Bug watch – identify this insect

Bug watch – identify this insect

No, not the Bug Watch, just a bug you can watch. Does anybody know what this insect is? It is the second one of these we’ve found in our home in Western Australia. It’s very active and it smells horrible.

YouTube Link

For those of you who can’t access YouTube, here are some photos of the bug:

Mystery Bug

A higher resolution version of the above picture is available here. This is the bug about to be given its freedom:

Mystery Bug

On release, it buried itself in our lawn:

Mystery Bug

In 25 years in Australia, I had never seen one of these until recently. Any ideas?

19 Comments

  1. R. Paul Waddington

    Hi Steve,
    We do have a similar looking critter here in Sydney and I think it is a form of mole cricket. Spends most of its life underground eating larvae, worms, grasses and software engineers.

    I believe they are found in a number of other countries and are an eastern Australian critter. If that is the case you may have a member of a forward invasion party, from the east, look for WestAustralian WMDs.

  2. Tony

    Just found one of these in Hillary’s. Impressive looking bug reminds me of the creature in “Alien”. Luckily we got it contained before it shot out its goo cause it smells quite aweful

  3. Roy Newbury

    Yes, we found one tonight in Balcatta WA 6021. We caught it in a see-through bugcatcher on a handle and it squirted goo onto the plastic, too. Sounds as if Western Australia has been invaded. We let it go hoping a wild bird will have a meal. We have seen one twice in the past week and a dead one about 3 months ago in our garage.

  4. Lisa

    I live in Bibra Lake WA and have now found 4 of these bugs in the last couple of weeks… they sure do shoot black goo!! Have also found a big nest of babies… Does anyone know if they are harmful to people or the environment?

  5. R. Paul Waddington

    “Does anyone know if they are harmful to people or the environment?”

    Lisa Mole crickets spends most of there life underground eating larvae, worms, grasses. So, depending on your point of view, their lifestyle is only a proplem to people or the enviroment if you don’t like the role for which (mother) nature created them.

    Live and let live; other than for we humans no animal, in its right place, ruins or damages its environment past the point of sustainabilty.

    1. R. Paul Waddington

      If you do have an infestation – not too likely – it is probably because their environment has been disturbed, dug up (by humans) etc.
      Learn to live with them and or give them a place to go and do their thing and they will surely leave you a alone.

  6. Paul

    I have been in Perth all my life 36 years. I have come across these critters in the last couple of months and never seen them before. I killed the second one in a matter of weeks tonight in Yokine. They are extremely quick and quite resistant to normal fly spray.

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