A beetle attacked our baby chick!?

[77horses]

Quote:
Yeah I looked at pics of an earwig, but how big are they? Do they normaly attack poultry or other creatures?
I will do some research on that, since my sister doesn't have a computer at my dad's house. But I will be able to hopefully see what they look like tomorrow when I go there...

 

[California Ducken]

Earwig is long black has sections that resemble stripes and a pincher on its back end that can pinch.
Draw blood....hmmmmm. Don't know.

 

[maizie]

Chickens like earwigs and they aren't that large. It sounds like a pincher beetle which is large and has large pinchers on its head section. They are more narrow than the better known Hercules beetle which lays fat grubs in decaying logs.

 

[Debi214]

I have earwigs everywhere and my chicks eat the heck out of them - if one of the chicks miss one then one of my hens gobbles them right up!

 

[greenfamilyfarms]

Please don't take this the wrong way, but I know that my siblings are not perfect and the story sounds little fishy. You may want to question them a little more just to see if they give you the same information twice. I know it's a minor thing, but I doubt that any kind of beetle, bug, or insect that size will attack a chick and make it bleed.

 

[77horses]

Quote:
Well that is true. My sister does like to exaggerate a little.

So I asked my dad what happened:

The chicks and the mother hen were walking around outside(free ranging), and my sister ran over to my dad and told him that something was on the baby chick. So they went over and there was this centipede-like bug latched onto Juno, one of the chicks. He said it looked like the color of an earth worm. It was wiggling around, trying to hold on, and then it just dropped off. He said that it was only there for a second, so he didn't see any details.
After examining Juno, there was a little spot of blood where the strange bug had latched on.

That's my dad's point of view. So basically he said it was a small centipede-like bug, the color of an earthworm, and it had left a little spot of blood where it had bitten Juno.

 

[SangaChicken]

Maybe.. and I'm reaching here because I don't like the idea of being attacked by a centipede, she acquired the blood spot by being pecked or something else and the centipede just happened to be there as well? I don't know, just seems eerie.

 

[Intheswamp]

Maybe a baby "giant centipede" from South America that was hatched after someone released a "pet" into the wild? Soon they will be taking over New England...hence, the movie "The Centipede that Ate Boston".

Ed

 

[Tonopah Pati]

I thought that I had some strange bugs in the desert in AZ. I hope that your sister can catch one so that you can get a photo and post it. Good Luck.

I would also look on the net.

 

[ClairedeLune]

Quote:
G-g-giant c-c-c-centipede??

I am so staying inside this summer. Except for my chickies.

I'm stumped on what it could be. Could it be something mosquito-related?
--ClairedeLune