I have those like crazy here. Never heard of them biting tho. They are mating, which is why they are everywhere. They fly too. I had a few on my shirt this morning when I came in from taking out trash.

They attach their posterior ends together when mating, opposite each other so the dominate one dictates which way they walk! , which is how I found them this morning on my trash can lid.

These are called Box Elder Bugs or beetles. They have long antennae.

Maybe the ones you are talking about are Asphaera lustrans, which are quite smaller.

I have not heard those bite either but I guess any bug can bite given the chance. I know the Box elder bugs dont bite.

Lyle

Does it look anything like an assassin bug?

{{gwi:578221}}

I've already been bitten by one of those Asian lady bugs, whatever they're called.

yup- the lady bugs can & will bite and anything in the assassin bug family has a nasty bite.

Supposedly there's an Assasinbug relative in Israel that is poisonous to humans. I think I read somewhere (long ago) of children dying after being bitten. I believe the story said that for years everyone believed it to be the work of some local toxic spider and only after some sort of study did they figure out that the Assasinbug was doing the damage.

It seems we had the same problem here in America where for years people thought they were being bitten by either Black Widow or Fiddleback spiders and only after some investigation did they learn that the culprit was the local Hobo Spider which up to that point was not considered poisonous. (Don't panic, they're only found in the Pacific Northwest).

No, it wasn't an assassin bug, and no, I ain't dead yet! Will have to look up the Asian Ladybug. These have a very distinct red area and black area divided diagonally, if that makes sense. Thanks for all the help, though.

I didn't mean the bite from the assassin bug clan was harmful, just painful. Red & black diagonal sounds like harlequin bug to me.

Box Elder Bug?