I tend to think of myself as fairly adventurous and unafraid when it comes to wildlife. I'm a very curious person by nature, so it's only natural for me to want to get up close and personal with wildlife, if given the opportunity. Generally though, these rules only apply to conventional creatures, you know, like geese or fawns, wildlife that doesn't have the propensity to hurt me or freak me the hell out!
While walking home for lunch today, I came upon what I can honestly say is the creepiest bug I've ever encountered in real life.
It looks like something Andrew Zimmern would eat on Bizarre Foods, doesn't it? I should have placed an everyday object next to it so that you could get an idea of it's size, but it was about 3 inches long. That's a huge bug, people! It's called an Eastern Hercules Beetle and it was crawling right in the courtyard of our condo community! I ran to our place to grab Jon, who is working from home today, and made him run all the way back to the courtyard with me so he could check it out too.
Surprising even myself, I actually got down on the ground in front of this crazy beetle as it was crawling toward me to get these pictures. Since I was super zoomed in and using the viewfinder, I couldn't tell how close it actually was, so I told Jon to make sure it didn't get too close to me. When I lowered my camera, the beetle was inches from my face! UGH!! Thanks, babe! Lord knows I would have pitched a fit if that thing touched me!
P.S. Bear in mind that we live only 10 meager miles from D.C. 10 miles! This looks like something that belongs in the Malaysian jungle, right?!
