Had a heated debate over supper with my 7 & 9 year old on which insect in Texas was the coolest.
Daughter went with ladybug, which was pretty spot on for her. (zing)
Son went with Praying Mantis... which was probably my favorite for most of my life.
Now I am in camp Tarantula Hawk. The first one I saw I thought it was some type of Hummingbird. Then I read they have one of the most painful stings in the world.
Giant flying wasp that hunts tarantulas with the most powerful sting of an insect in North America beats Praying Mantis every time, I told my 7 year old. He still disagreed with me.

I figured I'd put the question to the OB: What is your favorite Texas insect? Also, is the Tarantula Hawk cooler than a Praying Mantis?

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Son went with Praying Mantis... which was probably my favorite for most of my life.
Now I am in camp Tarantula Hawk. The first one I saw I thought it was some type of Hummingbird. Then I read they have one of the most painful stings in the world.
Giant flying wasp that hunts tarantulas with the most powerful sting of an insect in North America beats Praying Mantis every time, I told my 7 year old. He still disagreed with me.

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Well, the Praying Mantis has been known to kill small birds and mammals that significantly outweigh it. I have handled them multiple times, and am not afraid to.

The Tarantula Hawk on the other hand scares the bejeebees out of me.

So I'm going with Praying Mantis

Mantids in Texas aren't killing birds, while the tarantula wasp is a big nasty, I'm gonna go with a mantispid, it's basically a tiny version of a mantis but it's a Neuropteran.

Iron clad beetle is a close 2nd.

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Ironclad beetle

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Beat me to it. Nothing says Texas Tough like the ironclad beetle.

Obviously, not cockroaches. For what it's worth, when I was a fish I got a strange look when I asked someone what kind of bugs those were -- I've never seen them up here even though I've been told that they can be found in some parts of the county.

My pick would be the red and black ants that are so common along caliche roads in the Panhandle. There doesn't seem to be nearly as many as when I was a kid, but they are still there.

As a kid, I was fascinated by them. Unfortunately, this didn't always turn out well. Once when I was about 2 I crawled onto an ant bed at a church picnic so I could watch the ants. Some people around here still remember that.

Not only that, they are food for horny toads.

If I have to pick a favorite, it would be the roly poly.

It's a damn shame what happens to those tarantulas. Like straight out of a horror movie.

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The female tarantula hawk wasp stings and paralyzes a tarantula, then drags the specimen to a specially prepared brooding nest, where a single egg is laid on the spider's abdomen, and the entrance is covered. Sex of the larvae is determined by fertilization; fertilized eggs produce females while unfertilized eggs produce males. When the wasp larva hatches, it creates a small hole in the spider's abdomen , then enters and feeds voraciously, avoiding vital organs for as long as possible to keep the spider alive. After several weeks, the larva pupates. Finally, the wasp becomes an adult, and emerges from the spider's abdomen to continue the life cycle.

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It's a damn shame what happens to those tarantulas. Like straight out of a horror movie.

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And then there are cattle grubs, but they are not quite as bad since they don't kill the cattle.



I've known some people as kids who loved to pop cattle grubs from the backs of cattle.

Helga mite (great clear water fishing bait)

Dobson's Fly

Tarantula. Remember seeing them all the time when I was little. I saw one two years ago, and can't remember the last time before that.

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My favorite is the fire fly. I can sit back and watch them glow all night.

I also love listening to the cicadas sing at night, but the firefly still wins for me.

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Same for me. Love the Lampyridae. I lived in west Texas and the panhandle for the majority of my life and only heard of them in stories. Now that I live in wetter climate they are everywhere in the backyard. I can watch them for hours.

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It's a damn shame what happens to those tarantulas. Like straight out of a horror movie.

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And then there are cattle grubs, but they are not quite as bad since they don't kill the cattle.



I've known some people as kids who loved to pop cattle grubs from the backs of cattle.

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We used to use a coke bottle to pop them out!

Thanks for the info on the tarantula hawk BurrOak. I get buzzed by those things all the time (outside of Austin)...they make so much noise flying. And then if that wasn't bad enough, they land and can really zip around fast on those long legs. I regularly see them dragging what I thought was dead tarantulas across the street in my neighborhood. Usually the hawk is fairly outsized as well. Didn't know what happened after that.

To OP:

Thanks for posting that, you finally cleared up a mystery from my childhood; I always thought what I saw as a kid was a red wasp. I once found one stuck in the gap of the hood and fender. When I started poking at it with a stick the damn thing took it away from me...it definitely had a nasty attitude. I figured at that point I just need move on so I didn't get my dumb*** stung.

Never knew what an ironclad beetle was. I always thought they were just some other type of click beetle.
Mantispids are cool as well... haven't heard of them before. Gotta start looking for them now.

You need a tiny nail and hammer to get a collection pin thru them.

A heated needle works best!

Vinagaroon FTW!

Cicadas, mole crickets, and lightning bugs.

Red ants haven't destroyed all of them yet? Seems like they've run off all the black ants....

Those big red and yellow centipedes you can find in the hill country.

It is not the f'ing pecan nut casebearer, I can tell you that.

I'm surprised nobody has mentioned those cicada killing wasps. I think they are pretty cool.

I also second the walking stick. The big ones are cool. I also like daddy long legs.

I think mole crickets are nonnative