AboutHeather Expertise I can answer questions ONLY on ant lions,(aka doodlebugs), butterflies, and certain other insects. NO BUG IDENTIFICATIONS, I will not answer any questions asking for bug IDs, NO home insect invasion questions please! If you ask anything about "What is this?!" and it doesn't pertain to butterflies or antlions then I CAN'T ANSWER!
Question Hi, I live in eastern Wisconsin. We have extensive sand dunes on the shores of Lake Michigan. As a kid, my father and I spent a lot of times hiking in the dunes. He pointed out a lot of interesting things to this awed kid.
One of the things I liked were the small inverted cones in the sand, which using a twig, we would herd ants into only to see them attacked and drug under the sand. Of course they must have been ant lions. I still see them every time I hike the dunes 45 years later.
But he used to show me small trap door "spiders" that would lie in wait for our hearded ants to come close before flipping open the door and grabbing their prey. I no longer have been able to find any of these. As far as you know, are there any ant lions that build covered lairs? Or do you know of any real trap door spiders that live in this northern clime?
I'm beginning to think I was mistaken about the trap door bugs, or maybe the changing climate has caused these to disappear from around here?
Please help, my grandson is getting old enough to start discovering the tiny mysteries of the sand dunes this summer, and while I'd love to show him trap door spiders, I don't want to steer him wrong either!
Answer I don't really know anything about arachnids, but I do know about ant lions. They can be pretty picky about where they set up shop. Try looking under trees near the sand line or under bushes or drift wood. In my experience they seem to like having a natural cover above the sand or sandy dirt where they spin their funnel. I'm from northern Ohio, and we've got antlions here regardless of the temperature, so I'd assume Michigan has them as well.
