Will they kill me if I don't kill them first? Noticed right outside the back door a little cluster of fuzzy spots, dark and white. Dark bugs about 5mm long and white egg shells. Shot with Phoenix plastic fantastic 100mm and dioptor.



Here is one moving around more than the others.



...and here is the cluster f... where the eggs are stuck to the house by those little amber bowling pin looking things.



Anybody got a verdict? Leave them alone or leave town?

thanks.

[Rense]

Well, Lee, I am happy not to be there! Nice shots, seeing the second one I am happy they don't come in super size!!!

[reeftool]

Nice shots! They are ugly looking things. Now that you have a nice picture to hang on the wall, get a can of Raid.

I don't recognise them but they look predatory to me which means they should be good guys.
PM Blue, he'll identify them for you in case I'm wrong.

[Kerrowdown]

If they were the real size on image 2, I would typing this long distance.

[imtheguy]

If they were the real size on image 2, I would typing this long distance.

uhh....i don't see you around here so I think you ARE typing long distance. Does that mean they got bigger while I was out shopping? Oh, crap. Better go look...back in a sec.....nope, same size. You had me going there for a minute.

Thanks for the input guys. I feel so much better knowing they are predators after seeing Aliens on the tube last week. Now if I hear the door smash in during the night, I just toss the cat to them and run the other way. Better yet, I will keep an eye on them and snap a pic or two every day until they are big enough to ID or too big to tolerate.

[flippedgazelle]

NFO, pronto!

(NFO = Nuke From Orbit)

Great photos, BTW.

[mikeSF]

[immediately checks location] Whew, Virginia Beach, VA is way on the other side of the country from me. Dude, I would move if I were you.

[madmikess]

Well, in the 3rd image, the larva in the middle at the top is a carpet beetle. I understand they are tough to get rid of. But I didn't see any of those other monsters in the stuff that I was looking at relating them to carpet beetles. I thought at first it might be a mite or tick, but again, didn't see anything that matched. Dunno....

[arpaagent]

Those things are creepy. Not sure I've ever seen any bugs like that. Maybe they are bed bugs better sleep with one eye open!

[imtheguy]

Those things are creepy. Not sure I've ever seen any bugs like that. Maybe they are bed bugs better sleep with one eye open!

First thing I thought of besides aliens was bed bugs too but I already looked those up. I WILL be sleeping with the .357 mag under the pillow just in case they grow tonight.

Mad Mike - you got me going with the carpet beetle larvae, looks right, so i stared at a hundred or so other baby bugs but nothing is close to these guys.

I'm calling Sigourney Weaver. She will know what to do.

[SWEngineer]

Excellent find!

I usually have good results identifying bugs on bugguide.net
This one was a challenge. Almost certainly, it is an insect larvae from the Order Neuroptera (Antlions, Lacewings and Allies), probably Family Myrmeleontidae (Antlions).

Your nightmare photos look a lot like the one in the bugguide.net link below.

Keep 'em around. They are beneficial, preditory insects, not pests. Maybe that's why there was only one carpet beetle larvae in that 3rd photo? I wonder if it escaped alive?

Antlion - Myrmeleon - BugGuide.Net

[dadipentak]

All I can say is, "Dang!"

[imtheguy]

Excellent find!

I usually have good results identifying bugs on bugguide.net
This one was a challenge. Almost certainly, it is an insect larvae from the Order Neuroptera (Antlions,

Whoa! it was bad enough when I thought they were from the movie Aliens, now you tell me they are from the game Half Life 2? I don't even have a gravity gun to defend myself.


Today they look pretty much the same. The beetle larvae is still there with them.

Thanks for taking a stab at the ID!

[Blue]

The are in fact antlion larvae. They are in the order Neuroptera and family Myrmeleontidae. It is unusual that the females laid the eggs on the side of the house. The typically lay them in the sand where the "doodlebugs" form the inverted cones to trap unsuspecting ants for lunch. These are relatively beneficial predators and pose no thread to people. A guy name Wheeler wrote a book about the several decades ago titled Demons in the Dust. The adults look superficially like dragonflies but are seen at lights at night and sport peculiar antennae.

There are about 89 species of these things in North America. The mandibles on yours are more impressive than many species I've seen.

Edit: These are the pits the "doodlebugs" make to trap ants etc. The antlion larvae or doodlebug is at the bottom under the sand with the mandibles locked open like a bear trap.