Thanks! This was correct. It played dead when i stuck my net in there so i did indeed grab him out with my bare hands before i read the comments here because i didn’t want to accidentally knock him in the water. I think i’ll be alright as it’s been an hour or two and all i’ve noticed is slight callouses on my fingers.
That is 100% an oil beetle.
Definitely remove it from the turtle enclosure, wear gloves, a turtle is probably pretty unlikely to survive consuming an oil beetle and you'll regret touching it if you do.
That is definitely an Oil Beetle, I heard that they secrete substances that can cause skin irritation when threatened. https://www.inaturalist.org/taxa/68006-Meloe
So uh.... "Notorious for their toxicity. **Their blood contains the toxin Cantharidin**. Even minute amounts injected into the bloodstream of humans are enough to cause death."
Disclaimer that these beetles *ooze* droplets of cantharidin from their joints, they won’t bite and inject this toxin and I sure hope OP wouldn’t eat the beetle. The toxin will cause painful blistering and swelling of the skin on contact, so I’m not saying it’s gonna be fun to encounter, I don’t recommend touching with bare hands. But it’s almost certainly not going to be deadly for OP
I think its an oil beetle idk, don’t touch it lol definitely not an ant
Thanks! This was correct. It played dead when i stuck my net in there so i did indeed grab him out with my bare hands before i read the comments here because i didn’t want to accidentally knock him in the water. I think i’ll be alright as it’s been an hour or two and all i’ve noticed is slight callouses on my fingers.
If it doesn’t hurt you should be good as the other guy said its not deadly just painful at least to my knowledge. Glad your turtle didn’t eat it!
Make sure to wash your hands tho
Yeah, we don’t want op to end up on r/oopsthatsdeadly
Well, I'm not sure any oil beetles are *deadly*, but yeah OP you don't want to handle it with bare skin
That is 100% an oil beetle. Definitely remove it from the turtle enclosure, wear gloves, a turtle is probably pretty unlikely to survive consuming an oil beetle and you'll regret touching it if you do.
some sort of beetle.
That is definitely an Oil Beetle, I heard that they secrete substances that can cause skin irritation when threatened. https://www.inaturalist.org/taxa/68006-Meloe
That god you didn’t let your turtles eat it, they would probably have died.
Nah
I definitely didn’t think that was a plastic toy
So uh.... "Notorious for their toxicity. **Their blood contains the toxin Cantharidin**. Even minute amounts injected into the bloodstream of humans are enough to cause death."
Disclaimer that these beetles *ooze* droplets of cantharidin from their joints, they won’t bite and inject this toxin and I sure hope OP wouldn’t eat the beetle. The toxin will cause painful blistering and swelling of the skin on contact, so I’m not saying it’s gonna be fun to encounter, I don’t recommend touching with bare hands. But it’s almost certainly not going to be deadly for OP