random reptile: hanging by a threadsnake

August 6, 2026

Threadsnakes are (get this) snakes, in the family Leptotyphlopidae, and are also called blind snakes. They are very tiny, usually not exceeding 12 inches, and look like small earthworms. Upon closer inspection, they are not worms because they have tiny dot eyes (as if drawn on by pencil) and a mouth with a jaw!

They barely have much of a mouth, with the upper jaws being immobile and without any teeth. They're found pretty on pretty much every continent except for Australia but are difficult to see because they're so small and fossorial (live mostly underground). Because they have to burrow a lot, the head is blunt and the skull is thick.







What does something with such a small mouth eat? There are no vegetarian snakes and the threadsnake is no exception - it eats almost exclusively ants and termites, including their larvae and eggs.

All of them are nonvenomous, so you can totally pick them up and give them a lil smooch. Their tail ends in a little bit of a point, and they'll try to stab you with it to scare you into dropping it - but it can't hurt you. A lot of insects without stingers will do this, to trick you.

Are threadsnakes blind? No, we don't think so. They still have visible eyes but these are very reduced and actually are positioned beneath the clear head scales, so if they can see at all, then they can't see very well. The eyes are most likely for sensing light and dark. For something that lives underground, it probably doesn't rely on vision very much.







At least one of them can live as deep as 20 meters (66 ft), where it will invade ant nests. The scales are smooth and tightly packed together, so the ants can't come in and bite or sting them. Threadsnakes will also secrete something chemical on their skin that seems to suppress ant aggression, which is insane.

Like other snakes, they lay eggs, and the females usually watch over and incubate them. Several threadsnakes may share a nest site. Weirdly, all of them glow under a UV light (a black light) - a lot of animals can do this, for some reason.

Threadsnakes + owls: BFFs?

One threadsnake species in the US has been observed exhibiting commensal behavior with the eastern screech owl, where the snake lives in the owl's nest and helps keep it free of parasites. Apparently the owl will catch snakes and bring them back to the nest intentionally alive, which sounds fake but is apparently true and has been observed since the 1980s. Sometimes the owlets would eat the threadsnakes, but mostly the snakes could live in the bottom of the nest for a few days.

This commensalism was portrayed in the animated movie The Guardians of Ga'hoole, which is about talking owls. The main character owl has a maid-like character that is a threadsnake, although she is designed more like an actual snake. Guess it's hard to make threadsnakes as animated characters (fair).








So of course I went on a tangent and looked into further studies of this, and found this one from 2026 (!) - "Association of nesting Otus scops (Eurasian Scops Owl) with Xerotyphlops vermicularis (worm snake) in Türkiye".

This study is the only other evidence we have found of threadsnake associations with owls, and it was found on another continent. It looked at the worm snake Xerotyphlops vermicularis and the Eurasian scops owl (Otus scops) in Turkey. Multiple nest boxes for the owls were set up and researchers monitored them throughout their usage. Surprisingly, they found threadsnakes in 44% of the owl nests monitored, and not in any other birds' nests. Owls had an average of 1.1 threadsnakes per nest box. When owls brought other prey, including other reptiles, to the nest, the prey was already dead. Not true for the threadsnakes.







Although, the snakes probably can't get back out of the nest box once they're in it (it's like a wooden box with an opening near the top). So presumably they can't breed and reproduce? So it's like a dead end for the snake.

I wonder if researchers could put small holes in the bottom, for the snakes to get out of? Anyway, it's awesome to see this weird behavior validated across species.

Another question: how are the owls even finding them?? They're rarely above ground. They come out sometimes after a rain, is that when the owls are getting them?

The flowerpot snake:

Here is one other interesting threadsnake: The flowerpot snake (cute name), is from Asia and Africa, and is well-known because human activity has spread it all over the place, especially to islands. It is named from its tendency to be found in the soil of flowerpots. It's unique because it is parthenogenic and can reproduce without needing a male. The species is entirely female, with the offspring produced being clones of the mother. This has allowed the flowerpot snake to spread to new areas very easily, because you only need one to start reproducing.

The flowerpot snake has some weird things going on genetically - the species is triploid, having three copies of each chromosome (humans have two copies). Maybe that is a discussion for another day, though.

I have never seen a threadsnake in my life, which is unfortunate because I would really like to. I think I'll add it to my 'life list' as a herper.

Sources:

Elif Göçer, David H Johnson, C Can Bilgin, Al Vrezec, Association of nesting Otus scops (Eurasian Scops Owl) with Xerotyphlops vermicularis (worm snake) in Türkiye, Ornithology, Volume 143, Issue 1, January 2026, Pages 1–8, https://doi.org/10.1093/ornithology/ukaf054