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pread rapidly in the South, driving out other ants. They have no natural enemies, and more than $6 billion a year is spent on their eradication, property damage, and medical treatments (they pack a nasty sting). Red ants have a specialized nutritional content that horny toads require — fire ants don’t. They are fierce competitors against red ants. They eat them! Man, the life of an animal is rough.</p><figure id="4fc0"><img src="https://cdn-images-1.readmedium.com/v2/resize:fit:800/1*XNQnOmjPw80FjUdogwgjdA.jpeg"><figcaption>I spotted this guy (or gal) atop Black Mesa, the highest point in Oklahoma, in the panhandle. You wouldn’t think that hike would be an arduous task in Oklahoma, but it became so when I ran out of water! It also looks like this one is of the Texas variety—photo by author.</figcaption></figure><p id="0ef3">On hot, sunny summer days, my favorite activity was to go horny toad hunting in the alley. There weren’t many days where I didn’t catch at least one. The largest one I ever caught was so big it was stuck between two piles of bricks. God knows how long it had been there — they can go quite a while without eating. The smallest ones were just babies. So cute!</p><p id="4327">My biggest catch ever was eight in one day. I put them in a box and observed them, but all they did was try to get out using their sharp little claws. That made lots of noise! But I would always let them go at the end of the day.</p><p id="d20f">One time my sister decided that it would be a good idea to attach a string around a horny toad’s neck so she could take it for walks. All I can say is that it didn’t go well.</p><p id="e732">My best friend, Marianne, was also a horny toad lover. She had one she decided to keep for a while and named it Roger. I hope she was feeding it red ants! She kept it in a cardboard box and made holes in the sides so that he could see out.</p><p id="d190">One day, Roger’s head got caught in one of the holes, and Marianne frantically called me, the horny toad whisperer. (We had to ask to use the phone back then, so this was a big deal.) She said that Roger was stuck in a hole in its box, and she didn’t know what to do, so I promptly got on my bike (this was way too much of an emergency to walk two blocks) to see if I could help. Of course, neither of us considered making the hole larger, so I just worked with him until he was disengaged. So traumatic for all three of us. Roger was breathing heavily.</p><p id="c60a">With one catch, I let them go in our backyard, hoping they’d resettle. But horny toads don’t like grass lawns. There are no red ants there! However, they all got out except one, which unfortunately ended up in the yardman’s lawnmower. I was crushed, but not a

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s much as the horny toad.</p><p id="8c0c">I was about ten on my worst horny toad day. Their horns, their coloring that matches the earth, and their ability to make themselves look bigger than they are are all defense mechanisms. But the most interesting tool they have at their disposal is their ability to shoot blood from their eyes up to five feet away! This tactic startles and confuses predators — and humans, too.</p><p id="860a">So on this day, I was on my way home with the only horny I had found when — bloody hell! It squirted me! Maybe it was one I had caught before and wasn’t having it. My instinct was to drop it and run home crying to Mom.</p><p id="f0e6">Horny toads will be horny toads.</p><p id="4672"><a href="undefined">Carol Lennox</a> reminded me of an aspect of horny toad lore I had almost forgotten. They love having their bellies rubbed! They are very soft and smooth, and the hornies almost always close their eyes while being massaged — maybe if I had just rubbed the bloody horny’s belly.</p><p id="44ce">I see quite a few horny toads in New Mexico, mainly in the southern two-thirds of the state. Perhaps they have migrated here because of the fire ant problem. Fire ants don’t like cold weather, and it gets cold in the high desert. I might chase them, but that’s only to catch a better picture. Since Sunday Bloody Sunday, I have left them alone to do their horny toad thing.</p><p id="f26c">More from Arthur Keith:</p><div id="370c" class="link-block"> <a href="https://readmedium.com/the-ultimate-list-of-the-25-worst-cities-in-the-united-states-ec3393c254e4"> <div> <div> <h2>The Ultimate List Of The 25 Worst Cities In The United States</h2> <div><h3>See if your city made the cut!</h3></div> <div><p>medium.com</p></div> </div> <div> <div style="background-image: url(https://miro.readmedium.com/v2/resize:fit:320/1*6Q-XtMFjqSujDI51hnrL5Q.jpeg)"></div> </div> </div> </a> </div><div id="b0cf" class="link-block"> <a href="https://readmedium.com/is-the-megadrought-over-or-just-on-hiatus-47b2c572b240"> <div> <div> <h2>Is The Megadrought Over Or Just On Hiatus?</h2> <div><h3>One good winter changed everything. Will there be a follow-up?</h3></div> <div><p>medium.com</p></div> </div> <div> <div style="background-image: url(https://miro.readmedium.com/v2/resize:fit:320/1*h2d74K_sEpOQnWRWyWTuhw.jpeg)"></div> </div> </div> </a> </div></article></body>

My Life With The Horny Toads

Please don’t call them horned frogs. They’re not amphibians!

I caught this picture west of Belen, New Mexico. It was a beauty, and as far as I can tell, it was of the Texas Horned Toad species—photo by author.

Reptiles are some of the most feared animals in the world. They harken us back to the age of the dinosaurs when most animals were reptiles and they ate each other. Well, the mean ones.

Today’s reptiles are smaller but, in many cases, no less bloodthirsty. Think of alligators and crocodiles. They’re creeping all across Florida. They kill people — and their little dogs, too! Florida also has some other animals that might as well be reptiles. That’s how ancient their thought processes are.

But this is not a political story!

It’s about Komodo dragons and monitor lizards — and snakes. There are 3,900 species of snakes in the world! They live on every continent except Antarctica. Places without snakes include Ireland, Greenland, Iceland, and Hawaii. There are 44 species of snakes in Florida alone — 46 if you include Trump and DeSantis.

Oops! I did it again!

I have always loved reptiles and amphibians. But more so reptiles. I’m guessing I was about seven when I started catching horny toads. There wasn’t much to do in a small city in West Texas. In our neighborhood, some of the homeowners fenced their backyards all the way out to the alley. However, some only built them halfway, leaving respectable parcels where animals could live. I guess the latter didn’t much care for cutting grass.

Where those vacant plots stood were lots of low-growing weeds and dirt. (I accidentally set fire to one once, but it was winter, so no harm was wrought to the wildlife!) These small pieces of land also sported red ant beds. And what is a horny toad’s favorite (and only) food? Red ants!

There are fifteen species of horny toads native to the U.S., and the most widely distributed is the Texas horny toad (horned lizards, as they like to call them). However, with the invasion of South American fire ants, which horny toads do not eat, their numbers are dwindling. This is compounded by their loss of habitat by real estate, roadways, and the planting of non-native grasses—horny toads like desert-type environments.

Nearly one hundred years ago, fire ants came to North America as stowaways on cargo ships from Argentina to the Port of Mobile, Alabama. They spread rapidly in the South, driving out other ants. They have no natural enemies, and more than $6 billion a year is spent on their eradication, property damage, and medical treatments (they pack a nasty sting). Red ants have a specialized nutritional content that horny toads require — fire ants don’t. They are fierce competitors against red ants. They eat them! Man, the life of an animal is rough.

I spotted this guy (or gal) atop Black Mesa, the highest point in Oklahoma, in the panhandle. You wouldn’t think that hike would be an arduous task in Oklahoma, but it became so when I ran out of water! It also looks like this one is of the Texas variety—photo by author.

On hot, sunny summer days, my favorite activity was to go horny toad hunting in the alley. There weren’t many days where I didn’t catch at least one. The largest one I ever caught was so big it was stuck between two piles of bricks. God knows how long it had been there — they can go quite a while without eating. The smallest ones were just babies. So cute!

My biggest catch ever was eight in one day. I put them in a box and observed them, but all they did was try to get out using their sharp little claws. That made lots of noise! But I would always let them go at the end of the day.

One time my sister decided that it would be a good idea to attach a string around a horny toad’s neck so she could take it for walks. All I can say is that it didn’t go well.

My best friend, Marianne, was also a horny toad lover. She had one she decided to keep for a while and named it Roger. I hope she was feeding it red ants! She kept it in a cardboard box and made holes in the sides so that he could see out.

One day, Roger’s head got caught in one of the holes, and Marianne frantically called me, the horny toad whisperer. (We had to ask to use the phone back then, so this was a big deal.) She said that Roger was stuck in a hole in its box, and she didn’t know what to do, so I promptly got on my bike (this was way too much of an emergency to walk two blocks) to see if I could help. Of course, neither of us considered making the hole larger, so I just worked with him until he was disengaged. So traumatic for all three of us. Roger was breathing heavily.

With one catch, I let them go in our backyard, hoping they’d resettle. But horny toads don’t like grass lawns. There are no red ants there! However, they all got out except one, which unfortunately ended up in the yardman’s lawnmower. I was crushed, but not as much as the horny toad.

I was about ten on my worst horny toad day. Their horns, their coloring that matches the earth, and their ability to make themselves look bigger than they are are all defense mechanisms. But the most interesting tool they have at their disposal is their ability to shoot blood from their eyes up to five feet away! This tactic startles and confuses predators — and humans, too.

So on this day, I was on my way home with the only horny I had found when — bloody hell! It squirted me! Maybe it was one I had caught before and wasn’t having it. My instinct was to drop it and run home crying to Mom.

Horny toads will be horny toads.

Carol Lennox reminded me of an aspect of horny toad lore I had almost forgotten. They love having their bellies rubbed! They are very soft and smooth, and the hornies almost always close their eyes while being massaged — maybe if I had just rubbed the bloody horny’s belly.

I see quite a few horny toads in New Mexico, mainly in the southern two-thirds of the state. Perhaps they have migrated here because of the fire ant problem. Fire ants don’t like cold weather, and it gets cold in the high desert. I might chase them, but that’s only to catch a better picture. Since Sunday Bloody Sunday, I have left them alone to do their horny toad thing.