Monster of the Pond

"(The Giant Water Bug)...stabs, then injects its victim with venomous saliva that liquefies muscle and organs that the bug later sucks out, as if its prey were little more than a "slurpy."

By Andy Wood

Wilmington, NC – Soon after a drenching rain last week, commentator Andy Wood wandered down to see what the rain added to a small pond he dug on his property last winter that he hopes will serve as a nursery for a rare amphibian called the Carolina gopher frog.

Andy Wood is education curator for Audubon North Carolina and author of "Backyard Carolina," a collection of his WHQR commentaries.