what kind of bug did I find?

This fell out of an Audi undertray.

Quarter for scale.

All I know is "very large" and "very dead".

Well it is 2020, so murder hornet?

haha! 

Correction...murdered hornet

Murder hornet?

I was hoping it would be like this thing I found at the new house

Nothing in the pic for scale, but about 3 inches long

This, I forget the species, is considered an "assassin bug". Injects basically acid into its prey and sucks the guts out. Don't let it bite you.

Likely a Cicada Hawk.  Big, scary, and mostly harmless.

You found just another reason to never get too close to a German car. 
 

Anyway, anybody want to buy my VW?

It's a cicada killer.  They have burrows in the ground.  They grab a cicada and drag it into the burrow and lay eggs on it.  Their eggs hatch and the grubs eat the cicada.

At least the car will pick up a few seconds with that thing gone.

RevRico said:

 

This, I forget the species, is considered an "assassin bug". Injects basically acid into its prey and sucks the guts out. Don't let it bite you.

Also Gear Bug/Wheel Bug. Can confirm, if they spike you it will hurt for 2 days straight. 0 out of 5 stars, do not recommend. 

RevRico said:

Murder hornet?

I was hoping it would be like this thing I found at the new house

Nothing in the pic for scale, but about 3 inches long

This, I forget the species, is considered an "assassin bug". Injects basically acid into its prey and sucks the guts out. Don't let it bite you.

We had these in our garden this year. They were eating the bugs that were eating our plants, so we had an uneasy peace treaty with the creepy bastards 

ultraclyde (Forum Supporter) said:

Likely a Cicada Hawk.  Big, scary, and mostly harmless.

This.   Cicada Killer.  Sphecius genus.  There are a couple dozen species, mostly similar in appearance.

Curtis73 (Forum Supporter) said:

ultraclyde (Forum Supporter) said:

Likely a Cicada Hawk.  Big, scary, and mostly harmless.

This.   Cicada Killer.  Sphecius genus.  There are a couple dozen species, mostly similar in appearance.

It was a great year for cicada killers around the east coast.  While working from home DW and I started taking walks every day.  Throughout a lot of the quieter parts of our neighborhood we would see dozens of cicada killer burrows along the edges of the sidewalk.  Some of the burrows were pretty extensive, judging by the size of the tailings pile.

Eastern cicada killer. Looks like a large scale(2X) yellow jacket. Until you know what it is, a nest of them in your soffit will scare the $h!t out of you!!!! Harmless they say, but when it's your house and there are hundreds of them, I don't care if they're cute and cuddly, it's scary!!! A few cans of wasp & hornet spray kills the whole hive.

YUCK!

I'm seeing a lot of wheel bugs/assassin bugs this year.  Saw several of them fornicating around my back screen porch.  I suspect I'll see even more of the things next year.  They are said to be beneficial insects, so I let them do what they want.

In reply to gearheadmb :

As someone who used to buy preying mantis and lady bugs by the thousands to protect the garden, maybe I ought to look into optimizing the wheel bugs habitat.

One reason I live up north. Yucky critters have a limited annoyance and if they due survive in the off months they are as slow as a vw bug and easier to squish 

Neat!  Thanks guys.  I haven't seen a bug this big that wasn't a grasshopper or a spider.

rustybugkiller said:

One reason I live up north. Yucky critters have a limited annoyance and if they due survive in the off months they are as slow as a vw bug and easier to squish 

I live a lot north of you