HORRIFIED

It was a dark and dreary night (not really but it goes better with my horror story)
I let the dogs outside in the backyard. When I went to let them back in the house I was unaware that Baxter had brought in a little haunting surprise. I turn to walk back through the house and I find this upside down with it's disgusting legs kicking in the air.


AAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!! DISGUSTING!!!!!

Baxter attempts to keep putting it in his mouth and then he spits it out again. Jumping around and playing with this beetle. I was horrified!! I scream for Shaun and think I might just throw-up. I can hear crunching noises as Baxter tosses this thing about in his mouth. EW!! EW!!EW!!

Shaun runs to my aid only to start playing and encouraging the dogs to keep attacking the thing. He kept saying, "Go get it boy!" The beetle starts walking a little lopsided from being tossed about inside Baxter's mouth.
I scream for Shaun to stop encouraging the dogs to keep trying to put this thing in their mouths and then spiting it out because of it's flailing legs pricking them. GROSS!!!!! I also didn't know if this thing was poisonous or not. I've never seen a beetle this big and disgusting unless it had a pin stuck in it and it was dead at a museum. I thought those beetles were gross until I got to see this ALIVE one. That's gross!

Shaun flushes it down the toilet and I tell him to keep checking the toilet to make sure it didn't climb back up. The thing was huge!! At least 3 to 4 inches long. EW!! EW!! EW!!

I then look up Arizona Beetles to see if I could find out what this disgusting thing was. I found that it's a Palo Verde beetle. They are harmless (thank goodness) Just really scary looking.
They bury themselves down in the ground and eat off the roots of trees. Especially Palo Verde trees, hence the name.
They come out in the summer months. GROSS!! I guess I need to check my trees because they say they feed on distressed trees. I know I have a big tree that is dying. We need to take care of it. I CANNOT have big gross beetles roaming free in my backyard.
Although they wouldn't last long with Baxter on the prowl.

I spent the rest of the night being haunted by thoughts that the beetle was going to rise out of it's watery grave "The toilet" and crawl into bed with me. It makes the hairs all over my body stand up. I hate big gross bugs! I'm going to have to get used to bugs because I'm sure Max is going to surprise me with some disgusting creatures. I then will have to not be so horrified and help him discover and learn about the world around him, Even creepy crawlers. Unless, it's a spider and all bets are off!!