# Does anyone stage insect death matches? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [May 6, 2005, 4:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-stage-insect-death-matches/302643 "2005-05-06T04:14:19Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Scissorjack](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c67d28/32.png) [@Scissorjack](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scissorjack)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2005, 1:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-stage-insect-death-matches/302643/21 "2005-05-07T01:25:03Z")
With little Cricket bats. ---
**Author:** ![pool](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pool/32/4152_2.png) [@pool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pool)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2005, 1:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-stage-insect-death-matches/302643/22 "2005-05-07T01:58:33Z")
I’ve heard that if you scoop a hunk out of an ant hill nd just drop it on another the two opposing sides will duke it out. ---
**Author:** ![caligynephobia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/7feea3/32.png) [@caligynephobia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/caligynephobia)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2005, 2:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-stage-insect-death-matches/302643/23 "2005-05-07T02:23:01Z")
Ooh, ooh. Down in Texas when I was younger we’d find these conical indentations in the sand (kind of like **mza662** describes) where we knew we would find little critters we called ant lions. Throwing an ant into one of these pits they would get stuck and if they didnt’ kick too much sand to the bottom before falling there, would get snatched by the ant lions and sucked under the sand. This was good for betting. The next level was to actually catch an ant lion by scooping up a bunch of the sand at the bottom of the pit and spilling it - the sand that was still squirming was the ant lion. We’d push that ant lion into another ant lion pit and if we were lucky, we got two ant lions to battle it out. A little tougher to bet on. ---
**Author:** ![Imbrium](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/13edae/32.png) [@Imbrium](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Imbrium)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2005, 4:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-stage-insect-death-matches/302643/24 "2005-05-07T04:46:50Z")
> [@Madd Maxx](#): > > I was thinking about buying 64 Betta’s (Siamese Fighting Fish) and a web cam, then putting on a NCAA tournament style gladiator death match to be broadcast live on the internet. Two fish enter, one fish leaves; Fin to fin combat, people would pay money to see that right? PETA might be a problem, but I’ll tell them it’s just computer generated like Toy Story. If you do this, please get real fighters and not big-finned pretty-boy fish. And maybe not fight them to the death, but just until one chickens out and runs (swims?) away. I’m pretty sure PETA wouldn’t care. [First Blood Bettas](http://www.firstbloodbettas.com/) I’d love to get a few. I’m not sure if I would really fight them though. ---
**Author:** ![Snooooopy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ee7513/32.png) [@Snooooopy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snooooopy)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2005, 7:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-stage-insect-death-matches/302643/25 "2005-05-07T07:45:39Z")
> [@China Guy](#): > > ancient china mynass, it’s the national sport of shanghai. neighborhods will rumble over the outcome. seriously its a huge hobby. my 5 year old raises crickets for fighting. How are the combatants identified? Do the owners sew cute little outfits for them? Maybe a nice cape or something? ---
**Author:** ![lizardling](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f4b2a3/32.png) [@lizardling](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lizardling)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2005, 8:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-stage-insect-death-matches/302643/26 "2005-05-09T20:07:06Z")
Anyone else thinking of the novella [_Sandkings_](http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B00005TZWI/qid=1115669579/sr=2-1/ref=pd_bbs_b_2_1/002-0618670-8269619) by George RR Martin? 😃 [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-anyone-stage-insect-death-matches/302643.md?page=1)