d better not be a spider!”
Well, it wasn’t. It was a large rhinoceros beetle. Sure am glad I didn’t step on it!
Now, if you’ve been following this blog you know that I like bugs. I said that the bug invasion hadn’t happened yet and that I was good with beetles and mantids and dragonflies and bees (etc). Well, I may be rescinding that statement … or at least modifying it!
I ran up the stairs and got a plastic container … of course it took me forever to find the correct lid! I need one of those Ronco kits that have the lids attached to the bases of the containers!
In any case … I went back downstairs where he had crawled about 2 feet along the base of the stairs (towards the laundry basket!) and I scooped him into the container really hoping he wouldn’t fly (assuming he could fly as I think all beetles can) ONTO me.
The rhinoceros beetle (belonging to the subfamily Dynastinae and a member of the scarab beetle family) though fierce in looks, because of the horns (on males only) and hard black body … and well, the size of them, is harmless and do not bite or sting. They are just scary and creepy (in a cool way) just for looking as they do. And besides being large (this one was not quite the length of my house key) and scary looking, they are proportionately the strongest animal on earth – able to lift 850 times their own weight. Proportionately if an average human were able to do that that human could lift 65 TONS!
In any case, where did he come from? I certainly didn’t bring him from Colorado! I’ve been in the house for 6 weeks now … how long has he been here hiding? He didn’t come up the drain in the floor – the holes are too small. He didn’t come up the pipe into the laundry sink … I have a filter on that. The windows are closed. HOW DID HE GET DOWN THERE?
Hopefully I won’t find out but no more barefoot romps in the basement for me!
I took him outside and showed my neighbor and his 3 year old who blew it a kiss (so nice) before I took it across the street to let it go. When I opened the lid and (not so ceremoniously) dumped this nice, sizable beetle into the grass, he stood up on his back legs with his horns in the air and his pincer arms flailing. The little jerk was going to fight me!
So, I told him to behave and not come back … and hoped (as I brushed the goosebumps off my arms) that there wasn’t a nice NEST of them in my basement!