Thread Snakes Slender Blind Snakes or Worm Snakes: Leptotyphlopidae

Slender blind snakes eat small invertebrates (in-VER-teh-brehts), which are insects and other animals without backbones. Many of the species will eat almost anything, including insects such as caterpillars, fly maggots, beetles, cockroaches, and crickets, as well as spiders, harvestmen, which include daddy longlegs, and the many-legged centipedes and millipedes. Most species, however, tend to prefer ants and termites. The snakes are able to find ant and termite hills by following the chemical trails that these insects leave on the ground as they travel to and from the nest. Once the snake tracks down the ant or termite hill, it slithers inside and eats as much as it can. In ant hills, they especially like the eggs, larvae (LAR-vee), and pupae (PYU-pee). Ant eggs hatch into larvae, which are the maggotlike life stage of ants. Eventually, the larvae transform into the motionless pupae stage before becoming adult ants. The slender blind snakes are able to jut out and pull in the lower jaw very quickly, which allows them to eat hundreds of eggs, larvae, and pupae in a very short time.

Many animals avoid ant hills because these insects, which are very protective of their nests, can bite and sting. The slender blind snake, however, is able to defend itself. When attacked, the snake rolls into a ball and smears itself with its body's own ant repellant: a mixture of slime and feces. The ants shy away from the smelly mess, leaving the snake to return to its meal.