As the Crow Flies Cicada Killer In Action
By Doug Pifer
While out dog walking, I glanced at our backyard apple tree and saw a big wasp flying towards a low-growing, lichen-covered branch. Something dropped heavily to the ground, and I walked over to investigate. I wondered, had the wasp knocked a small ripening apple out of the tree? In the tall grass under the apple tree an exciting drama was taking place. The giant wasp was a female cicada killer, and I had just seen her capture a cicada and drop to the ground with it.
By the time I reached the spot where they had fallen, the wasp had wrestled the cicada onto its back. The cicada had been buzzing and beating its wings madly but was now motionless in the deadly embrace of the big wasp. The two insects were belly to belly. The wasp clutched the cicada in a vise grip, holding its wings down tightly while stinging it repeatedly in the abdomen. So intent was the wasp on her task, she seemed unaware of anything else. It was a colorful battle, as if between two miniature plastic superhero toys. The wasp’s yellow spotted, black abdomen and bright orange head and legs contrasted against the white underbelly and green-veined wings of the cicada.
I was sorry I didn’t have my cell phone camera with me to take a picture. Holding the dog firmly by the collar, I was barely able to restrain him from breaking up the battle. The wasp seemed to sense our struggle and briefly flew away, leaving the cicada motionless on its back. Soon it returned and began to drag the cicada away through the tall grass.
I decided to leave the wasp to complete her work. She probably would drag her stunned prey far enough up the trunk of the nearby tree so she could fly away with it.
Cicada killers are a species of digger wasps that appear here in late summer when cicadas
start singing their buzzing songs in the trees. Although big and scary looking, cicada killers are shy and spend most of their time sipping nectar from flowers.
The female wasps find a bare, dry spot, usually a sandy bank, garden border or other open area with loose soil, where they dig shallow burrows. Sometimes several females share a burrow or dig burrows close to each other. Burrow entrances are about the diameter of a man’s index finger, and active ones have a trough of loose soil leading up to the entrance. Meanwhile, groups of male cicada killers wait nearby to mate with the females as they emerge above ground.
Inside her freshly dug burrow, the female lays several eggs. Meanwhile she hunts down cicadas, which she paralyzes by stinging. She drags the cicadas into the burrow, where they remain alive, immobile, and unable to escape. Soon the eggs hatch, and the wasp larvae have a fresh, live food supply.
Cicada killers are big. Females are nearly two inches long, males about an inch and a half. Females have a sting but aren’t aggressive as other wasps are. Males sometimes act aggressive but are unable to sting. Captured males may “pretend” to sting with the reproductive organ at the end of their abdomen but they can’t pierce human skin.
I occasionally see a cicada killer in the flower gardens. But watching one kill a cicada in the backyard is a once in a lifetime treat.
