Scarey Beastie In My Bedroom!!! (1 Viewer)

[Gill Osborne]

This actually happened on Monday night but I've been too short of time to type it out to give you all a laugh before now :-O

Monday I was working 9am until 5.30pm. I got home at 5.40pm, sees Neil off to work at 6.15pm and then potters about washing dishes, doing the ironing, faffing about on the pc.....just the usual evening stuff. I started to feel tired about 8.45 so headed off to bed then and read my book for a short while until I really couldn't keep my eyes open. That's the only problem with my shifts - I finish at 5.30pm on Monday afternoon but am back on early shift, 5.30am, just twelve hours later I'm often still wide awake at 9pm :smoke:
Anyway, I switches the light off and had just got all comfy when I heard an angry buzzing sound at the window. I just ignored it but it soon became obvious that whatever it was was INSIDE the room. I thought it was a bumble bee by the sound of it and she had got trapped behind the blackout blind and the window so I decided to get up, push the window open wider and chase her out. Good plan I thought.....until, as I put the light on, this HUGE buzzy black thing flew towards my face!!!!!!! :eek!: I just screamed and dived for the bedroom door but in my panic couldn't get the handle to move and open!!! I got it open after what seemed like ages (probably about 2 seconds! |:$| ) and dashed into the living room. After a few seconds to calm down I told myself off for running away from a bee and tentatively opened the door a crack. The buzzing had stopped and I couldn't see anything flying around so I slowly crept into the room, watching where I put each foot just in case I stood on it and got stung! No sign of her. Then as I went to pick up a t-shirt on the floor it flew back up at me!!!! :eek!: Cue another loud scream and me dashing out of the bedroom and slamming the door shut behind me!!! Gawd knows what my neighbour thought I was doing!!! :-O
I really told myself off now.....c'mon Gill, it's just a fluffy little bee....just like a fluffy wee kitten or puppy....just chase it out the blooming window so you can get some sleep :smoke:
So, again, I poked my head around the door......no sign of it bouncing off the light or buzzing away angrily. I crept into the room...every bit of me ready to dive out the door at the slightest movement! Silence.......nothing moving at all as I swept the room with my eyes (and my hand still on the door handle!)......but THEN it landed with a 'plop' on the duvet. Right, I thought, I can stick a jar over it now and throw it out the window. So I crept forward to check it WAS a bee and was really surprised to see that it wasn't!!! It was actually a great big Sexton Beetle :t: Anyway I felt a LOT calmer then.....beetles don't sting
I got a small plastic tub and went back into the bedroom.....only for the beetle to have disappeared. No sign of it under the bed and it wasn't flying around so I pulled the duvet back and there it was...under the covers. So I quickly picked it up in the tub and put it outside amongst my pots. But as I had let it go I'd noticed lots of tiny mites running around on it's head and thorax and I then had to change my bedsheets because I just couldn't settle knowing that there could, possibly, be a tiny mite running around in my bed. So it was well after 10pm by the time I eventually settled down again. And I had to be up by 4.20am so I was like a zombie at work on Tuesday :-O I told my workmates about the beetle tho and they had a good laugh.....as I can now! It just wasn't funny at the time as this huge buzzy thing kept flying into my face!!!

What was surprising though was the size of it! It's the first sexton beetle I've ever seen in real life and thy look small in books and photos.....this one was huge!!!!

Here's a pic.....the photos are EXACTLY the one I had......just look at those yucky mites!!!

http://www.kendall-bioresearch.co.uk/silphid.htm

 

[Wendy Morris]

OMG, Gill, what a horrible experience for you on your own. As I was reading I wondered whether it was going to be a bat! Nasty little things by the look of it. Good for you to catch and release it, my OH would probably not have been so generous......:-C

 

[palval147]

Blooming heck! Gill, I see from your link what you mean about mites. Makes me itch just to look at them.
I did think at first you were going to say it was a Stag Beetle, I have never seen a Sexton Beetle before.
I guess it would have been very funny to watch you trying to deal with the flying beastie though.||

 

[Pam_m]

That would be one of my worse nightmares, Gill! I was almost tempted not to carry on reading your tale! Like Wendy though, I thought it would be a Bat! What an ordeal!!! They are 'yucky mites', bet your bedsheets had a nice hot wash the next day!

A funny tale but not for you at the time!:flowers:

 

[Gill Osborne]

Oh I'm laughing about it NOW :-O And after I'd put it back outside I could laugh about it...I actually rang Neil up at work and told him :king:

I'm not scared of bugs or anything like that...just not too keen on them indoors as they ALWAYS seem to fly into my face :-O

It WAS fascinating to see tho....the very first sexton beetle I've seen in real life :t: And a lot bigger and fatter than they look in book illustrations!

 

[Peewit]

Hi Gill

OMG .... :eek!:

Wow he is quite a 'scarey' beastie to share your bedroom with you. He is an interesting speciman though. Must have been quite large to be flying around as he was.

Glad that he was no threat to you and all was alright with yourself. I woud not fancy the idea of mites on the Duvet cover though - that thought makes me feel likea good itch. :eek!:

 

[Gill Osborne]

Oh the bed got stripped down and fresh new sheets put on :-O

I just never realised they were SUCH a big beetle as they always look small and skinny in books and about the size of a ground beetle.which is not scarey at all :-O It was just the buzzing it made and the way it flew into my face which freaked me out :-O

A bat wouldn't have bothered me at all :king:

 

[Kits]

Golly, you were very brave, Gill! Like Wendy and Pam I thought the beastie would be a bat, but the beetle was far more horrible. Shudder!

 

[BazR]

Just when I needed a laugh, up you pop with that Gill. LOL!

I can, however, imagine how you felt. It must have been very unnerving; just the size of it would be daunting, then to find the small beasties on the big beastie. Urgh! They looked big enough to have beasties of their own. Let's hope that is the first, and last that you encounter in your boudoir.

Baz.

 

[Chris-Leeds]

My mate had one land on him while we were out on the bikes one night, it too was crawling with mites and it freaked him out a little. He knocked it off him and it started making some squeeky type noises while on it's back.

Just think, it had probably been chomping on some dead rat somewhere.

 

[pie]

My mate had one land on him while we were out on the bikes one night, it too was crawling with mites and it freaked him out a little. He knocked it off him and it started making some squeeky type noises while on it's back.

Just think, it had probably been chomping on some dead rat somewhere.

Ew! :eek!: Ooh! Chris you are awful.

Aww, glad you survived to tell us about your scary Beastie shock Gill. :flowers:

 

[Stewart J.]

This had me bad laughing Gill you big girls blouse!:-O Saying that we have regular mass panics in the SJ house being so rural we have more than our fair share of bugs and beasties. OH usually calls out along the lines of come and rescue this or its the rolled up newspaper and a trip through the plumbing.

Spiders are her nightmare, I know the tell tale shriek!!!

Stewart

 

[brianfm]

Wow Gill!!! If you had got this on to DVD you could have made a mint.

Now you ought to have reminded everyone that these northern Sexton Beetles are at least five times the size of the southern ones or we'll be having people down there think we are wimps!

I hope you are now well rested and over this horrendous ordeal. I mean that sincerely. I'm off to close the windows and find a mallet before going to bed. Nite.

 

[Gill Osborne]

I sleep with a plastic tub in my bedside drawer now! :-O

Neil only really gets spooked by large spiders and I have to rescue them and put them outside but it's crane flies with me *shudders* Now THEY do deliberately fly into your face :eek!:
When we used to live up in the hills next to the farm we often got dung beetles flying into the room and they were maddening rather than owt else because all you would hear would be them continually bouncing off the ceiling with a tapping sound :-O

We were invaded again yesterday afternoon by a flying beastie which flitted around the living room until we shooed it back outside - a Small Tortoiseshell :t: Now THOSE bugs I don't mind! :-O

 

[Chickadeedeedee]

Loved how you told of your buggy experience! LOL! (Sorry!!!) That beetle would have made me scream like a little girl too. The mites on that one .... ewwww! Personally I love Crane Flies. If one is in the house I'm soooo careful to not harm the leggy creature and safely escort him outside.

But .... Centipedes ... Just the thought makes my hair stand up on end!:eek!:

 

[Gill Osborne]

Neil loves crane flies too and says they are cute (???). Weird husband!!!

 

[palval147]

We often have May Bugs (Cockchafers) hurling themselves at our windows in the Spring, they sometimes get in side too.
Like this one, that got tangled in a web, in our sun lounge.o

 

[Gill Osborne]

I saw my first maybug this year in the Lakes when we were staying with our friend. We were sitting outside at dusk and it just flew by so I chased after it to get a better look :t: I think it was a female as the antennae weren't very big - the males have much bigger ones if memory serves me right?

Now one of those I wouldn't want in my bedroom in the dark!!! :-O

 

[bill moss]

Hi Gill

Thanks , just like Baz, that's cheered me up no end.

Not sure that I would have screamed but I would probably have done the rest much the same, in my case in case it was a Wasp (or Hornet)!

I am with you that I can't sleep with things buzzing around the bedroom, I mean, you never know where they've BEEN.

Bill