THAT BUG: We might have a verdict on our bug’s identity. A giant
waterbug.

We’ve had a handful of calls about that large bug dropped off at
The Era a couple weeks ago and the photograph was immediately
familiar to some of our readers.

Maria Mika phoned to give us its Latin name – Lethocerus or,
more commonly, a giant waterbug. She tells us her son caught one
and kept it for two weeks before it died. They eat minnows and
small fish, she noted.

Wilbur Williams of Mount Jewett, whose credentials as a retired
Waterways Conservation Officer with the Pennsylvania Fish
Commission are impeccable, came to the same conclusion.

He noted that they live in swamps and creeks but certainly could
wander a distance from wet areas.

On the other hand, we did have other possibilities.

Pat Hansen writes, “It looks like what we call a ‘Stink Bug’
They are plentiful in the Bucks County area.”

Denny Colman of Bradford tells us he worked at an exterminating
company in San Diego, Calif., back in the 1970s, and came “nose to
nose” with a scary-looking bug which had a rhinoceros-like horn of
a nose. His co-worker knew it immediately as a Jerusalem
cricket.

With current modes of transportation, Denny felt it was entirely
possible for species of bugs to make their way into unfamiliar
terrain.

With all this information at hand, we turned to the
Internet.

It sure looked a lot like the giant waterbug, we admit.

We were a little incensed, however, to learn that our “bug” –
which we had handled – was actually a relative of the cockroach. In
fact, there’s even a place where you can make a side-by-side
comparison between this waterbug and a cockroach.

Meanwhile, we also heard from Jim Clark at Cooperative Extension
in Smethport. By the time you read this, we’re hoping our bug is on
its way to his office where they will study it and make an
identification. If it’s an “unknown,” they’ll forward it to the Bug
Identification lab at Penn State.

We’ll let you know the results.

GAS PAIN: Fred Kleiderlein stopped by Tuesday with a receipt he
got for a fill-up at Valparaiso, Ind., on Sunday – $3.489! So I
guess we should be “happy” with our price in Bradford? We would
quote our prices but it’s changing by the minute.