Washington’s Freakiest Bug is Now Hunting: Probably in Your Yard

Growing up in Washington State, I was never freaked out by spiders, scorpions, or almost any other bug you would find except for this one that just gives me the willies.

Freaky Washington Insect Hunts by Spitting Sand

There was one insect that always gave me the Heebe Geebies every time I saw one growing up in Washington. The reason I was freaked out really has nothing to do with the bug's actual danger to humans, but because it resembled a creature seen in an old Star Trek movie, The Wrath of Khan.

In the movie, two Federation crewmen were captured by the villain of the film named Khan and had alien larvae inserted into their brains. The larvae are inserted into their helmets, climb into the crewmen's ears, and wrap themselves around a part of the brain that allows them to be mind-controlled. You can see a glimpse of that creature from The Wrath of Khan in the trailer for the movie I posted below. When I was a kid I was terrified to find out that we actually had an insect larve that resembled the exact creature in the movie, and you can find them almost everywhere in Washington State.

The Antlion: Washington's Freakiest Bug

You may not have noticed them before, but Antlions are almost everywhere in Washington State. It is not the adults that are freaky but the larvae. To find them, look in sandy warm areas near grass, trees, or pavement for perfect cones dug into the sand that are a few inches wide. The Antlion larvae live at the bottom of each of those sand cones. Adults resemble dragonflies but are much more clumsy of fliers and are usually only seen at night. It is the larvae of this insect that I think are freaky, and it is not just the way they look. They lie dug into the pit of sand just under the surface waiting for small prey to walk by the cone.

Antlion larvae hunt small insects, especially ants, and wait for them to wander into the pit. Once one enters the pit, the Antlion will spit sand up at the prey, knocking it down to its large gripping jaws, and then pulled under the sand to be consumed. Not only do they spit sand like the creatures in the movie, but they are also the same size as the larvae that climb into the ears. Now that you know about them, you will see those freaky little cones of sand everywhere and know the nightmare that lies just below. If you want to see them hunt yourself, find some ants, drop them into the cone, and watch the carnage ensue.