It's late July and you walk out into your backyard. Suddenly, you see
what looks like a huge "bee" (pictured above) flying over the surface
of your lawn. What is "that thing" you ask yourself? As you are asking
yourself that question, it disappears down a hole in the ground that
looks like the picture on the right. You have just become acquainted
with a Cicada killer, a member of the wasp family. While they are huge
and terrifying and capable of stinging, they are essentially harmless.
You would have to really work at it to get one to sting you. They prowl
the woods looking for cicadas, which are huge insects about 2" long
(pictured on right). When they find one, they sting it. The sting does
not kill it, but paralyzes it. The cicada killer then picks it up and
carries it back to it's burrow. It drags it down into it's burrow,
which can be 10-12" deep, and lays eggs on it. The eggs hatch into
larva which begin to feed on the paralyzed cicada, literally eating it
alive. Cicada killers prefer sandy soil with sparse grass which makes
digging easy, and usually prefer to burrow into banks and not level
areas. There may be more than one burrow in a given area, but there is
no connection among the various burrows. They are solitary nesters, and
multiple burrows only occur because the habitat is good for them. They
can be treated, but are not harmful, and should just be left alone to
go about their business.
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