"soup" wrote in message
.uk...

Hi all .
We had what looked like a giant earwig (clipshear) in the garden fair
enough I thought everything has a right to be somewhere so wasn't too
bothered. We found one crawling on the floor in the living room, which
is quite a way from the back door (which had been opened) so it has
either crawled a long way or this one was living in the house, it was
about 30 mm long, arched its back (to bring its "clips" to bear ?) and
was VERY tough, took what seemed an age to get it into a bottle to throw
it out, all this time it was being thrust about on the carpet and no
legs broke off,eventually I grabbed it with a piece of kitchen towel
(didn't want to touch it as I didn't know what it was and may have had
some substance on its "skin")and it felt armoured. Did seem a bit fatter
and taller than an earwig certainly was longer. Wish I had taken a
photo. last night. Does anyone recognise my (admittedly poor)
description of this insect (?) and is it likely to live somewhere in the
house or have we found a wanderer from the garden?
Had a wee look on Wikipedia looks like an Australian Earwig (not quite
so defined "clips" though) certainly looks nothing like any of the
cockroaches.
We live just outside Edinburgh In Scotland (Balerno) I would describe
the area as being suburban with every house having a garden, we are
above the snow line but there is no hint of snow at this time of year.
Quite a clayey ( == is that a word?) soil with mainly grass in our
garden



This sounds exactly like a black insect we have here in Normandy - this also
arched its back in a menacing way - Devil's Coachhorse. They can also run
like Linford Christie on Speed!
Try this link:
http://www.essexwt.org.uk/species/de...e%20beetle.htm


--
David
.... Email address on website http://www.avisoft.co.uk
.... Blog at http://dlts-french-adventures.blogspot.com/