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Photo#215329
what is this in our windowsills - Isodontia

what is this in our windowsills - Isodontia
Michigan, USA
August 18, 2008
Size: larvae
For the last couple of summers, we have watched wasps wiggle blade by blade of grass into the tiny slits above our outside windows and screens. They build these massive lines of grass beds up to 24" across the windows. Dispersed about every 2" are these cocoons that are a pale beige and are about 1" long. Inside is a thin dark red brown coating resembling a wasp wing. I disected one Saturday and this pupae was living in it. We have never seen wasps hatch but the windows do have these light green, almost transparent anorexic cricket-like bugs that seem to drop down when we open the windows. Most of the time they are not alive, but a few have been. We are thinking there is some type of relationship here but cant figure what it might be. I have tried never to disturb them before, but my curiosity has gotten the better of me. If anyone can shed some light please.

Very interesting!
You may want to read about my Isodontia nest. They may be two different species because the nests, although similar in some respects, are very different in others. Also yours became a pupa a lot sooner than mine.

Nice addition!
More info on the genus is found here. I am moving this interesting image to our guide.

 
thank you. i liked the furth
thank you. i liked the further info pages too.

Grass-carrier wasp nest.
Grass-carrier wasps, genus Isodontia, are solitary wasps, each female making her own nest. They use pre-existing cavities, usually in dead wood, the pith of cut stems, etc, but as we collectively clear the landscape of such things, these wasps have taken to using window tracks instead! The "grasshoppers" are either tree crickets (Oecanthus) or small katydids (Conocephalus) that the female wasp paralyzes and stores in the nest as food for her offspring (one of the larvae in this nest is in your image). Grass-carriers are harmless and non-aggressive. You won't get stung unless you actually grab a female (males have no stinger). So, tolerate them if you can.

 
thank you so much. we always
thank you so much. we always try to share our enviornment with all creatures.

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