Google Sightseeing takes you on tour of the world as seen from satellite, using the free Google Earth program, or Google Maps in your web browser. Each weekday your guides James and Alex present new weird and wonderful sights as suggested by readers.

Giant Alien Bug

Monday, 18th September 2006 by Alex

Please note that some or all of the objects mentioned in this post are no longer visible on Google Earth or Google Maps.

Holy Cardigans, Batman! There’s an absolutely enormous bug in Germany, which is clearly hell-bent on destruction! Run for the hills!

At over 50 metres, this bug would be far bigger than the previously posted World’s Largest Bug (and a whole heap more terrfying to boot) - fortunately, a moderator at the Keyhole forums informs us that this bug has gone to meet his maker, and anyway, is only actually 1mm long! He reckons it’s a Thrips which was probably squished between a glass plate and the film during the scanning process.

However the circle of brown at the insect’s posterior is probably the only example we’ll ever see of insect excrement captured in a satellite photo! Nice.

Thanks to SammyOfKassel, koichiwb, Hill and superlocal.

Edit: Added an ’s’ to ‘Thrips’. Thanks Parabellum.

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Locations: Germany / Categories: Animals, Weirdness

37 Responses to 'Giant Alien Bug'

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1. 1. fallenposters says: September 18th, 2006 at 2:28 pm

   Holy Thrip Batman!

2. 2. Stephan Segraves says: September 18th, 2006 at 3:01 pm

   So is it on the lens or what?

3. 3. WRA says: September 18th, 2006 at 3:14 pm

   Whewww… Rhode Island’s claim to fame is still intact!

4. 4. rob says: September 18th, 2006 at 4:04 pm

   bugger.

5. 5. Michi Disperso says: September 18th, 2006 at 7:35 pm

   i known that someone was planning a new radioactivity experiment.. but i cannot imagine THIS!! XD Oh My God!!

6. 6. cookie monster says: September 18th, 2006 at 7:36 pm

   Are you sure its not a novelty, bug-shaped Zeppelin airship?

7. 7. Parabellum says: September 19th, 2006 at 12:09 am

   That’s Thrips, with an “S” on the end. Always. It’s not a plural “S”. Even if there’s only one, it’s still a thrips.

8. 8. Koichi says: September 19th, 2006 at 7:55 am

   Thank you for reffereing my photo in Flickr.

   I found this funny object in the map by a night TV show, Tamori Club. Someone posted it at YouTube

9. 9. Koichi says: September 19th, 2006 at 8:19 am

   By accident I clicked the submit button in the middle of spell checking. Please forgive me for typo in my previous comment. I also failed to add the YouTube Video url of that night TV show. You can see it by http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rqeFZsE5Tw8&NR , though in Japanese.

10. 10. Timhogs says: September 19th, 2006 at 9:20 pm

    Come on, people! Do you really think that the picture of the Giant Alien Bug appearing immediately after the Interdimensional Portals post is a coincidence? Petition your Senator, Representative, MP, or ruthless dictator to start building giant magnifying glasses NOW!

11. 11. Nick says: September 20th, 2006 at 1:31 am

    …DUN

12. 12. Chris L says: September 21st, 2006 at 9:47 am

    LOL @ all the Google Adsense ads on this page that are for solutions to bed bug problems

13. 13. wk says: September 21st, 2006 at 12:52 pm

    useless reporting. why is it there?

14. 
    14. Alex says: September 21st, 2006 at 9:20 pm

    WK, as I stated in the post, over at the Keyhole forum Hill said:

    The brown glob at the posterior end is bug poop, forced out of the poor critter as it got squished between a glass plate and the film during the scanning process.

    And perhaps more intriguingly, Wikipedia says:

    Thrips are commonly known to invade modern LCD monitors and LCD televisions [1]. Once in there, there is little you can do to get the bugs out again without dismantling the screens which may void the warranty. Unfortunately, no efficient debugger has been made so far

    It seriously says that! Does no-one else think that’s funny?

15. 15. dave says: September 22nd, 2006 at 11:53 am

    very cool. i love that one. maybe we also find some hair and left overs from lunch

16. 16. Doug Karr says: September 28th, 2006 at 1:39 pm

    These images are really scanned? I’m curious why that is? Aren’t they digitally recorded and transmitted?

17. 17. Wurgl says: September 28th, 2006 at 1:47 pm

    The main question is: Is this bunny larger?

    Placemark: Google Maps / Google Earth

18. 18. joghurtKULTUR says: September 28th, 2006 at 7:19 pm

    Oh my God!!! They killed Kenny!!!
    Its not a bug, it`s a feature.

19. 19. michael says: September 28th, 2006 at 8:39 pm

    hey,
    i’m a glider pilot, and i’m flying like once a month over that area, i can ensure you guys, there is nothing xD

20. 20. Nils Williams says: September 29th, 2006 at 5:23 am

    I think it came from that giant scale-model landscape smack in the middle of the Chinese desert: http://googlesightseeing.com/2006/08/06/1019/ . BTW, did anyone ever figure out what it’s for? Or do the Chinese still say it’s just a miniature golf course?

21. 21. Alan Pierson says: September 29th, 2006 at 11:48 am

    As far as I know nobody has got a definitive answer on that landscape replica in Huangyangtan. There have been a few reports on it:

    http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/07/19/huangyangtan_mystery/
    http://www.smh.com.au/news/web/the-riddle-of-chinas-area-51/2006/08/14/1155407679963.html
    http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/story?id=2266192&page=1

    But, no, not solved yet.

22. 22. dave says: October 1st, 2006 at 5:35 pm

    there was a bug on the screen it doesn’t look real

23. 23. Joe Ferry says: October 2nd, 2006 at 1:50 am

    It’s not a bug, it’s a creature!

24. 24. lemenos says: October 3rd, 2006 at 9:03 am

    “scanning the film”? And if this imagery is digital?

25. 25. Akaaka says: October 22nd, 2006 at 1:10 am

    A bug in the google LOL

26. 26. Lars says: October 30th, 2006 at 11:29 am

    This is normal in south germany….

27. 27. Dennis says: November 3rd, 2006 at 11:10 pm

    Another reason to hate earwigs!

28. 28. saimhe says: November 4th, 2006 at 3:47 pm

    These images have been provided by German enterprise GeoContent GmbH. They simply are scanned aerial photos. The bug, albeit at 8 m/px, can be also found via their imagery browser, http://gct-webserver.de/geoApps/dlkviewer/index.php . So far I didn’t find a way to specify coordinates in the URL, therefore I’m hosting the screenshot (163 KB): http://saimhe.avita.lt/ivairus/giantbug.png .

29. 29. Napier says: November 5th, 2006 at 10:13 pm

    I, for one, welcome our new insect overlords. I’d like to remind them that as a trusted TV personality, I can be helpful in rounding up others to toil in their underground sugar caves.

30. 30. MAD-PUG says: November 16th, 2006 at 6:49 pm

    48°51′28.38″N 10°12′19.80″E just put that in the search bar!!

    is it not abit boring say it got trapped in a scanner? what about:

    “it was neil form art-attack, doing his ‘big art-attack’”
    or
    “its a stupid joke that some sad ******* thinks is funney”
    or
    “the bug simply when to McDonalds, (we all know what that dose to you)”

31. 31. Antilianpower says: November 22nd, 2006 at 7:20 pm

    Check out the airfield Frankfurt am Main to see 4 shadows and only 3 airplanes

32. 32. Funkychunk says: November 24th, 2006 at 5:01 am

    Lol Stephan Segraves… That is not a bug on lence because these pics are tookin from space.

33. 33. Freek de jonge says: November 28th, 2006 at 8:22 am

    haha
    good search work people!
    just a little tiny bug

34. 34. Hill says: November 30th, 2006 at 9:45 pm

    Sadly the thrips has been edited out of Google Maps, but will likely remain living on Google Earth until the next overall imagery update in that area.

35. 35. EVIL BUG LORD says: December 3rd, 2006 at 12:31 am

    AHAH MY BUG MINIONS ARE RUELING THE WORLD!!! MUAHAAHHAHAHAH!!!

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