Check out this huge stag beetle I saw while watering the trees and bushes yesterday. It’s almost 2 inches long.

According to what I found online, these are beneficial beetles that help decompose dead trees on the forest floor.

I think the reason we have them is because we use untreated mulch. That does cause us to have more grubs and other pests than a yard would have, but they are kept in check by birds and another amazing insect we have but I’ve yet to photograph: Velvet Ants - huge territorial fuzzy black and red ants which are actually wingless wasps. I’ve seen about five so far - all in the mulch beds beside large rocks.

According to Wikipedia, velvet ants lay an egg in the nest cell of the cicada killers we also have in the yard. When the cicada killer larva pupates, the parasitoid larva consumes the pupa. As you might have guessed, we have cicada killers because we’ve got cicada grubs … all partying in the mulch beds together. Fun times.

I’ve never been stung by the velvet ants, but they reportedly have a very painful sting. They’re also fast, and I’ve only seen them rarely when I water near their homes in the mulch beds.