Discovery: Long-Horned Beetle

A strange little visitor appeared at our house yesterday, a beetle that I'd never seen before. The wife found it wandering around in an old cooking pot we use to catch outside dripping water from the bedroom air conditioner.

The bugger was just swimming around in the shallow pot water then when the wife poured the water out, it just walked around, shaking itself dry.

Turns out it's a long-horned beetle, Lagocheirus obsoletus. I did a little research and found out it comes from the Texas-Mexico-Central American area, and was accidentally introduced into Hawaii (isn't that always the case?), where it's become a serious pest of the plumeria plant.

It lays its larvae on the leaves and when buds appear, the larvae insinuate themselves into the young flowers and devour them from the inside out. Nasty little critters.

Well, say bye-bye to this one. The wife got rid of it; I didn't want to ask how. But you know her ... death to all pests that dare to show themselves around the house!