Scary Insects and Animals (Part 1)

October is here and you know what that means: Halloween, candy, scary costumes, haunted houses, creepy-crawlers and more. For the month of October we thought it would be fun to explore a different scary insect/animal, plant, weather, and environment/green living for each week. We’re excited to learn and share something scary and new each week.

Are you ready? Here we go.

The Army/Soldier Ant (Eciton burchelli)

From South America the army ant is a small but deadly predator. With colonies ranging from 300,000 to 700,000 these ants can grow to reach a half-inch in length. They have massive, strong and knife-like jaws half their own length! Holy cow! For food instead of hunting using scouts or searching individually, these ants travel in gigantic armies. My favorite feature about these ants, they are BLIND!

(Photo Credit)

(Photo Credit)

The Horned Baboon Spider (Ceratogyrus)

These spiders are in the tarantula family and live primarily in South Africa (thank goodness). Horned and fuzzy, these eight-legged creatures grow to an astonishingly legspan of 5 inches! That’s bigger then a cell phone. These spiders get their name from the horn or plug projecting from their carapace (torso). 6 mm fangs that have an orange and black coloration, 8 eyes in a cluster on the top of their carapace make these horned baboon spiders creepy and crawly.

(photo credit)

(photo credit)

Check back for 3 more scary animals. And be sure to stay tuned ALL month long for more spooky posts!