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Cicada Killer Wasp

Common Name	Scientific Name
Cicada Killer Wasp Giant Cicada Killer  Sand Hornet	Sphecius speciosus (Drury)

Although female Cicada Killer Wasps rarely sting unless disturbed, homeowners may become alarmed or frightened because of their very large size (nearly two inches) and foraging habits in unwanted areas. These solitary wasps may become a nuisance when they dig holes in lawns, sand base volleyball courts, flower beds, gardens, and golf course sand traps, kicking out a six to eight inch diameter horseshoe-shaped pile of dirt (mound) around the nest entrance. Males have especially aggressive territorial behavior, but have no sting. Females are difficult to provoke, can sting, but rarely do. The female wasps are not aggressive and control is rarely needed except in unwanted places. Adults appear in mid to late summer (July and August) causing special concern to individuals with young children.

Identification: The adult cicada killer is a very large (1-1/8 to 1-5/8 inches long), robust wasp with a black body marked with yellow across the thorax (middle part) and on the first three abdominal (rear part) segments. The head and thorax are rusty red and the wings russet yellow (brownish). Legs are yellowish. Coloration may resemble yellowjacket wasps.

Life Cycle and Habits: Solitary wasps (such as a cicada killer) are very different than the social wasps (hornets, yellowjackets and paper wasps). Cicada killer females use their sting to paralyze their prey (cicadas) rather than to defend their nests. The female wasps are non-aggressive and rarely sting unless touched, caught in clothing, disturbed by lawn equipment, etc. Though males aggressively defend nesting sites, they have no sting. Adults feed on flower nectar and sap exudates.
   These wasps are commonly seen in late summer skimming around the lawn, shrubs and trees searching for cicadas. Cicadas are captured, paralyzed by a sting and used for food to rear their young. After stinging a large cicada, the female wasp drags it up a tree, straddles it and takes off toward the burrow, partly gliding. When trees are not available, the cicada (prey) is dragged to the burrow on the ground. Cicadas are very large insects, sometimes called "locusts." They sing loudly (noisily) in trees during late summer. Overwintering occurs as a mature larva within a leathery, brown cocoon in an earthen cell. Pupation occurs in the spring lasting 25 to 30 days. Adult wasps emerge about the first week in July in Ohio. Emergence continues throughout the summer months. Adults live about 60 to 75 days (mid-July to mid-September) while they dig new nesting holes (burrows) in full sun where vegetation is sparse in light, well-drained soils. Eggs are deposited in late July through August. Eggs hatch in one to two days and larvae complete their development in 4 to 14 days. There is only one generation per year.

Burrows & Nests: There may be many individuals flying over a lawn, but each female digs her own burrow six to ten inches deep and one-half inch wide. (They do not nest together.) The soil is dislodged by her mouth and loose particles are kicked back as a dog would dig. The excess soil thrown out of the burrow forms a U-shaped mound at the entrance, causing unsightly mounds of earth on the turf. This ground-burrowing wasp may be found in sandy soils to loose clay in bare or grass covered banks, berms, hills as well as raised sidewalks, driveways and patio slabs. Some may nest in planters, window boxes, flower beds, under shrubs, ground cover, etc. Nests usually are made in the full sun where vegetation is sparse, especially in well-drained soils. Occasionally they establish in golf course sand traps. (A very gravelly or bare area is preferred.)
   Cicada Killer Wasps may tunnel as much as six inches deep and another six inches horizontally. At the end of the burrow are usually three to four cells where one to two cicadas are placed in each cell with one egg. If all the cells are filled, secondary tunnels are constructed and provisioned. A single burrow may eventually have 10 to 20 cells.

Yellowjacket Wasps

Common Name	Scientific Name
German Yellowjacket	Paravespula germanica (Linnaeus)
Eastern Yellowjacket	Paravespula maculifrons (Buysson)
Common Yellowjacket	Paravespula vulgaris (Linnaeus)

Yellowjacket wasps often become a nuisance in Ohio, especially from August through October, as they build up in large populations and scavenge for human food (carbonated beverages, cider, juices, ripe fruits and vegetables, candy, ice cream, fish, ham, hamburgers, hot dogs, etc.) at picnics, cookouts, outside restaurants, bakeries, campsites, fairs, sports events and other outdoor get-togethers. Many are attracted in large numbers to garbage cans and other trash receptacles. Others fly in and out of nests built around homes, buildings and areas where people live, work and play, causing fear and alarm. Although yellowjackets are considered quite beneficial to agriculture since they feed abundantly on harmful flies and caterpillars, it is their boldness (sometimes aggressiveness) and painful stinging ability that cause most concern. Nevertheless, unless the threat of stings and nest location present a hazard, it is often best to wait for Mother Nature, with freezing temperatures in late November and December, to kill off these annual colonies. Stinging workers do not survive the winter and the same nest is not reused.

Identification: A typical yellowjacket worker is about 1/2-inch long, short and blocky, with alternating black and yellow bands on the abdomen while the queen is larger, about 3/4-inch long. (The different black and yellow patterns on the abdomen help separate various species.) Workers are sometimes confused with honey bees, especially when flying in and out of their nests. Yellowjackets, in contrast to honey bees, are not covered with tan-brown dense hair on their bodies and lack the flattened hairy hind legs used to carry pollen. Yellowjackets have a lance-like stinger without barbs and can sting repeatedly whereas honey bees have a barbed stinger and sting only once. Some have yellow on the face. Mouthparts are well-developed for capturing and chewing insects with a tongue for sucking nectar, fruit and other juices. Nests are built in trees, shrubs or in protected places such as inside human-made structures (attics, hollow walls or flooring, in sheds, under porches and eaves of houses), or in soil cavities, mouse burrows, etc. Nests are made from wood fiber chewed into a paper-like pulp.

Life Cycle and Habits: Yellowjackets are social wasps living in colonies containing workers, queens and males. Colonies are annual with only inseminated queens overwintering. Fertilized queens occur in protected places as hollow logs, in stumps, under bark, in leaf litter, in soil cavities and human-made structures. Queens emerge during the warm days of late April or early May, select a nest site and build a small paper nest in which eggs are laid. After eggs hatch from the 30 to 50 brood cells, the queen feeds the young larvae for about 18 to 20 days. Larvae pupate, emerging later as small, infertile females called workers. By mid-June, the first adult workers emerge and assume the tasks of nest expansion, foraging for food, care of the queen and larvae, and colony defense. From this time until her death in the autumn, the queen remains inside the nest laying eggs. The colony then expands rapidly reaching a maximum size of 4,000 to 5,000 workers and a nest of 10,000 to 15,000 cells in August and late September. At peak size, reproductive cells are built with new males and queens produced. Adult reproductives remain in the nest fed by the workers. New queens build up fat reserves to overwinter. Adult reproductives leave the parent colony to mate. After mating, males quickly die while fertilized queens seek protected places to overwinter. Parent colony workers dwindle, usually leaving the nest and die, as does the foundress queen. Abandoned nests rapidly decompose and disintegrate during the winter. Nests inside structures will persist as long as they are dry. Nests are not used again. In the spring, the cycle is repeated. (Weather in the spring is the most important factor in colony establishment.) Although adults feed primarily on items rich in sugars and carbohydrates (fruits, flower nectar and tree sap), the larvae feed on proteins (insects, meats, fish, etc.). Adult workers chew and condition the meat fed to the larvae. Larvae in return secrete a sugar material relished by the adults. (This exchange of material is known as trophallaxis.) In late autumn, foraging workers (nuisance scavengers) change their food preference from meats to ripe, decaying fruits since larvae in the nest fail to meet requirements as a source of sugar.
   In 1975, the German yellowjacket first appeared in Ohio and has now become the dominant species over the Eastern yellowjacket. It is bold, aggressive and, if provoked, can sting repeatedly and painfully. The German yellowjacket builds a grey, brittle, papery soccer or football shaped nest in structures with the peak worker population between 1,000 to 3,000 individuals between May to November. The Eastern yellowjacket builds a tan, fragile papery soccer or football shaped nest underground with the peak worker population between 1,000 to 3,000 individuals between May to November similar to the Common yellowjacket. Nests are built entirely of wood fiber (usually weathered or dead) and are completely enclosed (football or soccer shaped) except for a small opening (entrance) at the bottom. The nest may be located below the soil or aerial with the paper envelope covering containing multiple, horizontal tiers of combs (10 or more) within. Larvae hang down in combs.

Nuisance Parasitic Wasps

Occasionally certain parasitic wasps may become a nuisance when found in homes or simply cause concern when single individuals are found. Homeowners may confuse these insects with winged ants, stinging wasps, or other household/structural pests, causing much alarm. Actually nuisance parasitic wasps are very beneficial to humans since they parasitize many different kinds of harmful insect pests. They live outdoors and are usually accidental indoor invaders, often attracted to lights. They cause no harm to humans, pets, structures, possessions or crops. However, some Ichneumon wasps can sting severely when mishandled.

Ichneumon Wasps

Adults vary in size from 1/8 to 1-1/2 inches with long, many-segmented antennae and long, slender bodies. Females have long ovipositors (egg laying tubes), the longest of which is six times the body length. Legs are long and slender.

The long-tailed Megarhyssa is the largest ichneumon wasp in Ohio and recognized by three, long, hairlike parts of the ovipositor (up to five inches long) on females. This wasp is about one inch or more, reddish-brown, slightly marked with black and red with brown spots in the wings. Megarhyssa atrata (Fab.) measures 1-1/2 inches with the body and wings black while the head and most of the legs are yellow. These insects parasitize the larvae of pigeon tremex or horntails.

Campoletis argentifrons (Cress.) are only about 1/8 inch long, black-bodied (except outer half of abdomen which is reddish-brown) and are important parasites of cutworms and the corn earworm.

Bathyplectes curculionis is about 1/16 inch long with a black, robust body. Females lay eggs in alfalfa weevil larvae (only host). Wasp larva that hatches from the egg feed internally, slowly devouring the weevil larva. This parasitoid, not available commercially, occurs virtually everywhere in alfalfa fields.

Ophion spp. are most common with yellow or brownish bodies and the abdomen slender in front, arches, compressed from side to side, ovipositor short and body length 5/6 inch long. They are common in May (late spring) and are attracted to lights. They parasitize certain caterpillars and white grubs. If handled carelessly, the ovipositor can penetrate the skin much like a pin prick.

Gambrus nuncius (Say) are about 5/16 inch long, reddish-black (basal half of abdomen reddish and rest black with a whitish yellow mark at the tip in females). The first segment of the male abdomen is black. This parasite attacks caterpillars of swallowtail butterflies.

Braconid Wasps

Adults are relatively small which measure about 1/16 inch long, more stout-bodied than ichneumon wasps with the abdomen almost as long as the head and thorax combined. The abdomen is always short (not compressed at the sides) and the ovipositors are usually shorter than the body. They are attracted to lights and flowers.

Cremnops vulgaris (Cress.) is about 5/16 inch long with the head, antennae, wings and parts of the legs and space on the back, between the hind wings, shining black. The rest of the body is reddish-brown or orange. This species is common and a parasite of the garden webworm.

Chelonus texanus Cress. is about 3/16 inch long, clear winged, black-bodied, legs alternately black and brownish with a brown spot on each side forward of the abdomen. Wing veins are yellowish brown with a black stigma. It is common in alfalfa.

Lysiphlebus testaceipes (Cresson) is 1/16 inch long, shining black, smooth thorax, brownish-black abdomen and honey-yellow petiole (narrow forward part of abdomen) with 13 segmented antennae in females and 14 in males. It is an important parasite of aphids such as corn leaf aphid, greenbug, melon and cabbage aphid. Females deposit a single egg in an aphid with the young parasite devouring the internal tissue, causing the aphid to become brown, swollen and attached to a leaf. Later, the parasite emerges through a circular opening in the aphid.

Apanteles congregatus (Say) are less than 1/8 inch long, black colored with yellowish legs and clear wings. This tiny wasp parasitizes cutworms, tomato hornworms and other kinds of caterpillars. Cottony masses of white cocoons, frequently found on the ground in hay or grain fields, are erroneously believed to be "eggs." Often parasitized tomato hornworms are seen covered with numerous white cocoons.

A. militaris (Walsh) are slightly larger, legs are brown, cocoons white with a brownish tinge and are important armyworm parasites.

Bracon gelechiae Ashm. are about 1/16 inch long with the head and thorax black marked with yellow, abdomen dull black (rough-surfaced) with yellow, parasitizes the strawberry leafroller, eastern tent caterpillar and other moth larvae.

Chalcid Wasps

Adults are nearly all very small, with some quite minute, measuring 1/64 to 5/16 inch long with fewer wing veins than most other wasps and wings are not folded when at rest. Some have clear wings and others no wings at all. Antennae are elbowed with up to 13 segments and the hind femora of the legs are much swollen in some species.

Brachymeria ovata (Say), between 3/16 to 1/4 inch long, black and yellow bodied (hind femora black with a white or yellow spot at the tips), abdomen globular-shaped, surface smooth, parasitizes the strawberry leaf roller and other hairy caterpillars.

Trichogramma minutum Riley about 1/64 inch long, wings are fringed with hairs, yellow-brownish abdomen and pink eyes, parasitizes eggs of many insect pests such as the cotton bollworm, spruce budworm, corn earworm and southern cornstalk borer. Trichogramma wasps sold commercially are parasites of cabbleworm, tomato hornworm, corn earworm, codling moth, cutworm, armyworm, webworm, cabble looper, corn borer and almost all moth and butterfly eggs that hatch into worm pests.

Females lay from one to fifty eggs which are deposited in a single host egg (25 at a time, depending on host size). Host eggs turn black with the newly hatched wasp larva moving within the host egg, killing the embryo. Larvae hibernate in the host egg with the number of broods varying from 13 to 50, depending on climate.

Aphelinus mali are about 1/15 inch long, dark brown to black with the base of the abdomen yellow, legs and antennae partly yellow. One or more eggs are deposited in the body of an aphid, but only one develops into a mature wasp. Larvae, as an internal parasite, consumes all but the skin. Body juices ooze from the aphid, gluing it to the twig. Aphid shells become black and mummified. Pupation occurs in the host with the adult emerging by cutting a hole in the top of the "mummy." The life cycle is about 30 days. Hosts include woolly apple aphids, cabbage aphids, greenbug, rose aphids and other aphids.

Evaniid Wasp

Adults are about 1/4 to 1/3 inch long, but differ from other wasps in having the abdomen attached near the top part of the thorax instead of down below. The abdomen is very small and carried almost like a "flag." These wasps are entirely black or black and red, clothed with a fine pubescence. They are parasitic in the egg capsules of cockroaches. Wasp eggs are deposited in the roach egg capsules before they harden. One egg is inserted within one roach egg in the single capsule. The larva feeds within a single egg and later, as it matures, attacks other roach eggs within the capsule.
 
 
 
 

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Ohio State University Extension Fact Sheet