Eastern Cicada Killers in Riverside Park

[Tomato]

I didn't have my camera so no pictures, sorry. I was hanging out after class at Riverside Park around 114th street or so, enjoying the sun setting over the Hudson River (and West Side Highway...noisy) and soon find myself among dozens of gigantic (2"+!!) wasps buzzing about. I saw a few of them crawl into their holes, and I saw one of them carrying off a paralyzed cicada. These things look like they could carry their own luggage lol. Quite a sight!! The females are busy this time of year finding cicadas to paralyze and inject with eggs. They will die by the end of summer and their eggs will hatch inside the still living cicada, stored away in the burrow underground. The larva will eat the cicada and emerge some time next summer to mate and repeat cycle. Amazing giants, they are.

-Adam O.

 

[LauraMG]

I would have run screaming like a little girl! Wasps terrify me! Sounds like an interesting sight to see. Thanks for the interesting facts about their life cycle! Very cool!

 

[hibiscusmile]

wow! me too! :wacko:

 

[ismart]

I see them all the time around here. it's crazy watching them carry cicadas to there underground layer! I cant help but feel bad for the paralized cicadas.

 

[Rick]

My neighbor has been going crazy because they are nesting under her deck. I like cicadas so I had no problem taking care of them for her.

 

[Peter Clausen]

Great observation account, Adam! I've never had the pleasure of watching a live cicada killer hunting. We don't even have cicadas here in Oregon, though I've ween them elsewhere. When I was a kid, my grandma brought me a cicada killer from Texas. It was the largest wasp I'd ever seen at the time and I'll never forget it (though like everything else in my original dried collection, it was eaten by dermestids).

 

[Tomato]

I would have run screaming like a little girl! Wasps terrify me! Sounds like an interesting sight to see. Thanks for the interesting facts about their life cycle! Very cool!

Yeah they are huge and something about the bright yellow spots on their butt awakens in me that same animal instinct that we all share--bright colors signal danger. The truth is, the males, while territorial, don't even have stingers. The females do have stingers, but they are not aggressive and typically only attack when they fly up your shirt or something like that and get confused and scared. Swatting at them usually just makes them leave. When you think about it, they are too busy to go around stinging humans. They barely have a month or two to dig a burrow, find a mate, find a cicada, paralyze it, lay an egg in it, and haul it over to their burrow (imagine if the only way you could procreate was by paralyzing a horse and then dragging its @ss into an underground cavern that you just finished digging..with your mouth. lol). I watched one of them carrying a cicada. It kept flying low for short distances, clearly exhausted by the burden of lugging around a motionless insect that was about it's own size.

-Tomato

 

[LauraMG]

Yeah they are huge and something about the bright yellow spots on their butt awakens in me that same animal instinct that we all share--bright colors signal danger. The truth is, the males, while territorial, don't even have stingers. The females do have stingers, but they are not aggressive and typically only attack when they fly up your shirt or something like that and get confused and scared. Swatting at them usually just makes them leave. When you think about it, they are too busy to go around stinging humans. They barely have a month or two to dig a burrow, find a mate, find a cicada, paralyze it, lay an egg in it, and haul it over to their burrow (imagine if the only way you could procreate was by paralyzing a horse and then dragging its @ss into an underground cavern that you just finished digging..with your mouth. lol). I watched one of them carrying a cicada. It kept flying low for short distances, clearly exhausted by the burden of lugging around a motionless insect that was about it's own size.

-Tomato

Yea, I would never procreate if that was what it took! Although, I think I actually sacrificed more having my son, it's just a slower suffering....

 

[Rick]

I saw one the other day carrying a cicada back to the burrow. Looked like it had a 747 strapped to its belly and was flying low and slow. I was trying to convince my neighbor that they are harmless to humans.

 

[Peter Clausen]

Great metaphor, Rick! That's a lot of bug on the wing, by N. American standards!

 

[ismart]

I remember when i was kid. I was playing in my yard and something pretty big smacked me in the back of my head! Not that it hurt or anything. It was the impact that caught me off gurad. It was a cicada killer with a cicada! They were both still struggling on the ground, and i remember thinking ###### is going on right now! The cicada was doing the loud crazy sceaming noise when thay are attacked! I was all freaked out! :blink: Cicada killers were rare back then. Now i see them all the time. I did try a little experiment a couple of years ago. I came a cross a cicada killer with a paralized cicada. I took the paralized cicada from her. I did feel bad doing it, but i wanted to see if the cicada would ever come out of it's paralisis. Needless to say it never did.

 

[Schloaty]

I have these nesting in my yard - I just tell the girls to watch, but don't touch!

I caught one once in a net, and put it in a mason jar to show them.

When it tried to fly, it created a dog gone TORNADO in the jar! Man, those things are strong.

Needless to say, I loosened the top by hand, but removed it with a LONG stick from as far away as I could be!