The Nappy Cat Chronicles

Bug of the Day: Eastern Cicada Killer

There are hundreds of these ugly critters living under the sidewalk outside of my apartment. Flying bugs that are two or more inches long–this does not include pigeons–usually make my blood pressure sky rocket. Fortunately though, these chest-grabbingly wonderful creatures target cicadas and not humans:

While they may be frightfully large, female cicada killer wasps are not aggressive and rarely sting unless they are grasped roughly, stepped upon with bare feet, or caught in clothing, etc. One author who has been stung indicates that for them, the stings are not much more than a “pinprick”. Males aggressively defend their perching areas on nesting sites against rival males but they have no sting. Although they appear to attack anything which moves near their territories, male cicada killers are actually investigating anything which might be a female cicada killer ready to mate. Such close inspection appears to many people to be an attack, but the wasps rarely even land on people. If handled roughly females will sting, and males will jab with a sharp spine on the tip of their abdomen. Both sexes appear to be well equipped to bite, as they have large jaws; however, they are unable to grasp human skin and cannot bite. They are non-aggressive towards humans and fly away when swatted at, instead of attacking. Cicada killers exert a natural control on cicada populations and thus may directly benefit the deciduous trees upon which cicadas feed.