Bug of the Month October 2021: Wheel Bug in nature, not in a plastic bag

Subject:  Evil Black Hellbug
Geographic location of the bug:  Baltimore Maryland
Date: 09/30/2021
Time: 08:11 PM EDT
Your letter to the bugman:  This hateful thing crawled into my steering wheel causing me to crash my car. In the interest of traumatizing myself again please tell me what it is so I can avoid it. Very long with a circular body part that had spiky pieces. Had to have have a mechanic take the wheel off just to get it out.
How you want your letter signed:  Terrified

The most awesome image of a Wheel Bug

Dear Terrified,
Franklin D. Roosevelt said “The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.”  This Wheel Bug is a predatory Assassin Bug and it might bite if provoked, and the bite would likely be painful if it occurred, but it is our opinion that Wheel Bugs are relatively docile as Assassin Bugs go and they are far less likely to bite than other blood-sucking members of the family and also some less threatening relatives that are much more likely to bite, like members of the genus Zelus.  We have chosen to feature your submission as the Bug of the Month for October because of your awesome subject line and your dramatic letter, and because Halloween is this month and also because we got to mention blood-sucking.  However, we find your image a tad morose and though we will include the poor dead Wheel Bug in a Plastic Bag on Friday image, we suspect it was alive when you encountered it and we consider that Unnecessary Carnage.  We are taking the opportunity to post once again, originally posted in 2007, our favorite image of a live Wheel Bug which many folks write to us calling a Dinosaur Bug or Stegosaurus Bug.

Wheel Bug in a Bag

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