velvet ant

Have you ever been bitten by a velvet ant? It is actually a flightless wasp and is called a cow killer for a reason - it hurts. One of my boys has now been bitten twice. The first was on a camping trip where he tried to pick up a fuzzy red bug that was crawling along the ground. I don't have a picture, but remember it looking like this one (Dasymutilla occidentalis):



When my 4yo came screaming out of the piano room, where he was playing with his blocks, I thought he'd pinched his skin between some LEGOs or his little brother had hit him with a wooden block. After calming down, he told us, something bit him. It was the black bug on the block. I went searching and found this:



It took me a while to realize this was another kind of velvet ant: Timulla vagans . Now, what was he doing in my house?