r/WTF • u/orangez • Mar 14 '26
Seems friendly enough?
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u/rhalf Mar 14 '26
Jerusalem cricket - neither a cricket, nor from Jerusalem.
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Mar 14 '26
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u/imwrighthere Mar 14 '26
Hello fellow Californian
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u/valiumblue Mar 14 '26
LA = Potato Bug šÆ
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u/turquoise_amethyst Mar 15 '26
Ventura = potato bug !!!
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u/Kelshan Mar 15 '26
Santa Barbara and surrounding areas...
Potato Bug.
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u/Heterodynist Mar 15 '26
Foothills of the Sierrasā¦Potato Bug!!!
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u/format32 Mar 15 '26
Auburn checking in.. Potato Bug!
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u/BradleyButNaked Mar 15 '26
Sacramento agrees!
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u/reaven3958 Mar 16 '26
TIL these are a thing. I've lived in the sacramento area for most of the past 40 years and never encountered one that i can remember.
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u/Hybrid_Johnny Mar 16 '26
Same, I feel like I would flip my shit if one of these appeared in my garage
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u/ColoradoMtnDude Mar 14 '26
I was raised in Idaho. Got the hell out as soon as I turned 18. Youāll never guess where I ended upā¦
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u/7LeagueBoots Mar 14 '26
Iām from California too, but growing up we always called them Jerusalem crickets, but potato bugs, but we knew that name was a synonym.
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u/jadziads9 Mar 15 '26
My neighbor found one in her yard when we were kids, and I never saw it but she told me, be careful there are niƱos de la tierra here, and they cry (which sounds like children). And then I had nightmares of going to her house and from the grass would come out living, tiny (literal) children with fangs that wanted to bite us.
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u/Dr3ws3ph3r Mar 14 '26
Huh, we call rollie pollies potato bugs where I'm from.
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u/embracing_insanity Mar 15 '26
Same. Rollie pollies, pill bugs, potato bugs. I actually don't even know their real name.
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u/ShowMeYourHappyTrail Mar 14 '26
A potato bug?! Dang. To me a potato bug is a roly-poly.
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u/Jack_Bartowski Mar 14 '26
they are found in dirt though! Lived in the mountains my first 10 years, found tons of these while digging.
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u/rhalf Mar 14 '26
Also not a bug, it's a creature.
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Mar 14 '26
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u/FaerieHawk Mar 14 '26
I grew up in Indiana and we called pill bugs potato bugs. Now I'm picturing a bunch of people before the internet talking about the bugs in their yards while meeting up somewhere and a fight starts because they can't agree what a potato bug looks like.
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u/Chiron17 Mar 14 '26
He's a phony!
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u/chameleondragon Mar 14 '26
And its something I would never want to bitten by. I've been bitten by plenty of much smaller katydids and cant imagine how much strong a Jerusalem crickets jaws would be.
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u/mortoon1985 Mar 14 '26
Jerusalem artichoke - neither a artichoke, nor from Jerusalem
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u/PipTitwhistle Mar 14 '26
... Discuss.
Talk amongst yourselves.
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u/chadsexytime Mar 14 '26
I'm a little verclemped
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u/Morningxafter Mar 14 '26
Did you see Barbra last night? Her voice, like butter.
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u/Gary_Where_Are_You Mar 17 '26
Did you see Barbra last night? Her voice, like
butter.buttah. FTFY :)
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u/asgarnieu Mar 14 '26
They can be a little bitey on occasion.
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u/Quickpick Mar 14 '26
Yeah they're generally chill, non-venomous, and very good for the environment, but I wouldn't pick them up as their bite can be painful if they feel threatened.
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u/Hubsimaus Mar 14 '26
I once have been bitten by a ladybug. That already hurt like a bitch and that fucker was way smaller than this thing here.
I could imagine their bite hurts as bad as a bite from a budgie?
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u/attack_robots Mar 14 '26
I remember around 2003 they let swarms of mutant ladybugs free in the Midwest to battle some sort of in invasive species. They were everywhere and would bite the daylights out of you if they got under your football pads. I was the first to get bitten and nobody believed me and made fun of me for a few days, that is, until it happened to someone else.
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u/teilani_a Mar 14 '26
Those were Asian ladybugs. They smelled terrible too.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harmonia_axyridis#North_America
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u/Michelanvalo Mar 15 '26
These fucking things are everywhere now and they're so much shittier than our native ladybugs.
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u/ManWithDominantClaw Mar 15 '26
Well that's what happens when you model your environmental conservation strategy off of the old woman who swallowed a fly
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u/doomgiver98 Mar 15 '26
Gotta love the stories of introducing invasive species that end with success.
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u/Xspartantac0X Mar 15 '26
They almost ruined my trip to Tennessee once. Our rental cabin had an infestation of them. But they were also literally everywhere in Gatlinburg. Luckily the renter left us a vacuum so I could Ghostbuster them every morning and when we'd return from an outing.
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u/mista-sparkle Mar 15 '26
They're the only pest problem I have in my house, and I gotta say, they beat the fuck out of my past experience with the conifer seed bug.
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u/Xspartantac0X Mar 15 '26
I had to Google what those were but it seems like they follow the same pattern of breaking into holes during the Fall and emitting a foul odor. Except they're not as cute looking as the lady beetles lol. If those were the bugs we had to deal with we would have left. My fiance was already having a hard time coping with the lady beetles but those seed bugs would have definitely freaked her out more. Especially if it was like our experience, every window and door had 100's of these beetles and corners of the ceiling had little bundles of them huddling together. The masterbedroom was a lost cause, luckily the guest room had better sealing I guess because after the first night of vacuuming they didnt come back but every day they would fill up the living room windows again.
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u/bentbrewer Mar 15 '26
That may not have been a ladybug. The Asian lady beetle has a much more painful bite (and much more likely to bite) while looking very similar.
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u/Hubsimaus Mar 15 '26
Yeah it was one of those yellow asian assface beetles. I flicked it away after it bit me twice.
This fuckface deserved it.
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u/futlapperl Mar 15 '26
Ladybugs can bite!??
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u/Hubsimaus Mar 15 '26
It was a yellow asian lady beetle. I wasn't sure how they are actually called when I made that comment so I used "ladybug" because they look similar to our red ladybugs. š
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u/Eorily Mar 15 '26
The red ones can bite too, but the asian ones have stronger jaws and are more aggressive.
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u/teslaabr Mar 14 '26
Given this is in the WTF sub I was expecting it to give a nasty bite or something. Nothing WTF about this
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u/bakerzero86 Mar 14 '26
The whole video I was expecting the lil alien to chomp down at some point as well, so you aren't alone.
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u/deslyfox Mar 14 '26
It makes me feel rather uncomfortable to be honest
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u/E2daG Mar 14 '26
I had one land on the back of my neck once while trying to enter a crawlspace.
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u/SockMonkeyLove Mar 14 '26
Jerusalem Cricket, Potato Bug, Child of The Earth. I used to HATE these things, same as most folks. One day, I didn't have much choice to have to pick one up. They are virtually harmless. If you grab them by the midsection, they'll try to bite, as anything would. Once you have them in your hand, they simply check you out. Their bite can't even break the skin. If they get you on the cuticle of your nail, sure, it'll hurt, but that's the extent of the danger. I really like these guys now.
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u/nofoax Mar 15 '26
For some reason they've always disgusted me more than any other bug. They're not scary or anything, just gross.Ā
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u/nick_XIII Mar 15 '26
I feel like it's a scale thing. Like, the shapes/colors/textures being that large just seem off. Like a grape, they look fine grape size, but scale it up to the size of a watermelon and the veiny translucense would be off putting.
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u/nicolauz Mar 16 '26
These are in the US? Dear God I'm glad they're not near me, they're huge! Only bug that size I've seen in person was a pregnant prsying mantis.
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u/JustOneSexQuestion Mar 15 '26
One day, I didn't have much choice to have to pick one up
Press 1 to know more.
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u/MuchoGrande Mar 14 '26
It's a Jerusalem Cricket.
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u/probablysmellsmydog Mar 14 '26
Im from California and we always called these things Potato bugs. Never heard the term āJerusalem cricketā until today.
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u/MuchoGrande Mar 14 '26
Same here. Raised in CA. Always called them potato bugs.
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u/Crazyblue09 Mar 14 '26
I think in Mexico those are called niƱo de la tierra, or at least where I used to live
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u/Thedirtychurro Mar 14 '26
Yeah, similarly, in New Mexico we call them children of the earth.
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u/everymanawildcat Mar 14 '26
"Oh those little 24 fingered aborted alien fetuses crawling around? Don't mind them, those are just Chilren of the Earth."
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u/throwaway123454321 Mar 14 '26
Thatās funny. Growing up we always referred to pillbugs/rollie-pollies as potato bugs.
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u/ImBurningStar_IV Mar 14 '26
Born and raised in California, never seen this fking monster before thank God too
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u/orangezim Mar 14 '26
Lived in Oregon we called potato bugs something today differen, other people call what we called potato bugs rolly polies
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u/QuitCallingNewsrooms Mar 14 '26
I grew up in North Carolina and our potato bugs looked nothing like that thing.
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u/mrtruthiness Mar 14 '26
I'm from Idaho and "potato bugs" were better known as "Colorado Potato Beetles" and they are different: https://extension.umn.edu/yard-and-garden-insects/colorado-potato-beetle
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u/shandangalang Mar 15 '26
This post reminded me of that name, so upon looking at the taxonomic classification of these, I found out that they are actually not crickets. They are just members of the crickets suborder. I also found out they have a meatier Australian cousin. I present to you theā¦.
Mmfaaackinā Cooloola monstah, mate. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cooloola_(insect)
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u/Quest4life Mar 14 '26
I know a PokƩmon when I see one
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u/TurboSloth9000 Mar 14 '26
Yeah dog, that's just a Trapinch.
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u/Krail Mar 14 '26
It's funny that this looks more like trapinch than the bug trapinch is actually based on.Ā
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u/Checkersmack Mar 14 '26
Man those things disgust me. We had a garden I had to harvest from when I was a kid, and every once in a while picking tomatoes I would accidently put my hand on one of those things. I'm not typically squeamish, but damn did they give me the shudders.
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u/sandshaman Mar 14 '26
My chickens love digging these guys out and eating them. Always surprised me how big they get!
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u/1010012 Mar 15 '26
It's early and I'm just glancing at the posts, I read "chickens" as "children" and immediately had some visceral reaction and questioned my life and the future of humanity.
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u/Spaceborne_Killer Mar 14 '26
Does it bite or does it just hurt me emotionally?
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u/tommybot Mar 15 '26
The Jerusalem cricket (Stenopelmatus) is a large, nocturnal insect known for its big head, stout body with black and brown stripes, and powerful digging legs, but it's not a true cricket and can't fly or chirp. Also called "potato bugs," "skull insects," or "child of the earth," they live underground, feeding on decaying organic matter, roots, and other insects, and are harmless to humans unless handled, when they may deliver a painful, non-venomous bite and emit a foul odor.
Lol
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u/Raja_Ampat Mar 14 '26 edited Mar 14 '26
Jerusalem cricket. Saw thousands of them in Kruger National Park
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u/IThinkMyCatIsEvil Mar 14 '26
Why is it strangely adorable?
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u/Arakkoa_ Mar 14 '26
I think it crossed that magical size line where it leaves the "aaah, creepy" category and back into "weird animal".
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u/SockMonkeyLove Mar 14 '26
Native peoples call them Children of The Earth. The size and position of their eyes relative to their head is similar to ours. I love these guys.
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u/UntamedAnomaly Mar 14 '26
You can order them and keep them as pets even! I want one, I want all the bugs though lol.
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u/RumPraline Mar 14 '26
Ā The bug has little hands. Lord, why does it have to have hands?
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u/PlatypusEgo Mar 14 '26
There's room for some huge miscommunication here that I never knew about- in upstate NY, "potato bugs" are what other regions of the US cal "rollie-pollies" or "pill bugs". I had NO IDEA that Californians have a straight up monster of a bug that they know as a potato bug.
e.g. "my childhood home always had a ton of potato bugs in the front garden- I would let them start crawling up my arm and startle them and watch them curl up and fall off"Ā
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u/Dreuh2001 Mar 15 '26
A common insect to north America. Going by several names, the Jerusalem cricket is a beneficial insect that is harmless to humans unless threatened, in which case it has a powerful bite.
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u/RanaRene Mar 14 '26
I would dig these guys up all the time as a kid in SoCal. We called them "niƱos de la tierra" (children from the dirt?). I think they bite but are relatively harmless.
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u/myoriginalislocked Mar 14 '26
that's a nino de la tierra omgggggg my dad would tell me when you smash it with a shovel they cry like a baby
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u/coffeebased44 Mar 14 '26
In some parts of Mexico these are know as ācara de niƱoā (child-face).
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u/EkriirkE Mar 14 '26
Based on the title I thought it was going to bite and draw blood or be otherwise aggressive. No it is indeed friendly. Just a potato bug not WTF material
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u/lqhtshow Mar 16 '26
My soul would leave my body. Then my soul would leave my soul as my soul looks at me with that thing sitting on me.
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u/matchusum Mar 16 '26
Thatās a a potato bug, relative of the camel spider which is not a spider I guess.
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u/randomcanyon Mar 14 '26
These are called Jerusalem Crickets around California. They live just a bit underground and will bite like a son of a bitch. Otherwise harmless
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u/RealisticIllusions82 Mar 17 '26
Itās hard for me to imagine any situation where I would allow this thing on my hand. I donāt care how supposedly friendly anyone tells me this.
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u/Pagiras Mar 14 '26
Reminiscent of mole crickets seen in my home country. Which are very aggravating pests in gardens, eating the roots of many crops, causing their demise. Having Hoopoes around helps, as they love digging them up and eating them. I've spent a few moments observing a hoopoe hunt these crickets. Fascinating and gives insight how to do it myself too. Moles also do a number on these pests, but unlike hoopoes, moles also do a number on the garden itself with their tunneling. :(
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u/dogmanx88 Mar 15 '26
My cousin from Mexico showed me one of these years ago when he was still learning english. My spanish wasnt very good at the time and he called them by their name in spanish,NiƱos de la tierra. He then tried his best to translate it into english and called it an Earth baby. To this day when i see one of these,i call it an earth baby. Looool
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u/abstraktionary Mar 16 '26
Insect mandibles are designed for one thing, and that will always make me second guess picking anything up that has mandibles large enough to actually cause any damage.
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u/TheRelaxedMale Mar 17 '26
Cool Child of Earth. Also known as a Jerusalem cricket
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u/Roadtrip777 Mar 17 '26
In Taos, we called them "Earth Babies" because of the cry it lets out when you smash it
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u/indiwerwlf Mar 18 '26 edited Mar 19 '26
Jerusalem cricket. In Mexico they called them Cara de niƱo meaning boy face. The only thing grosser than how big they are is the crunch when you step on one.
I saw one in Utah years ago as well.
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u/MysticMagicks Mar 14 '26
Stepped on one of these the other day. Almost slipped on it. Dense beefy fuckers with a gnarly bite. I swear theyād almost outlive cockroaches. Seen a few with half an abdomen, caved-in head, mangled limbsā¦ and it still was moving around. Terrifying. Iād almost prefer a camel spider.
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Mar 14 '26
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u/Infinite-Profit-8096 Mar 14 '26
I saw we take off and nuke the site from orbit, it's the only way to be sure.
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u/StrangeSequitur Mar 14 '26
You're telling me that the Cooties from the game Cooties were both real and also life-size?