Beetlemania: Giant bugs cause quite a stir

Wait a minute, Mr. Postman - those aren't toys!

At least, one imagines that's how workers at a Mohnton, Pa., post office reacted last week when several packages arrived from Taiwan and suddenly started to stir to life.

When scratching and clawing could be heard in the packages, labeled as toys and jellies, a Mohnton postmaster contacted the U.S. Customs and Border Protection.

Customs personnel opened the boxes in Philadelphia and found 26 freakishly large and (agriculturally) dangerous beetles - some of which were as big as a child's hand - rooting around inside.

Forget John, Paul, George and Ringo - when these giant beetles come together, they can wreak havoc.

"They are highly destructive insect pests that can cause extensive damage to fruit and vegetable crops, trees, shrubs and turf grasses," said John Plummer, an agriculture specialist for Customs.

Plummer said the beetles were "some of the largest of their kind, and some of the largest I've ever seen, averaging five to six inches in diameter."

It was unclear what the Hercules, rhinoceros and Goliath beetles were doing in Mohnton, a Berks County borough about 50 miles northwest of Philadelphia.

Customs spokesman Steve Sapp said yesterday that seven of the beetles were in containers labeled by gender, which means they might have been used for breeding.

It's illegal to ship live beetles into the United States without a permit from the Department of Agriculture. (It's believed that the two remaining musical Beatles can, however, travel to the U.S. whenever they please.)

The sender and recipient of the packages weren't identified, though, because it was unclear if criminal charges would be filed against them.

The big beetles generated a bit of a buzz among local exterminators yesterday.

"Well, they're very rare for this part of the world, that's for sure," said one of them, a Terminix employee who identified himself only as Fred.

"I've heard of them and seen pictures, but I've never had a chance to see them up close," he said, noting that local exterminators mainly battle wood-boring beetles, which tear through wood like termites. *

The Associated Press contributed to this report.