strange Insect living in my bath

John Mason

Does anyone know what this insect is? or why they have started to live in the plughole of my bath? :eek:

IB

loyatemu

its an earwig...

r3nu4l

I'm not too sure it's an earwig. It's hard to tell from the photos but it doesn't appear to have the pincers at the back and it's mostly black whereas common European earwigs are generally brown bodied with lighter coloured (almost yellow) legs.

It could very well be another type of earwig but most earwig species have a pincer located at the rear of their abdomens...maybe there are pincers, as I say, difficult to make out in the photo.

John Mason

loyatemu wrote:

its an earwig...

its not an earwig. it is jet black, only has 4 legs and is a bit like a bendibus in the middle, the two parts can move at different angles

it looks something like a cross between a beetle and an earwig - could they have mated and formed a new species?

bmaxi

I'd go along with the earwig theory, the females usually have shorter, less curved pincers. If you have any flower pots or such close to your waste pipe, that's probably where they are coming from. Not pretty but they'll go away.

r3nu4l

irishbird wrote:

its not an earwig. it is jet black, only has 4 legs and is a bit like a bendibus in the middle, the two parts can move at different angles

it looks something like a cross between a beetle and an earwig - could they have mated and formed a new species?

Irishbird, that insect has 6 legs, 4 longer ones at the back and 2 shorter ones near the front...having 6 legs is one of the criteria for defining an organism as an 'insect' That's why spiders (8 legs) are not classified as insects.

Could a beetle and earwig have mated to form a new species? Unlikely...but then again, nature is a strange and wonderful thing

It's bugging me because I feel I should know what this insect is, I can't believe that at 32 my memory is fading...10 years ago Iwould have had a good guess but now I'm stumped

IT's most likely this is some type of larva for another (perhaps winged) insect...what that is I don't know.

Alun

The picture is a bit poor, but I think it's a Devil's Coachhorse .. try googling Google Images for pictures of it and see if it's the same.

http://images.google.ie/images?svnum=10&um=1&hl=en&safe=off&q=devil%27s+coachhorse&btnG=Search+Images

John Mason

Alun wrote:

The picture is a bit poor, but I think it's a Devil's Coachhorse .. try googling Google Images for pictures of it and see if it's the same.

http://images.google.ie/images?svnum=10&um=1&hl=en&safe=off&q=devil%27s+coachhorse&btnG=Search+Images

thats it exactly - horrible. i have never heard of them before. will goggle it and try and get more information of why it is suddenly attracted to my bathroom

CJhaughey

They usually eat dead bodies and unpleasant stuff like that, I would guess it has got into the sewer pipe and climbed out the plughole.

John Mason

CJhaughey wrote:

They usually eat dead bodies and unpleasant stuff like that, I would guess it has got into the sewer pipe and climbed out the plughole.

dead bodies :eek: .............there is bloody loads of them ............this isnt good .......feck

Degsy

Its called a Devils' Coach Horse..

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Devil's_coach_horse_beetle

Saruman

Ah ha..... I noticed these in the Garden when i was digging this summer. I could not get a good pic to post though.
Big feckers too!

I like this bit on the wiki page

In Ireland the beetle is known as darbhadal (literally Devil's beast) and it is said that the Devil assumes the form of this beetle to eat sinners.

If someone had said darbhadal we would all know what it was right?

muffler

irishbird wrote:

dead bodies :eek: .............there is bloody loads of them ............this isnt good .......feck

Christ...........are you a serial killer?

John Mason

muffler wrote:

Christ...........are you a serial killer?

hee hee - i just re-read my post. i would have got away with it, if it wasnt for those pesky insects

yop

"insect up close and personal" pic I was expecting to see it smiling back at me not a waaaaaaaaay off shot

py2006

You should charge that fellow rent. Baths are quite spacious.

duridian

I suppose if the insect likes dead bodies and the like, a bath plughole is a natural enough attraction since your skin cells get washed down there on a regular basis. To the insect it's probably like gravy.