
The Bugs of Fallout: Wasteland Entomology Part 1
Welcome to the bug section! The title is a little misleading, I know. Fallout games are a bit on the buggy side, especially the modern ones. But as part of my exploration of the science of the Fallout series, I wanted to cover some wasteland entomology.
Why? There’s a lot of them. Insects are a common enemy around the wasteland. Most of them are fairly weak, but some can get the better of you. Insects are a vital part of our ecosystem, and there are billions and billions of them.
It’s often said that cockroaches will survive a nuclear blast, and they do have higher resistance to radiation than humans. Fallout has embraced this, and included many insect enemies to face off against in the wasteland. So let’s get into some facts and explore wasteland entomology.
Cazadores

One of the most dangerous insects, cazadores are all over the Mojave wasteland, and plague the wastelanders. They have a nasty venom and are fast moving flying enemies. The name ‘cazador’ means hunter in Spanish. Their appearance is distinctive, with a dark green iridescent body and brilliant orange wings.
Cazadores are mutated Tarantula Hawk Wasps (Pepsinae spp.) which are native to the south west of the US. They eat tarantulas, hence the name, and as one of my lovely YouTube commenters informed me, they implant their eggs into tarantulas, so the young can feed when they hatch.
The real world tarantula hawk wasps have an extremely painful sting. The Schmidt Sting Pain Index is a rating system for insect stings, with 1 being the least painful and 4 the most. The tarantula hawk wasp shares grade 4 with the likes of the bullet ant. The pain is intense but short lived, only lasting a few minutes.
Source of the Cazadores
Cazadores did not mutate and evolve naturally. Instead, they came from Big MT. Dr Borous made them in the Z-14 Pepsinae DNA Splicing Lab. He denies the fact that they have escaped and are now breeding all over the place. They have been very successful as a species.
There is a Legendary Cazador in Silver Peak Mine, near Jacobstown in the mountains. It is larger and tougher than the standard cazador. You can find a unique one in the Z-14 lab, known as Specimen 73. Giant cazadores may be encountered in Zion Canyon, in the Honest Hearts DLC. Keep some anti-venom on hand when travelling in New Vegas, in case you encounter these awful creatures.
Those! Ants
Another common insect pest in Fallout is the Giant Ant. These ants are classified as black Carpenter Ants, according to a research terminal from the Enclave. So they are of the genus Camponotus, most likely Camponotus pennsylvanicus.
They are called carpenter ants because they build nests inside wooden structures, both natural and man-made. Unlike termites, they do not eat the wood, instead piling up sawdust outside. They are scavengers, eating whatever they can find, especially sweet liquids like honey and nectar.
One interesting thing these ants do is farm. That’s right, humans are not the only species to have invented agriculture. Carpenter ants farm aphids, protecting them from predators and in exchange, feed on a ‘honeydew’ secretion from the aphids.
Ants use pheromones to communicate and work altruistically, bringing food back to the queen and her drones. They have perfected their team work. They are considered a pest as they can do significant damage to wooden structures.
Giant Ants of Fallout
In the Fallout universe, like all of the insects, the ants have grown in size massively. Worker ants are about the size of a large dog, while the soldier ants are almost the same size as a human. The queens are huge, with an extremely large and pulsating abdomen, so she can keep laying eggs.
They are aggressive, and will attack humans on sight, usually in groups. In Fallout New Vegas, you can see a little set piece where a group of ants have taken down a large radscorpion. The queens can spit acid from range. They are not venomous, at least, but there is a subset of ants that have evolved a unique ability.
Fire Ants
Not to be confused with the actual species of fire ants, I’m talking about giant ants in Fallout that can breathe fire! Visiting Grayditch in DC, or the El Dorado dry lake, you will meet the fire ants. It’s weird that it happened twice.
The Grayditch fire ants are a result of a misguided scientist, Dr Lesko, attempting to restore the ants to their normal size. He cut a few corners and messed with FEV, creating a mutagen that made the ants breathe fire. You need to stop it, during the quest “Those!”. Lesko shows little remorse, even knowing Bryan Wilks lost his father.
The ‘pyrosis’, as Lesko terms it, probably comes from flammable saliva secretion ignited by a spark from the mandibles. Which isn’t completely outside the realm of possibility, as living things can produce flammable substances. Plenty of microbes such as yeast, can produce ethanol, something humans take advantage of.
The Mojave fire ants probably mutated and evolved separately from the DC ones. It’s unclear what caused it, but there’s always a possibility they were exposed to FEV. There are also geckos that can breath fire in the area.
AntAgonizer – The Superhuman Gambit
If you go to Canterbury Commons in the Capital Wasteland, you will see a scene play out between two cosplayers. The AntAgonizer is a comic-book supervillain from Hubris Comics. A woman named Tanya Christoff has adopted her persona, and tamed a bunch of ants. She is now terrorising the town, and fights with the Mechanist. Another wastelander who created a costume from a comic-book character to be a superhero.
The quest, “The Superhuman Gambit” involves dealing with these two people, as they are upsetting the townsfolk. If you ask around, you can learn that she read a lot of comics as a child. Her family were killed by giant ants, and she decided to become the AntAgonizer and tame the ants to do her bidding.
You can get her amazing costume, either by killing her or talking her round. The quest is very interesting, as you can find some information in Hubris Comics related to the AntAgonizer character that helps you resolve this quest peacefully. She’ll stand down and give you her amazing outfit!
Looking for more Wasteland Entomology?
Thanks for reading. This is the first part of the series on Wasteland Entomology. For more and to see these creatures in action, I’ve got some videos on YouTube, you can find them below. Next week we will be covering radroaches and some of the other flying insects, so hopefully you’re looking forward to that.


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