The biggest bug there is!

Chuck Stahn was gassing up his car in the evening at a lighted Madras gas station, when suddenly a woman in the next bay let out a scream, pointing to a very large "bug" on the gas station pavement.

Chuck scooped it. Before he could get it into a container, he discovered -painfully - that it had its sharp, hypodermic-like mouth part shoved into his finger. He let out a yell, disconnected the beast, and then, using marvelous self control, put it in a juice jug without killing it.

If you are one of the many people who refer to insects as "bugs," you're right on for this huge beast. It is, figuratively and biologically, a "True Bug," and on top of that, the largest insect in North America! To address it scientifically, it's in the family Belostomatidae; order, Hemiptera; genus, Lethocerus; species, Americanus.

But if you want to be informal, it's known as the "toe-biter," and in Florida they call "em "alligator ticks."

Over the years people have been swimming in ponds, lakes and slow-moving streams, a few have discovered the awful pain of a giant water bug shoving its proboscis into their toe.

These huge bugs are entirely aquatic and catch their prey by ambushing them, usually hanging head-down from aquatic vegetation patiently waiting for an unsuspecting small fish, pollywog, or other aquatic organism to go swimming by. With a burst of speed from their powerful paddle-like legs, they slam into their prey, grasp it by the hooked front legs and push their sharp sucking mouth-part into the quarry. There is nothing "nice" about a waterbug feeding on its prey.

The first thing that happens when that sharp proboscis penetrates the outside skeleton of an insect, flesh of a tadpole - or the skin of your toe - is the injection of powerful enzymes. These chemicals are designed to break down flesh into a delicious soup so it can be sucked into the bug's stomach.

The longer this goes on the worse it will hurt, and the chance for permanent damage increases. So if you pick one up, get rid of it quickly.

In late summer, water bugs take to the air, looking for two things: A suitable place to spend winter, and/or new territory to set up housekeeping. In the first instance, the wintering habitat must be a deeper body of water that will not freeze solid. The giant water bug - all fattened up with the prey they sucked dry in summer - will literally hang out beneath the surface on submerged vegetation, slow its metabolism down to the torpid state where it can keep its body just barely alive, and live off its fat.

As with many insects, giant water bugs are also attracted to lights at night, which is often their undoing. Sometimes they mistake the shiny body of a motor vehicle for the surface of a pond reflected in the lights, and dive straight into it. The result of this brash behavior usually kills the mistaken insect.

If you come upon a giant water bug some evening lying dead under the lights, with what looks like its guts coming out the back end, don't be fooled. If you pick it up you may find (painfully) that is was "playing dead."