Cicada "Killers" -can anyone tell me more?

Good description.

If these are what you are seeing, and it sounds like you are...

Here is the Information page and you will find several links to other sites near the bottom of the page.

… Ron M., 9 August, 2008 - 12:04pm

Cicada hunter wasp

Do yours look like the Great Black wasp? http://bugguide.net/node/view/5530/bgimage

Curious, because we have been trying to id a big black / blue wasp that hunts cicadas and lives in the stone walls. They are very threatening, but have not stung ... yet!

… ek321521, 4 August, 2008 - 1:24pm

No, they're not blue & black.

No, they're not blue & black. You must have something else... These are black with yellow stripes, wings are amber color. Some are really huge - 2" long! They leave big piles of dirt from digging their holes & the hole can be an inch diam. or wider.

… rondeau, 8 August, 2008 - 4:54pm

That sounds like them and the

That sounds like them and they do start showing up this time of year in areas with sandy soil. They can sting, but aren't aggressive (according to my prof.) We get them in our horse arena this time of year until frost and they are pretty cool. If you watch them they will dig a little hole and capture and paralize several large insects and return to the same hole, cork it shut and go and make a new one. Each burrow feeds one to a few babies that will grow up to be the next generation. I found that they are extreamly fast and agile and never did capture one in a net or on film for class, but they are awesome to watch.

… Darcie Clements, 4 August, 2008 - 9:55am

we have SO many. They like ou

we have SO many. They like our rock/bolder retaining wall next to the house. You can stand there and watch them carry in the cicadas.
The unfortunate part is what they are doing to the retaining wall. They have dug so much that we are getting areas of yard that are caving in near the wall & rocks.
Any ideas how I could get them to move a little further away from the house? (We live on a couple of acres, next to woods & crop fields)

… rondeau, 4 August, 2008 - 10:34am

sounds like perfict habitat f

sounds like perfict habitat for them. You could try a light dusting of hornet killer. Not enough to like wipe them out but enough to make them unhappy might work. Although I am not really sure or not if that would work. I do that when I want to get nests to move, just annoy them with small amounts of ickies, but I'm not sure if non-hive insects would react the same. Perhaps a speaker from a portable radio or music player facing the ground with the volume turned up? The vibration tends to really annoy and scare off ground burrowing animals of other kinds, maybe enough for the wasp to think the ground is too unstable? Thats all I can think of though.

edit: one more thought, although again I don't know if it would affect these specific insects is to get some fresh cedar shavings and dump them in the area. A lot of insects hate that.

… Darcie Clements, 4 August, 2008 - 10:41am