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Strange bug found in garden

19 years ago

My wife was in the garden earlier today and this huge bug scared her half to death! It flew over to the shed nearby and I took a quick pic of it with my cell phone. I have never seen one of these before and was hoping someone here mught could identify it. I'm in Georgia btw as Im sure location will help narrow down what it might be.

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Comments (4)

Elly_NJ
19 years ago
It's a dobsonfly.
webkat5
19 years ago
Yes, we have them here, too....pretty common actually.
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rhizo_1 (North AL) zone 7
19 years ago
There must be a creek or stream somewhere in the not-too-far vicinity.
gacowboy30
Original Author
19 years ago
Thanks for all the replies. I researched it once I read elly's reply. Glad to see its not a garden pest and yes we do live about a 100 yds. or so from a creek and about 300 yds. from a pond. what scared my wife the most was that it was a male with those HUGE mandibles! It was close to 5 inches long total and when it flew, it looked like a small bird! LOL! She was pretty mad at me for not "squashing" it but that passed fairly quickly once we read up on what it was. Thanks for the quick replies, now our lives can get back to normal. ;-)

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