Boo-bugs

Boo-bugs

David Sparks Ph.D.
David Sparks Ph.D.
We all know about the various creatures roaming around in haunting fashion during the Halloween time period, including spiders, yet Purdue University emeritus entomologist Tom Turpin talks about some very scary creatures, you may not have considered… what he calls boo-bugs. “The insect that should fit into the Halloween scenario just because of the name is called a deathwatch beetle. Deathwatch beetles are actually wood boring insects that in the burrow that they have made in the wood, they then tap their head against the wood and produce a tapping sound, which is not heard very often by people because it is quiet. The name actually came up when people were sitting around in a wake being very quiet and they could hear this tapping sound. Edgar Allan Poe, who did include a number of insects in one of his works, The Tell-Tale Heart, uses the sound of the death watch beetle. And in this case, he actually built up a scenario where the people hearing it thought it was the beating of the dead man's heart.” Turpin has perhaps lesser known, but maybe more graphic examples of boo-bugs include… “the insects that feed on dead carcasses” such as burying beetles. “That's about as Halloweenish as you can get in terms of an insect being goolish.
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