Cicadas & Their Killers

You’re probably familiar with cicadas, which are the insects responsible for the rattling buzz that you hear throughout the summer. This one above was spotted by neighbor Donald Loggins on his spiked tomato plant. But do you know about cicada killers?

Cicada killers are digger wasps, and it seems like a pretty busy year for them around here. The females dig nesting holes, and we’ve noticed quite a few of those holes around the neighborhood, and have seen many of the large, formidable looking wasps flying around. People generally have nothing to worry about with them. Though the females can sting, they rarely do, and usually it’s only if they’re provoked. The males are territorial, but generally only against other insects, and they can’t sting.

It’s the cicadas that have more to worry about from these guys. The females capture and paralyze cicadas with a sting, then drag them into their burrow–it can have 10 or more nest cells off the main burrow tunnel. She lays her egg on the cicada and then seals up the nest cell. Once the egg hatches, it feeds on the cicada, and grows underground during the winter months, only to emerge the following summer.