What kinda bug?

jlbash1 · Jun 13, 2001

okay I figured someone out there would know what this but is. Just to start off I live in Western KY. I've noticed hundreds of divets up in my barn in the dirt floor. These divets are perfectly round and nearly conical shaped, looks like someone stuck the pointed end of a cone into the ground. The bug that lifes at the bottom of this divet is a grayish thing that is about 3/8" long and it has big ol pinchers. I didn't really notice legs or much else. I actually looked at this bug a month or so ago and i'm just now remembering to ask about it. I figured it was some kind of larvae for something. This thing looks wierd, so that's the main reason i'm asking, and it looks cool watching the barn floor and seeing all these little divets with little puffs of dirt coming out as the bug digs it out.

Thanks in advance

Jarrod

Hawgee · Jun 13, 2001

Jarrod
I can't help you. I too look at the ground and study what the little fellars are doing. Different place and soil. I am interested thou what you find. I'm a smoker and you mention a tobaco barn. Now I'm wondering if there has been more than stems and pieces in my Pall Mall's. Next I'd be worryed they hatch out to some flying critter and have upset the wood over your head in the rafters. We get a flying ant like critter here that loves damp wood. Do your bugs mind you parking the tractor on they heads?

"What is a weed? A plant whose virtues have not yet been discovered."
Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882)

JOR_EL · Jun 13, 2001

Hi Jarrod,

That bug is called an "ant lion", ...don't know the scientific name.

In the South, when I was a kid, everyone called them "doodlebugs".

If you take a little twig, and gently disturb some sand at the top edge of the "crater"( this is "doodling"), when it rolls to the bottom of the funnel sometimes the doodlebug thinks he has caught something in his trap, and he will jump on it, or at least attempt to throw it out "cleaning house", so to speak.

The little puffs of dust are the bug throwing fine sand back to the top edge, to keep the walls of the crater loose, so anything that falls into it will slide down to join the doodlebug for dinner. /w3tcompact/icons/laugh.gif

We used to catch them by scooping with our hands under the crater, and laugh when they tickled us by trying to escape by digging down in the cracks between our fingers.
They're harmless as far as I know. /w3tcompact/icons/tongue.gif

Always something interesting on TBN!!

Larry

Hawgee · Jun 13, 2001

Thanks Larry
I miss the lightning bugs and katydid's. Wouldn't want to bring them up here and drown them. I'm just up the range from you and get the pineapple express. Not much but a brown recluce to scare a guy out of the wood piles or a gardner (red runners) to dodge in the fields. No water moccasins to worry about.

"What is a weed? A plant whose virtues have not yet been discovered."
Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882)

jimmoore · Jun 13, 2001

Your right about the Ant Lion =Doodlebug. I have a dirt floor in my barn and it is full of Doodle holes! Catch an ant with a pair of tweezers and drop it in the the doodle hole and wath the action!!

jim

StoneHeartFarm · Jun 13, 2001

We used to catch our ant lions by gently blowing the sand away until the little critter is uncovered. The trick is to blow the sand away faster than the ant lion can dig, without blowing so hard you blow the ant lion away! /w3tcompact/icons/laugh.gif

SHF

RJohnson · Jun 13, 2001

Jarrod,
You might try this site for more information
http://www.hq.nasa.gov/alsj/a16/a16.doodlebug.html
They are definitely good bugs so enjoy them.

Randy

JOR_EL · Jun 13, 2001

Nice link, Randy /w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif

I didn't know about the adult form. ...wish they'd shown a picture of the "flying doodlebug".
Anybody want to post a photo, if they think they've found one? ( with all those pre-flight versions around, there must be some solo'ers in SOMEBODY'S yard /w3tcompact/icons/laugh.gif )

Thanks,

Larry

FarmerBob · Jun 13, 2001

Oh what memories you have stirred in this man's mind. I can remember spending hours as a child catch'n doodlebugs with a broom straw. Tickle the entrance to the burrow and when the doodlebug grabbed the straw we'd yank him out. Always a contest to see who could catch the most.

Thanks for the fond memories...

FarmerBob

RJohnson · Jun 13, 2001

Larry,
Look at this link for a picture of an adult
http://plasmagate.weizmann.ac.il/~fndima/macro2/3223g21.html
I am sure we have all seen them a hundred times and didn't realize what they were.

Randy