Antlions... Hmm. That's odd

[bakerjw]

Last night we were on the porch and I noticed some funnel looking features in the dry loose dirt off to one side. After a quick bit of research, I found out that they are antlion lairs. I dug one up easily enough and they are odd creatures for sure.

I am interested in virtually everything and this is just another thing to satisfy my curiosity.

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ETA. I left it on the counter to make this post. When I went back, it was gone. How to break the news to the wife that an antlion is loose in the house... Luckily they are not know for their endurance running so I found it a couple of feet away.

[cwtebay]

I'm not familiar with those! Pretty interesting critter!

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[ryanmattes]

Get a small, glass fishbowl, fill it about half way up with sand (or whatever dry, loose dirt you have), and drop him in.

In no time he'll have made a lair. Kind of cool watching them do it, they make circles under the sand, flipping sand out of the circle until they've made their funnel.

You can drop ants or any similar-sized insect in there (they shouldn't be able to climb the glass) and watch them fall to the center, and get pulled under by the antlion.

I used to keep them that way when I was a kid. When you get bored with feeding then, just put them back outside.

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[bangerjim]

Common creatures that dig those little funnel traps in loose dirt or sand. Harmless unless you are an ant that happens to fall into the funnel! We have had them for years. Just part of Mother Nature's cycle of life.

[Springfield]

Doodlebugs!

[ShooterAZ]

They are cool and highly specialized creatures! I can remember as a child taking a small twig and getting them to go after it when lightly touching it to the funnel. We would also catch ants and feed them to the "Lions".

[bakerjw]

We've all done things like that as kids. One of my friends son caught a borer bee a couple of weeks back and put it in the freezer. When it was cold and dormant, he tied a very small thread to it, took it outside and walked his bee. :)

[Txcowboy52]

Yes doodle bugs ! That’s what we called them , I didn’t know the correct name until after I was grown . Amazing little creatures.

[Finster101]

We've all done things like that as kids. One of my friends son caught a borer bee a couple of weeks back and put it in the freezer. When it was cold and dormant, he tied a very small thread to it, took it outside and walked his bee. :)


We used to do that with June bugs. No freezer involved.

[CoolHandMoss]

What's really cool is to watch them work when a small bug falls in the funnel. My dad and I always called them "funnel bugs" for fun.

[1Papalote]

Part of our entertainment growing up was horned frogs and antlions. We'd catch ants, drop them into the antlions "funnel" and watch them disappear. We'd carry the horny toads for days before letting them loose.