{"id":65301,"date":"2025-08-07T14:43:07","date_gmt":"2025-08-07T14:43:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/65301\/"},"modified":"2025-08-07T14:43:07","modified_gmt":"2025-08-07T14:43:07","slug":"video-shows-bug-riding-gila-monster-in-an-arizona-swimming-pool","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/65301\/","title":{"rendered":"Video shows bug riding Gila monster in an Arizona swimming pool"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The video shows how the two made it out of the water safely.<\/p>\n<p>VAIL, Ariz. \u2014 A couple in southern Arizona got quite the surprise when they found a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.12news.com\/article\/news\/local\/arizona\/gila-monster-venom-extremely-painful-can-also-save-lives-diabetes-ozempic\/75-d440de6d-a540-4a21-80e9-be3588ca6565\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\">Gila monster<\/a> paddling around in their backyard pool \u2014 with a large black bug riding on its back.<\/p>\n<p>Alissa Corrado, who lives on the outskirts of Vail just southeast of Tucson, said she and her husband noticed the venomous lizard during a routine morning outside.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI came out to put some new cushions on my lawn chairs and we noticed it swimming in the pool,\u201d Corrado said. \u201cLuckily, the dogs weren\u2019t out.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Corrado said her house backs up to miles of open desert, and she\u2019s grown used to desert critters \u2014 snakes, tarantulas, coyotes, and even javelinas \u2014 since moving from Oregon two years ago. But this was the first time she found a Gila monster in her pool.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI just saw him there and he had the little hitchhiker on his back \u2014 this big black bug on him,\u201d Corrado said. \u201cLike, oh my gosh, what a scene.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>She and her husband quickly grabbed a pool net and gently scooped the lizard and its buggy plus one to safety. The pair posed for a few photos.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe sat there for a little bit, you know, with his head up, and he looked like he had this little smile on his face,\u201d she said. \u201cIt was really cute.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Corrado said the Gila monster was safely relocated to a shady spot in the desert. The bug, which had stayed on during the rescue, eventually went its own way.<\/p>\n<p>Corrado shared a video of the bizarre scene on the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/groups\/861513260584920\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\">Arizona Creepy Crawlers &amp; Desert Beauty Facebook group<\/a>, where it quickly went viral \u2014 earning nearly 5,000 likes.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI had no idea,\u201d Corrado said. \u201cI thought [Gila monsters] were more common.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>She said it\u2019s the fifth Gila monster she\u2019s spotted since moving to the area, even though many Arizona residents go years \u2014 or even decades \u2014 without seeing one in the wild.<\/p>\n<p>Despite the desert surprises, Corrado says she loves her new life in the Sonoran Desert.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI love it here,\u201d she said. \u201cI love the landscape, the plants, the animals.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Gila monsters are a protected species in Arizona. Though venomous, they are generally not aggressive and rarely bite unless provoked. Experts recommend admiring them from a safe distance and contacting wildlife officials if one appears injured or in danger.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The video shows how the two made it out of the water safely. VAIL, Ariz. \u2014 A couple&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":65302,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[51],"tags":[79,201],"class_list":{"0":"post-65301","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wildlife","8":"tag-science","9":"tag-wildlife"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65301","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=65301"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65301\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/65302"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=65301"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=65301"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=65301"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}