Mark Megahan
They’re viciously deadly critters but stalking and capturing a wild antlion isn’t nearly as dangerous as it sounds. There are a whole bunch of extremely bizarre creatures in the world and some of them make really interesting “pets.”
Arizona antlion safari
When I saw the distinctive funnel shaped hole the other day, I recognized it instantly as the den of an antlion. I’d never even heard of them until last year. They’re also called “doodlebugs.” I had heard of those but never seen one. As a typical American male, I like to partake in the smoking of smelly things, like tobacco and cannabis. Like most of our gender, I’ve been banished to my man cave for that.
Since I live on the far fringes of civilization in the desert of Morristown, Arizona, that means my man cave is a tent-like structure courtesy of the high quality engineers at ShelterLogic. We’re not fancy out here in the desert, so it only has a dirt floor. What it does have is a cooler, which is all that matters. Last year, I learned just how fun it can be to watch antlions at work. Then the yearly monsoon rains came.
While my shelter stays dry from above, as soon as the rain hits the ground, it runs away in sheets. Last year, my shelter got flooded a couple inches deep and it stayed like that for three days. What looked like a golf course of nine antlion holes got washed away and the poor critters drowned. I’m ready this year.
As soon as I saw the fresh diggings, I went to the missus for one of her plastic storage containers. The only one I’ve spotted so far this year is now safely in a protected habitat. He’s already dug a new hole and he’s ready for action. Even when they aren’t hunting they’re fun to watch. Better than TV.
After getting my captive antlion carefully shoveled into the 6×6 container on top of a couple inches of his normal dirt, I dug a hole where he had been and placed the container in it. Then carefully pushed dirt back around to the tops of the edges. That way, it can remain right where it was but safe and snug.
When the rain comes this year, I can pick up the container and put it on a shelf until the ground drys again. The entire capture and re-sheltering took about 10 minutes of work. Now, I can have a literal “floor show” for entertainment as I toke away on my favorite strains of happy weed all summer long.
Throw a tractor over a house
One thing that makes an antlion so fascinating to watch is the way it can hurl comparatively massive boulders for extreme distances. Comparing the rocks a doodlebug moves around with the size of their body makes it the equivalent of a human casually tossing a tractor right over a two story house. Even more surprising, they do that with their head.
For bigger boulders, ones which would be like moving that same two story house, they back into it like a bulldozer and push it around. They seem to have some serious architectural skills hardwired in as well.
It’s easy to watch an antlion at work for hours. They’re seldom idle, unless they’re hungry. They spend the day collapsing, enlarging and moving their funnel shaped homes endlessly, while also tunneling underneath the sand and leaving “doodle” like trails around all over the place.
When prey is around, they’re vicious and aggressive killers. That’s when they’re really fun to watch.
They hide in wait at the bottom of their funnel shaped pit. When an unsuspecting ant, spider other small insect tips into the pit, the steep sides won’t let it get out easily. Making it harder, the antlion will furiously pelt it with rocks, knocking it loose, senseless, or both. Once it gets a grab with its huge hollow jaws, it injects a digestive enzyme poison that liquefies its prey for dinner.
The carcass gets tossed back out to litter the yard. After anywhere between a few weeks and two years, depending on how well they eat, the larval doodlebug will cocoon itself, metamorphose and hatch back out as a delicate winged creature similar to a dragonfly.
