Toe Biters! The beasty bugs of our fresh waters (Giant Water Bugs)

Insects for Fun!

This week we are diving into giant water bug territory! Literally and figuratively... this bug has many names like toe biter, water scorpion, water cockroach etc and you will learn all about why that is and just what kind of bug this is.

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Transcript:

Welcome to episode 41 of Insects for Fun! I shouldn’t be surprised that I’ve been able to keep this up for so long but I am. Anyway, summer is officially in the air for many of us around the world and I thought what better way to ring in the season than with something crazy. So… here we are!

This week we are talking about Giant Water Bugs, also known as water scorpions, water roaches, Toe Biters, electric light bugs, and to Floridians, Alligator ticks or Alligator fleas. We’ll get into some of the names later, but right now I want to get into some basics.

Giant water bugs are a freshwater Hemipteran in the family Belostomatidae. In other words, they are indeed true bugs as the name suggests and include the largest true bug period. The species which holds the Guinness world record for the largest water bug and therefore largest true bug goes to a South American species known as Lethocerus maximus. This giant water bug has a maximum length of around 4.5 inches or 11.5 centimeters and can be found in Venezuela and Brazil, but to be honest I think there are larger individuals out there. Water bugs are found throughout the world minus Europe and the Poles but as it turns out, most are found in the Neotropics which explains why the largest comes from South America.

These bugs like other bugs are hemimetabolous which means they do not have a larval stage, and they are also predators upon hatching, targeting anything they can get their raptorial arms on. In fact, waterbugs can target prey that is 50 times their size! Yes, that includes fish, frogs, snakes, small birds, turtles and even muskrats! They’re basically an aquatic mantis.

I actually have a personal story regarding this one. When I was a kid I was collecting tadpoles one time to raise into frogs, and I had them in this big glass bowl with pond water, pond dirt as sediment and plants etc, but over time I felt like the number of tadpoles was decreasing but I knew there’s no way they would eat each other. Then one day I saw the arms of a water scorpion come up out of the pond muck and grab a tadpole! After I saw that I realized that I had to remove it fast or the rest of my frogs would be goners. Once I removed it everything was fine, so make sure to check what you collect thoroughly if you’re netting stuff from a pond!

How these bugs feed is by piercing prey with their stylet mouth and then sedating them with poisonous saliva which turns the prey's insides into goop. They really are swamp monsters or in this case vampires… I’m very glad we don’t have anything like that capable of getting us because I don’t think I could go swimming in reservoirs again…

Some people have had the unfortunate experience of getting bit by these from stepping on one and the bite is definitely unforgettable. I fortunately have avoided them so far so I can only speak for others, but it seems that the pain is extreme, and will cause swelling and this is where some of the names like toe biter, and alligator tick come in.

These bugs also have some crazy methods for staying underwater. One is to breathe air from a straw-like appendage on their abdomen. Think of looney tunes or something where the character is hiding underwater and breathing out of a straw, but this bug does it from its butt. (Mkay). This is actually why sometimes you’ll see them at an angle with the tip of their abdomen at the surface. That’s not their only technique though. Giant water bugs will also store air bubbles under their wings and have that oxygen slowly diffuse into their body. And yeah I did say wings!

Which brings us to where they get the name electric light bug.

Giant water bugs happen to be attracted to light, and because they are capable of flying, people can find them near light fixtures that you would otherwise never expect to find one at. Water bugs will actually fly in search of new ponds or water sources when spawning and this happens from spring through fall. In colder wintering places these bugs bury themselves deep into the mud to escape freezing temperatures and stay dormant until spring comes back again.

The parental strategies for giant water bugs actually vary depending on the genus, but in both cases the males are always the one left with all the parental duties.

Female giant water bugs in the genus Belostoma lay their eggs on the backs of males, and Females in the genus Lethocerus lay eggs on aquatic plants. Females of both genera actually sabotage each other's eggs though by removing them off whatever they’re on and replacing them with their own eggs. Talk about petty behavior. Meanwhile, the males continue to do what they do best which is making sure the eggs survive and hatch. They even go as far as to fan the eggs using their legs to make sure they get adequate oxygen and water flow.

So Giant Water Bugs might not be the cutest things to exist or the most loved, but they do have a purpose, and that is to keep freshwater ecosystems in check. These big bugs are doing hard work in ponds, and creaks by controlling populations of mosquitoes, snails, mollusks, midges and other critters that might have massive population booms if left untouched.

They are also a relatively commonplace food source for people in Southeast Asia where they can be eaten, raw, fried, or cooked/boiled. In Thailand they’re referred to as ma-lang-da-na and they are caught using nets and light traps. It’s also apparently a lot more common to get bit or attacked by these if you’re wading in rice paddies…

The common predators for giant water bugs are actually larger animals of their prey like birds, bass, and bullfrogs for example. One of their best defenses is their natural ability to camouflage and quickly hide in mud or plants. The body of these bugs looks like a leaf that’s been soaking in the water too long so it's not easy for us to find them either. Now if that doesn’t work their second line of defense would be to play dead, but this mostly an out of water tactic. For example, if we see one and pick it up or start messing with it then it just feigns death to get us to move on. Probably works well if a cat finds one.