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View Full Version : What Kind of Kritter is THIS? - PIC



Dennis Peacock
08-05-2006, 6:16 PM
Well....I was in the shop today working on a project when the LOML and kids came running in the shop hollering sumpin' about a giant wasp flying around the house. I said, ok....so? They said that it was carrying a full grown Kattydid (spelling?). I says....Hummmmmmm.....let me go and see.

I've attached the pic of it before I captured it in a mason jar. I'm trying to find out exactly what breed of wasp or hornet this thing really is. It's about 1-1/2" long with a wing span of almost 3". Anybody got any clues about this Kritter??????

Dennis Peacock
08-05-2006, 6:29 PM
OK....everybody's calmed down now and I've had time to research this kritter....

It's a Cicada killers (Sphecius speciosus). Males do not have a stinger and cannot sting. Females have stingers, but primarily only use them to paralize the Cidada for feeding her babies.

Now that the LOML and kids are back to breathing normally now....I can get back to the shop. :D

Ken Garlock
08-05-2006, 6:29 PM
To me, it looks like a cicada killer. The female is the one that stings, the male just buzzes around you trying to scare you away. They dig holes in the ground for nests. The female finds a cicada and stings it to paralyze it. She then carries it back to the nest, packs it away and lays an egg in/on the cicada. Yep, they are big, about the size of the two end joints of little finger. She has to be big to carry a cicada back to the nest, holding it to her belly.

Ken Garlock
08-05-2006, 6:31 PM
Oh for pete's sakes, Dennis. Here I go to all the trouble to write a post and you already know what it is.;) :) :D

Ernie Nyvall
08-05-2006, 6:35 PM
Yep, the Cicada Killer. Got them around here too.

Dennis Peacock
08-05-2006, 7:05 PM
Oh for pete's sakes, Dennis. Here I go to all the trouble to write a post and you already know what it is.;) :) :D

ROFL!!!!! It's alright Ken....We all need details of identification. LOL....You're a good man Ken....thanks for the additional details. Someone here will also learn about these insects, I know I sure did. ;)

Steve Clardy
08-05-2006, 7:59 PM
Looks like it's got a mean tail on it!:eek:

Don Bergren
08-05-2006, 8:17 PM
Well I was stumped all the way around. I sure didn't know what the giant hornet was, and when I found out what it was I was still left in the dark. I asked myself, "what's a Cicada?" A bit of research told me what it was.

Either I lead a sheltered life, or else we don't have them in my neighborhood. I suspect it's a sheltered life. :o

Frank Hagan
08-05-2006, 8:17 PM
The only thing I would say is RUN! RUN FOR YOUR LIFE! :eek:

I have never seen a giant wasp like that, and I would take no chances. If I wasn't sure I could kill it, I'd run like a mad-man. I'm pretty sure I can outrun my youngest too, so I would probably survive! :)

Dennis Peacock
08-05-2006, 9:21 PM
Well, in all my research on this critter, I found out about the Giant Japanese Hornet. It's sting can be very deadly AND the venom it injects can dissolve human flesh.!!!! :eek: Now THAT baby is one I hope I never get to meet.!

Ben Grunow
08-05-2006, 9:43 PM
Ever see a borer bee? They look like that and drill perfectly round holes through wood (decks, houses etc.) leaving little piles of sawdust wherever they go. I have seen some holes about 5/8" form these suckers! Mother nature is cool.

Don Baer
08-05-2006, 10:31 PM
Rub .... Forest... Run

Corey Hallagan
08-05-2006, 10:35 PM
My local county office told me that they were pretty much blind, that is why they fly up so close to you and then vere off. Darn things look like a small cessna when flying around!!

Corey

Jim Becker
08-05-2006, 11:07 PM
I believe the air force calls them BUFFs... Big Ugly Flying Fellows... :D

Jim O'Dell
08-05-2006, 11:17 PM
Well I was stumped all the way around. I sure didn't know what the giant hornet was, and when I found out what it was I was still left in the dark. I asked myself, "what's a Cicada?" A bit of research told me what it was.

Either I lead a sheltered life, or else we don't have them in my neighborhood. I suspect it's a sheltered life. :o

If I'm right, it's what we call locust here in Texas. Come in green and brown varieties. Shed their skins on the bark of trees and sides of buildings, leaving a hard shell that is split down the back for them to get out. I guess it's possible that the brown ones are about to shed their skins, and the green ones are the freshly hatched ones. Anyone know?? Not too hard to catch. Make grasshoppers and krickets sound like they are asleep!! But it is the sounds of summer from when I grew up. If you are in a lawn chaise or hammock relaxing, they are your ticket to a nice summer nap. Jim.

Marty Walsh
08-05-2006, 11:35 PM
If I'm right, it's what we call locust here in Texas. Come in green and brown varieties. Shed their skins on the bark of trees and sides of buildings, leaving a hard shell that is split down the back for them to get out. I guess it's possible that the brown ones are about to shed their skins, and the green ones are the freshly hatched ones. Anyone know?? Not too hard to catch. Make grasshoppers and krickets sound like they are asleep!! But it is the sounds of summer from when I grew up. If you are in a lawn chaise or hammock relaxing, they are your ticket to a nice summer nap. Jim.

Jim,

At the risk of hijacking Dennis' thread, I can tell you something about Cicadas. We still lived in Northern Virginia in 2004 when the "17 Year Cicadas" emerged.

That has to be right up there with one of the weirdest and most disgusting things I've seen to date. Cicadas covered EVERYTHING. You couldn't walk from your car to your house without crunching literally THOUSANDS of the beasts. They were EVERYWHERE!!! And talk about NOISY!!! :eek:

Not to mention, they really put a damper on our fishing in the Potomac River, since the Cicadas where hitting the water faster than we could get lures out. The fish were gorging themselves on the bugs, and simply laughed off our meager bits of plastic and rubber!

Have a peek at http://cicadamania.com for more details.

Dennis, those things are pretty gruesome looking, but we could have used a few hundred thousand of those Cicada killers back then!

Yuck...
- Marty -

Vaughn McMillan
08-06-2006, 4:28 AM
Dennis, two letters, one word:

BB Gun.

- Vaughn

John Shuk
08-06-2006, 9:55 AM
Those suckers (cicada killers) were all over my elementary school playground. I've never even heard of a sting. Big and scary but they are pretty much harmless.

Randy Johnson
08-06-2006, 10:50 AM
It's taken years but my ten years of 4-H entomology are paying off.

"Come in green and brown varieties. Shed their skins on the bark of trees and sides of buildings, leaving a hard shell that is split down the back for them to get out. I guess it's possible that the brown ones are about to shed their skins, and the green ones are the freshly hatched ones. Anyone know?? "

The shells found on trees, bushes, buildings, etc. are what is left after the adult cicada emerges from its nymph stage. Once they emerge as adults they live long enough to reproduce and die. If there are different colors they are probably different subspecies. Around here, except for the 17 year variety, all I've ever seen are the green ones aka annual cicadas.
As big as a cicada killer is, it is still not big enough to fly very far when it's loaded down with a cicada. Kinda like an airplane with the engine out. It has to drag the prey to an elevated location and then fly as long as it can until it hits the ground at which point the process is repeated until the underground nest is reached.
I had over two hundred insects in several display boxes but I never collected a cicada killer. It's probably one of the reasons I find them so interesting.

James Carmichael
08-06-2006, 11:03 AM
If you've ever seen one carry off a cicada, it's quite a sight. The cicada buzzes like a rattlesnake and the wasp looks like a helicopter struggling with a max payload.

Phil Phelps
08-06-2006, 2:45 PM
...is ruin a good golf green by boring holes. They are bad enough at home, but not on the sacred green.

Curt Fuller
08-06-2006, 10:02 PM
We still lived in Northern Virginia in 2004 when the "17 Year Cicadas" emerged.

That has to be right up there with one of the weirdest and most disgusting things I've seen to date. Cicadas covered EVERYTHING. You couldn't walk from your car to your house without crunching literally THOUSANDS of the beasts. They were EVERYWHERE!!! And talk about NOISY!!! :eek:

- Marty -

I had the opportunity to visit Virginia and the Washington DC area in June of 2004 and I have to agree that was the creepiest bug experience I've ever had. But to see a bee/hornet/whatever Dennis's critter is would have sent me into cardiac arrest. I have such a bee/wasp/hornet phobia that I honestly think I'd rather have a 700 lb Grizzly chase me than have something buzz near my ear when I can't see it.

Dennis, seeing the picture of that critter was bad enough, but the size description will probably give me nightmares.

Sparky Paessler
08-07-2006, 11:44 AM
Dennis

I was driving between Knoxville and Nashville a few years ago and stopped at a rest stop on I40. Wife and I took a little walk to streach our legs and were walking on a path across a field when we noticed that it was covered with these Cicada Killers. Looked like thousands of them :eek: . Needless to say we hightailed it back to the car.

Sparky

Todd Burch
08-07-2006, 4:58 PM
A few years ago, we were having a yard sale. Mid morning, I hear this commotion on the pin oak. It was a Cicada Killer with a fresh catch. It was doing a combination of climbing/flying up the tree trunk. I lost sight of it after a while, but could still hear it. Then, as I was looking up, I saw it fly from the top of the tree, on a downward angle. It made it across the street (30 yards?) before it hit the ground, where I presume it repeated the process in my neighbor's yard. Biggest bug-combo I've ever seen. I knew what it was as soon as I saw it. I had read about them in a bug-ID book not that long before. I was amazed that had the opportunity to see what I considered to be a rare sight. The Cicada was probably about as big as my thumb, and the C.K. about half as long and much more skinny.

Todd