Digger Wasp

Well at least that is my ID if I am wrong please let me know >> It was seemingly patroling an area close to a hole that I must assume is it's nest It is over one inch long and quite formidable looking..

My ID suggest a Philanthus gibbosus according to bug files

Grits, this is a Cicada Killer Wasp, and as the name implies, it hunts and stuns Cicadas with it's stinger. It then drags the still alive but coma-stricken Cicada back to it's hole where it will tuck it into a chamber and deposit an egg on it, then seal the chamber up and let the developing larva feed on the Cicada.

Dale Clark
Dallas County Lepidopterists' Society
www.dallasbutterflies.com

Poor cicadas! I would like to see one in action. Not sure I have ever noticed one around here but will look for them now.
C

Dale, I'm so happy to have you around here to id all of our mystery bugs!

Thanks Dale ,patti had also corrected me on another e mail thing we share news on so now it is back to bug files to fix my Boo Boo

Dale do they ever feed on anything else as it is just a tad early for the Cicadas here ,I don't think I have heard any yet..

After saying I had not heard any Cicadas last evening they were singing up a storm and today I notice several more circling in my garden ..I wonder if they like it because there is a good bit of bare undisturbed ground and I am seeing lots of those holes (like in the pic) anyway just one more fun thing about gardening...

Cicada Killer Wasps are beautiful and fun to watch zoom around the yard. Last year they were thick but so far this year I've only seen a couple.

Carla

Ok this is off topic but I have seen wasp like insects that look like they have a helmet on and that carry away bees. Am I drinking too much or is there such a creature. I thought they were interesting til I saw one grab a bee.
C

I was sitting in the garden picking beans, when a cicada killer started buzzing me. It was darting back and forth around my head, freaking me out! I thought it was going to attack me, turns out, I had set my chair over its hole. lol

Newton, that sounds like a Robber Fly.

I have lots of these holes but the wasps that live in mine look different. Mine are mostly black with black wings.

lol drunken entomology

I would definately take that class. Did not see it offered in college, sadly. Robber fly huh, will have to look those up.

Yes, they were robber flies. Haven't seen them yet and hopefully I won't. Thanks for the ID.
C

I bet the fast striped flyer I am seeing buzzing around is the Cicada Killer Wasp, going to see if I can watch for it to land to id.

Sheila, I'm exactly sure how big they are, but guessing at least 1 1/2, to 2 inches long. I don't have any other wasp that enormous. If your first instinct is scream and run for the hills...no ID needed, it's a cicada killer.lol

Scream and run for the hills ... so true, Lulu!! But they are completely harmless (unless provoked ... and even then you have to really provoke them to even make them pay any attention to you). And anything that goes after Cicadas is a good thing in my book. I liken them to little fighter jets and enjoy watching them patrol around my flowerbeds.

Carla

Since first posting this thread the numbers of the Cicada killer Wasp in my garden have increased in a dramatic fashion and each generation seems larger am I imagining this or is it right ..DW has done some reading on this and said that the males do not even have a stinger .is this true ???

No clue, but interesting tho. Do the males not hunt?

A friend just brought me another Texas biggie bug..a hercules beetle! It's dead, but very cool. I'll try to get a photo soon.

Ok, grits, cadykillers and mosquitoes, the females are as dangerous as the rest of the feminine world? Chuckl

Now now...

We had our own scare this week with wasp. We sat down in chairs just a couple feet from the cooker and at eye level with the nest. These were killed...no questions asked!

I can understand that, Sheila. Those nasties will sting you.

Carla

It is time to prowl the edges aroun the house ESP if lil ones are out for those overnight nests of pain, careful reaching under lids and walking up to things, cuz I would bet money those yellow jackets,ground hornets, and wasps are going to start getting meaner, and more numerous now. Honest guys- I am up in Ks/Ms area at the moment and the dust and sun are depressing me, I would swear it I'd August already!

Yikes, good riddens to them, Sheila! They do seem to be gaining, after a slow start this spring. I keep them knocked down around the house, however they out sneak me by building nest in my plants. I really hate that!

I was cutting back some tree sized privet shrubs of my neighbors once, up on a ladder and cut back some limbs and came face to face with a nest. Quickest decent from a ladder I ever made! I didn't realize until then that they made nests in plants.

I have heard tales of paper wasp nests as large as 'cars' these hunters run up onto in the woods down here, be careful guys

Oh sure, and we all know hunters and fishermen never exaggerate.lol
This year they have been building under my winter squash leaves. I have lots of dill and parsley in those beds. They are staking themselves out and poaching my desirable caterpillars. The joke is on them, I can cut a vine long enough to drag away the nest and never get near it.

I do not have any of the yellow paper wasp but I do have a lot of the big red wasp,one of those stung DW last fall and it took over a month to heal ..I guess diabetics and wasp should not inhabit the same house..

yup, red wasps are haunting my hummer feeder, and we're killing constantly, daubers, too, actually the paper wasps (ground hornets) they have a few pix of the sizes of nests in the museum in Huntsville, and they are definitely sobering size, were as bad as the wild hog and javelina running loose around em...poor DW, everything is hard on diabetics- she has my sympathies.

All I needed was a copperhead wrapped around it for a triple threat. Any volunteers to take care of this for me?

Long range spray! Chemicals can be so nice...

LOL Yeah, all my organic philosophies are out the window with this mess!

Well, at least you won't douse em with gasoline! Smoke em tho, like a bee, if you want to just run em off, I believe that will work.

Cocoa- Even I would run for chemicals after seeing that!

I have all of the above here at the "ranch". Tidied up several pot plants yesterday and they were filled with HUGE grasshoppers. Now I know what is eating on all the greenery. I caught them and stomped on them. Anyone know of a safe deterrent?

Grasshoppers, really cold weather, they are hard to kill. Can you birdnet the most important stuff?

Ooh Coco...nasty nest and inhabitants. I see in the first picture there is a chrysalis of a butterfly that has been emptied looks like too.