Big Bad Hornet - Sphecius speciosus

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Home » Guide » Arthropods (Arthropoda) » Hexapods (Hexapoda) » Insects (Insecta) » Ants, Bees, Wasps and Sawflies (Hymenoptera) » Aculeata - Ants, Bees and Stinging Wasps » Apoidea sans Anthophila – Apoid Wasps » Square-headed Wasps, Sand Wasps, and Allies (Crabronidae) » Bembicinae » Sand Wasps (Bembicini) » Spheciina » Cicada-killer Wasps (Sphecius) » Eastern Cicada-killer Wasp (Sphecius speciosus)

Photo#807309

Copyright © 2013 Leon Paul Reyna of Leon Paul Reyna Photography

Big Bad Hornet - Sphecius speciosus

Houston, Harris County, Texas, USA
July 17, 2013
Size: 3 1"4 wide 3" long

So this past Monday evening (July 15th) I decided to grille some beef fajitas (Winning!!!)! So as I was exiting the back of my house I happen to look up just in time to see this big bad dude flying straight for my face in a curled "C" looking position. This bad boy was leading with its stinger!!!! I happen to duck just in time to avoid disaster. You see I am deathly allergic to Bee stings, its soo bad I even have to use an EPI pen. Thankfully this bad bug only buzzed the top of my head. Well it landed on the brick wall in the back of my house just under our porch light. It was buzzing mad I assume because it had been raining a whole lot. Bugs kinda get grumpy just like people. So ignoring my ice cold fear I slapped a tupperware container on it and shimmed in the cover. Boy did this tick it off. It spent several hours trying to sting me through the tupperware. It tried so much that it left venom stains all over the inside! Well I stuck it in the freezer for ten minutes just long enough to numb it up a bit and I then took these pictures. One of them I caught was when its 1/4" long hypodermic looking stinger was pulsating in and out and dripping with venom!!! I decided I was tempting fate tooooo much so I put it back in the tupperware container where it succumbed to its untimely yet joyful death ( cuz remember I am allergic!!!)

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Contributed by L. Reyna on 19 July, 2013 - 5:44pm
Last updated 19 July, 2013 - 6:49pm

Female

Males lack venom so this must be a female.

… Ted Kropiewnicki, 10 September, 2015 - 8:38pm

These solitary wasps look ferocious...

...and they have a long sting (because they paralyze cicadas to feed their young). However, they are neither territorial nor aggressive. Your encounter was merely a coincidence. You'd actually have to grab or step on one of these to get yourself stung.

… Ken Wolgemuth, 19 July, 2013 - 6:57pm

Aggressive? Hmmm

My first hand experience says in this instance you have to be mistaken because either this guy had rabies (I know they can't contract said disease) or like I said it was grumpy from all the rain and little prospects for food. I called a Bee Removal Service locally and they said they can be very serious problem and offered, if I encountered anymore, to remove them for me because of my allergy to bee stings. Also given the recent news that rampant use of pesticides maybe the underlying cause for the great dying off of honey bees then there is no way to gauge how these chemicals are affecting other like species of bees and wasps and other species of insects in whole.

Like I said previously, he flew at me with his but under his face and that huge stinger pointed straight at me. In my book that is about as aggressive as you can get unprovoked.

… L. Reyna, 19 July, 2013 - 11:59pm

Sphecius speciosus - Eastern Cicada Killer

Moved from Cicada Killers.

sorry for the two moves.

… Maury J. Heiman, 19 July, 2013 - 6:49pm

Moved

Moved from ID Request.

… Maury J. Heiman, 19 July, 2013 - 6:48pm

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