Cool Bugs!

One morning at the lake, T.S. was greeted by a really interesting looking bug on our "front porch" (that's what he called the area in front of the tent that had a tarp over it). We caught it to show everyone. Sadie later found another one on top of our "porch". Here is a picture with Sadie holding the bugs.

Robby looked them up and they are Long-horned Beetles that feed on tree bark, sap, leaves, etc. He found this really cool site called Bug Guide that helps you identify insects: http://bugguide.net/node/view/15740
After more research, we found out these are Cottonwood Borers--I think the name says it all. An interesting fact: the larvae of the Cottonwood Borers take 2-3 years to reach full maturity; they eat the inside of the tree bark while maturing.
If you are intersted, here is another insect ID site where you can read more: http://www.insectidentification.org/

These insects have huge chewing mouth parts. They had pierced holes in the Ziploc bag by morning. We put the bag in another bag and by afternoon they had one corner of the original bag torn out. Way cool!