Here is a picture of a wasp-like wood boring insect. It is boring into a cedar home, much like a carpenter bee, but the holes are much smaller. It is not aggressive and has not stung me. I see no specialized structures on its abdomen. It has 4 wings (one broke off in capturing this specimen).
Thanks. John
This is not a wood-boring insect, it is a potter wasp, Monobia quadridens, a cavity nester that utilizes hollow stems and burrows made by other insects.
http://www.biology.ualberta.ca/bsc/ejournal/bmc_05/39m_quadridens.html
John, we have a page for your mason wasp in BugFiles here: http://davesgarden.com/guides/bf/go/817/
and would be pleased if you would add your picture to that page,
Ken
That appears to be it. I apologize for not responding sooner. I am not familiar with this site and erroneously thought that e-mails were sent when a reply was posted.
Thanks for the help. I will check much more carefully to see if it does any digging into the soft wood (white cedar) of the home. The holes it was going into were much smaller than the holes made by carpenter bees. They approached the wood much as carpenter bees do, but I did not actually observe them chewing on it. The nesting itself does not not create a problem. The problem is when woodpeckers come along and peck out the larvae.
I added Cleveland, OH to the list of locations.
Regards,
John
