For the bug experts

[DTro]

Found this critter skittering across the garage floor this evening. Never seen nothing like it before. Any ideas:

[MJBo]

Thats a mole cricket (family gryllotalpidae). Great find! I've never seen one. How big was it?

[DTro]

I would say 2-3 inches long

[Dan Thiem]

dtro, slip that baby in Hansons ear while he's napping catfishing.

[MJBo]

Yeah, or keep it as a pet and feed it small dogs. Mole crickets can be excellent companions.

[Deitz Dittrich]

not that I am a girl or anything.. but that thing if it was 2-3 inches in length would have just freaked me out.. I am not a big fan of ugly bugs...

[Fishin4Life]

Yeah it looks a bit creepy. I think you should have kept it in a jar as a pet too!

[so haaad]

Good thing it was only 2-3 inches and not 2-3 feet! Hey does anyone know of any good Web sites that shows pictures of bugs found in MN/WI?

[HOF#13]

I'm with Deitz on this one. If that would have been in my garage, I would have had to take a photo of that bug after it was stuck to the bottom of my shoe. 2" - 3" long.... That's an evil looking cricket!

[Tyler Holm]

Ugliest thing I've seen in a while. Man if the wife set eyes on that sucker, maybe she'd be more willing to move to Alaska

[DTro]

Yeah, not knowing what it was I was a little apprehensive on picking it up.

It's was pretty funny, I had just returned from fishing and it was dark out. I was in the garage with the door open and all the lights on inside. I picked this thing up and was studying it and trying to get a good picture, when all the sudden a HUGE junebug (attracted by the light) crashed into the side of my head.....the bug above went flying, the camera went flying, flash went off......... the neighbors sure got a good show last night.

[Jill]

That thing freaks me out. I would have screamed very loud if it was me. I have a pretty cool picture of a wolf spider that was in our garbage from when we went camping. I will see if I can find it and post it.

[Jill]

I found the wolf spider picture. Keep in mind this is from several years ago, so it was taken on a disposable camera and then scanned. It scared the you know what out of us when we opened up the garbage bag and saw it sitting there.

As much as I hate bugs in real life, I think they are kind of cool to see in photos. Anyone have any others to post?

[Steve Foss]

This is a fishing spider that we surprised in our bed when we woke up late one night last summer. There's not much in this image to show you its size, but it measured just over 4 inches long including the legs. I got this shot after we let it go the next day out in the grass of the back yard.

Imagine my surprise when I woke up and found that big honker crawling up my arm. When I first felt the tickle I thought Mrs. Catfish had something in mind, but then I heard her snoring and knew something else was up.

Wolf spiders are smaller, with even the largest species of wolf spider coming in at less than 2 inches, often much smaller. There are several species of fishing spider, and they tend to hang around docks and boathouses, where they actually do catch and eat tiny fish. Jill, I opened your image in photoshop and lightened it enough to see the pattern on this spider, and the pattern, as well as the fact it looks to me like this spider is 3 inches or more including the legs (based on a completely unscientific comparison with finger length and typical newspaper column width of 2 inches), that it might be a fishing spider.

The best guide to spiders I've ever seen for northern Minnesota is "Spiders of the North Woods" by Larry Weber. If it didn't violate copyright laws, I'd scan the two pages from the guide that contain the largest wolf spider and one of the fishing spiders (those pages contain photos and length graphics) and post them here.

[Jill]

Oh my god!!!!!!!! If that was in my bed I would have had a heart attack. I think you are right that the spider in our garbage was a fishing spider. Thanks for the info and the disgusting picture!