It can be disturbing to find a 2-inch wasp in your backyard. It is even more disturbing to find out that wasp has a scary name like cicada killer wasp; but these wasps aren’t nearly as dangerous as you might be led to believe–well, unless you happen to be a cicada. Then, they are dangerous. Very dangerous!

Cicada killer wasps get their name from the fact that they kill cicada bugs. Not only do they kill them, but they also go through great effort to drag the dead cicada bugs back to their homes to feed their young. The entire process is quite fascinating. Female cicada killer wasps dig long tunnels with multiple chambers for holding cicada bugs. When cicadas are brought back to the tunnels they are deposited into the chambers and embedded with the eggs. This is to give the baby wasps something to feed on after they hatch.

Sandboxes, sand traps on golf courses, and other sandy areas are prime nesting places for these insects. They can also be found in gardens, flower beds, lawns, and large grassy areas. When they invade residential yards, they become pests by creating unsightly mounds everywhere and scaring families with their startling size; but, as stinging insects go, the cicada killer wasp isn’t so bad.

Like carpenter bees, the males of this wasp species do not have the ability to sting. They can be quite aggressive if you get near their nesting area, but it is all posturing. They have no way to back up their threats.

The female can sting, but its sting is no worse than that of a paper wasp. These insects are usually considered nuisance pests because of the ability to cause fear, or lawn pests because of their ability to damage the root system of a lawn.

Cicada killer wasps don’t generally pay much attention to humans. The food source for adults is tree sap and the nectar of flowers. Their focus is only on collecting cicada to feed their young; there isn’t much time left in their day to sting you. However, that doesn’t necessarily mean you want to have them around.

If lawn damage and giant wasps buzzing around your home making cicadas sheik in agony as they die is something you can live without, we’d be happy to help you with that. At Russell’s Pest Control we know how to take care of cicada killer wasps and a whole host of other unwelcome pests.

Pests will invade, but you don’t have to live with them. Get protected and stay protect with Russell’s Pest Control.