What's cooler than an assassin? An assassin bug.

I know... I know.  It's been forever.  You'd given up hope.  But, that's what I do.  I let you fear the worst, then come back and save the day!

Ok, so to make up for the devastation you were feeling, I'm gonna give you something awesome!  Last week during work in the Little River, a huge bug insisted on following us around for half the day.  See photo below...

The super smart people I work with told me it was an assassin bug.  With a name like that, I had to investigate...

Assassin bugs are crazy!  There are about 7,000 species of them, and they're all predatory - hence the name.  This particular one is called a wheel bug (Arilus cristatus).  It gets its name from the wheel-like armor on it's back.  All these guys are predatory and considered beneficial, like lady bugs and praying mantis.  Wheel bugs eat things like caterpillars and Japanese beetles, but the cool part is how they do it...

Wheel bugs have a long beak that they use to stab their prey!  Eek!  Once the victim has been sufficiently shivved, the killer injects saliva that contains enzymes that paralyze dinner and start to dissolve it's insides.  Once that's done, dinner is slurped up through the beak.  Holy.  Crap.

If you see one of these out, look all you want, but beware - that beak will stab you, too!  Apparently the bite hurts something fierce, and can leave a scar after it heals.  They aren't hard to spot - they grow to almost 2 inches in length.

And finally - the kicker.  As if all that business wasn't cool enough, wheel bugs also have stink sacs they fire out their anus.  Yeah, you're laughing, but wait until that stink gets in your nose.  No laughter will be heard.  Crying?  Maybe.