Pond Boss Forums INTRO Questions & Observations Stinging bug in water?

Last night i was pulling coontail out of my pond and i had my hand down in the water about 6" inches with a hand full of coontail and got bit by something. It felt like a bee sting. This is the second time its happened. It wasnt a bee or snake or anything like that. Has anybody else had this happened to them??

got redears?



seriously, i've heard of aquatic insects that bite...some of those funny looking 2 legged guys, i think they were called boatmen or something.....shorty knows alot, as does bill cody (o.k. and others) maybe they'll chime in.

It was probably one of the true bugs called Hemiptera as an order or group. The true bugs are different than the beetles (Coleoptera). Many of them are active predators and have piercing-biting mouth parts that are long and pointed. The predatory Hemiptera often eat a lot of other aquatic insect larvae such as mosquitos. They can inflict a painful bite if handled improperly. Many species are winged flyers and good swimmers and when not swimming, many of them rest on submerged vegetation or objects. Some of the more common aquatic hemipterans that could have bit you are backswimmers, water boatmen, or giant water bugs.

I've was stung a couple times by water boatmen before I learned to wear gloves when handling pond vegetation. They seem to vibrate and apply a wicked sting at the same time. Short tempered little suckers.

I reached into the shallow water this past weekend where we piled a bunch of larger rocks. I was grabbing the softball sized rocks and throwing them out further to spread them out. Same thing. It felt just like a bee sting on the side of my finger; came from the edge of a submerged rock. It stung for about 4 minutes, then subsided and went totally away after awhile. I thought that maybe I got a paper-type cut on the edge of a sharp rock. I remember pulling back and telling Dski that it felt like I just got stung.
....weird

Sounds like you found a toe-biter. Apparently it thought he was biting a toe...

The toe-biter is a common name, which has a scientific name and classification , but I'll have to ask my wife the entomologist.

We get bit often and man do they hurt. Often hear some interesting things from my crew when they find one....

But Brettski might have found a helgramite.....?

I googled "water boatman sting" and the results support everything I experienced.

I've been bitten by back swimmers, and they hurt, but not terribly. My brother was bitten by a giant water bug, and that was a different matter. Those suckers can bring major pain.

Overton, your wife may just be the best looking entomologist that I've ever seen.

I was told by a biologist that if a new pond sits unstocked for too long, the critters can multiply excessively and do a lot of damage to newly hatched fry.

The large ones pictured are a type of toe biter.

Yep Shorty the big ones i got in my pond i bet thats the one that bit me. Do the fish eat these?

The bigger ones with pointed back ends are Hemipterans (water bugs)smaller ones are dragonfly nymphs and narrow bodied ones are damselfly nymphs. Fish will eat all these, esp BG for the smaller ones. The larger water bugs may be a little big for a normal BG to eat, but bass less than 7"-8" should be able to eat all those in the pan.

Sorry for the hijack but -- Bill -- Thank you for the tip on drying off briskly after swimming in the pond. I am happy to report that I do not have the itchy red rash after swimming as I have had in past years.

Sunil I'll pass the props on to my wife. Add two more legs to the standard 6 insect legs and the story changes drastically, as she is cold-terrified by spiders. I don't understand....but oh well.