Anyone find Giant Water bugs?

Anyone find Giant Water bugs? I have found one. T.C. do you get any in your pond?
Mine is pretty large.

Yeah, huge ones! I mean they almost took up the palm of my hand. I got mine about 2 years ago when the pond dried up from a drought. Only found a dead one this summer though. Then when I was in my neighbors woods, in a small and slow moving stream, there was one of these large beetle you are speaking of. However this one had these jaws. The best way i can explain it, was it had's jaws like those trap jaw ants! It was wierd!

T.C. wrote:Yeah, huge ones! I mean they almost took up the palm of my hand. I got mine about 2 years ago when the pond dried up from a drought. Only found a dead one this summer though. Then when I was in my neighbors woods, in a small and slow moving stream, there was one of these large beetle you are speaking of. However this one had these jaws. The best way i can explain it, was it had's jaws like those trap jaw ants! It was wierd!

T.C., are you sure your not telling tales, a beetle,/trap jaw ant mixed breed?

Dobsonfly? In the water? Water bugs have piercing mouthparts. Possiblythe front legs looked like jaws? Apparently their bite it really painful. They kill turtles/frogs/snakes and fish! I have a small pond at my house but it dries up usually once a year. I get dragonflies from there but I have never found a water bug in it.

I found the beetle i was talking about. Its called Lethocerus americanus. Also, I am finding all beetles bites are painful, even just the small water beetles.

That is a giant water bug. The "jaws" are the two front legs

mothman27 wrote:That is a giant water bug. The "jaws" are the two front legs

Do they use those front legs to kill their prey?

They inject their prey with poison and then suck their insides out.
Check out this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z02iZ6_MBZQ

We have them in our ponds, I don`t have one at the moment.
insect rod,,

I forgot to mention that they can fly very powerfully and fast, I have seen it.

Front legs are raptorial in all belostomatids. They use them to capture and hold prey while they inject venom through the rostrum. I've only seen Lethocerus once, pretty much all the others I find are Abedus or Belostoma.

Yes, Last year I saw giant water bugs.