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Hi. I wonder if you could let me know what these are, I live in the UK, and have looked up several books and Web sites but can’t seem to find them.
Thanks
Eric
Hi Eric,
It is a species of Ichneumon Wasp. They usually parasitize caterpillars among other insects
Photo of strange tubular insect home
Hello,
My fiance has recently moved from Michigan to Noth Carolina. It is amazing how many more bugs live in a sub-tropical climate! Anyhow, she is terrified of these nests she has founbd on her new deck. Can you identufy these nests? Is this something she needs to be aware of or something that presents a possible danger? Thanks for the help,
Charles W. Nivison
Hi Charles,
What a very large photo of a very large ceiling with a little Mud Dauber Nest in the center. These are solitary wasps that build nests of mud and fill them with paralyzed spiders, grasshoppers, leafhoppers, flies or other insects that serve as food for the young. Each species of wasp has a very specific food source. The wasps can sting, but will only do so if provoked, by say, a broom knocking down their nest.
Ed. Note: (09/06/2004) Eric just wrote in identifying the species as the Organ Pipe Mud Dauber, Trypoxylon politum, and informed us they prey on spides only.
One of our readers sent this photo of a spider wasp dragging its prey, a large what appears to be a Wolf Spider, Lycosa rabida, to its nest. Sadly, we have lost her original letter.
Ed. Note: (09/06/2004) Eric just wrote in and gave us an identification on both creatures. Spider wasp is Tachypompilus ferrugineous, and Wolf Spider is Rabidocosa rabida
Over the last weekend, we were in Parker, Arizona. A large bug landed on me which was very frightening. People there identified it as a ’scorpion wasp’, but I can’t find any such bug on the internet. I don’t have a photo, but it had a large black body with some white or gray spots on the head, long legs, and a very long stinger (or what appeared to be so). It had large wings. Do you know of any such bug in this area? I’m concerned that if we visit there again, I don’t want my baby to be stung by this thing, if it was a wasp after all. I did notice too, that when it landed on the ground , it crawled around rather quickly.
Mrs. Trebesch
Dear Mrs Trebesch,
Might be a Tarantula Hawk, a very large wasp with reddish wings. They sting and paralyze tarantulas. Their sting is reported to be very painful to humans.
I did some more searching online yesterday after your previous message; despite the fact that I thought I saw black and white, I am certain it had orange wings and appeared black when flying/crawling and after review of some photos, I don’t have much doubt that it was a tarantula hawk wasp. The strange thing is, I thought it had stung me, but from the descriptions, it sounds like if it had, I wouldn’t be questioning! It didn’t hurt that much… maybe he/she just landed on my sunburn and made me think I got stung! Thanks for your help in identifying it!
Mrs. Trebesch
Sierra Vista Middle School
Room 17
Dear Mrs. Trebesch,
Though I have never been stung, I understand the sting of a Tarantula Hawk is extremely painful. I see big ones her in Los Angeles occasionally, but never as large as the ones I have seen in Mexico. They are actually beautiful wasps. Glad we could solve your mystery. We found a photo on this site.
Daniel
Bugman
I work in Medina Ohio and one of My Marines found this bug and we would like to know what it is?? It is about 4 inchs long thank for any help you can give.
SSgt Horton USMC
Dear SSgt Horton,
Your Marines have captured a female Ichneumon Wasp (Meharhyssa species). That long "stinger" is in fact her ovipositor, and she locates wood boring grubs inside trees with her acute hearing, and penetrates the wood with the ovipositor, depositing an egg near the living grub. The egg hatches and has a living dinner, feasting on the grub until the grub dies from the parasite. We have additional information in our Buggy Biography section as well as on the wasp page of www.whatsthatbug.com. Thank you for the great photo.
Hello, I was wondering if you could tell me what this bug is. A description of it would be, black body, weird shaped, hind legs are yellowy brown, the waist is very very slender, then rounds back out at the rear end. Has a stinger looks like, transleucent brownish blackish wings. eyes that look like they are to big for its head. about 1/2 inch long, maybe just a tad longer. and relatively long antennae. Was also wondering if you could possibly give me more info on it, like its diet, habitat, and such, or possibly another site to go to for this info. It is for a bug project. Thank you so very much for any help. By the way, your site, as far as I have seen is the best for finding out types of insects. I greatly appreciate it, helps alot for things like school work.
Jennifer
Dear Jennifer,
Thank you for the compliment. Most of the photos we post have been taken by our readers, and we unfortunately have none of mud daubers. Though we are trained photographers ourselves, it seems like we don’t have much time to take photos of insects because of our busy teaching schedules and the time we spend updating our website and answering questions. Mud Daubers is a general classification as well as the common name for wasps from the family Specidae. It is a large family with over 100 species. The subfamily Specinae are the thread-wasted species. Two genuses Sceliphron and Chalybion are commonly called mud daubers. They construct their nests of mud and provision them with spiders, though different species are known to prefer different food inlcuding caterpillars, grasshoppers, flies, and others. There are several cells about an inch long and the nests are found on the sides and ceilings of buildings. The nests are usually filled with spiders or insects which have been paralyzed by a sting. When the young wasps hatch, they resemble grubs and they have a fresh supply of comatose spiders to eat. Neither of our common mud daubers fits your description. Sceliphron caementarium is blackish brown with yellow spots, yellow legs, and clear wings. Chalybion californicum is metallic blue with bluish wings. It sounds like neither is your insect.
Here is a nice site:
http://insects.ummz.lsa.umich.edu/sphecidwasps/index.html
which has a wasp that fits your description called Isodontia auripes. Here is a photo. Let us know how your project turns out.
Hi Bugman!
(Awsome site, BTW)We have new visitors in our yard (and in my camper). Large cylindrical bees or hornets, nearly 2" long, black with three white stripes. They look like WWII fighters patrolling over London whenever you get near. Help! I’m ready to give them my tractor AND my camper!
russ therrien
hollywood, MD
Hi Russ,
I’m guessing Bald Faced Hornets, Dolichovespula maculata. These are social wasps that build a large paper nest from regurgitated wood pulp. The nests can be over a foot across that can contain 10,000 hornets. They are aggressive and do not like intruders near the nest and they will sting painfully, swarming and chasing the perpetrator. Unlike bees which die upon stinging, hornets can sting multiple times and live to tell. I hope you don’t have fields to plow or rubber to burn in the near future. I think your tractor and camper are lost to you until the frost which will kill the workers, but the queen hibernates and begins a new colony in the spring.
(9/2/2003)
Hey, my friend found this weird nest/cocoon thing in his shed and its really weird and if you could tell us what its from thatd be great. Its grey and its made of like mud and clay and on the inside it was full of dead house flies.it was made in the secind story of his shed, and it was stuck to the side of the wall. the top was rounded with a closed hole and on the bottom there was an open hole. the walls are about about 3mm thick. the flies look like there trapped in some kind of webbing, but not.We live in a small town in Ontario canada. Were about an hour from toronto. Thats pretty much it. If you could get back to me as soon as possible thatd be great casue this thing is really gross and creepy. Thanks.
James and Shannon
Dear James and Shannon,
You found the nest of a mud wasp. Your wasp prefers flies as food. I have a mud nest from the black & yellow mud dauber, Sceliphron caementarium. on my back wall and will post it with your letter in the near future. They generally sting spiders to fill the nest, then lay eggs on the paralyzed spiders and when the young wasps hatch, they have a fresh meal, eating the comatose spiders alive.
Dear Mr. Bugman,
I live in northern Connecticut. Yesterday morning I noticed from a distance what I
initially thought was a dragonfly over my lawn. Upon closer inspection, I was totally amazed by something I have never in my life seen before. It looked like a GIANT yellow jacket. It was 4 1/2 to 5 inches long. The abdomen on it was black with bright yellow stripes and shiny, just like a yellow jacket. It flew around close to the ground for a few seconds, then disappeared into a hole in the ground about 1 1/2 to 2 cm. wide. I noticed quite a bit of dirt thrown around the outside of the hole, apparently from it digging its nest out. It wasn’t aggressive, as when the dog tried to sniff at it (I pulled him back in a hurry!) it just kept looking for its nest. I do keep honeybees within 30 feet of where this thing is making its home, and I’m hoping whatever it is, it is no threat to them as real yellow jackets are. Any information you can provide will be sincerely appreciated.
Sharon
Sounds like a Cicada Killer, Sphecius speciosus, a large (though not as large as you indicate) solitary wasp that preys on cicadas and burrows in the ground. It will not harm the bees.
Today, in a mixed evergreen/maple urban forest in Vancouver, BC, we found a wasps nest we could not identify. It was about 12 feet up in a maple tree, hanging from the trunk where a branch joined. The nest was a brownish color, and looked more like a growth on the tree than the usual greyish nests we see around here. It was about the size of a medium cabbage. Cabbage comes to mind, because instead of a spiral or concentric layers of paper, this one seemed to be formed of overlapping rounded leaves, like a cabbage. It was quite smooth, and completely closed in. We could not find the hole, but it seemed that the wasps were coming out of the junction between the trunk and the nest. The wasps themselves were blackish, and looked almost like ants at that distance. They were mostly crawling on the nest, occasionally flying a foot or two away and returning.
What have we found?
Sounds like a Hornet’s Nest, Bald Faced Hornet, Vespula maculata, probably.
Please help Identify a bug that we saw at our home in Rocklin, California (Sacramento area) today. It was about 2" long, blue metallic looking – looked like some kind of huge wasp or hornet that that was carrying a huge dead cricket. It flew also. My husband has spotted about 10 over the last few weeks around our yard. I’d like to know what it is, to know if it can sting my kids. If you have any ideas, we would be eager to know what this is.
Thanks a lot,
Mary
Dear Mary,
It’s Probably a Blue Mud Wasp, Chalybion californicum, which generally preys upon spiders, but crickets will do. They can sting, but are not aggressive. They are solitary wasps that nest in abandoned Mud Dauber homes or simple crevasses.
Thank you so much. My 9 year old daughter was freaking out when we saw it – I don’t think it helped that it was carrying a huge cricket! I just looked up a picture on the web, and it sure looks like what we saw. Thank you "Bugman".
I work at a garden store in South-eastern Wisconsin, and recently I caught some type of what I think is a wasp, ITs all black exept for yellow legs, its abdoman is very narrow at first and strechtes into somthing similar to a mud wasp exept it is much bigger. The strangest thing about this insect is it has thrre "tails" or entenas coming directly out of the stinger withc are aproxemiely 5" long. I am stumped, what kind of wasp is this?
Probably a female Ichneumon Wasp, Megarhyssa atrata.
I live in Rock Hill, SC and came across this insect while I was weeding the monkey grass. It was about about inch long, had three body sections like an ant but it’s body was fuzzy like a bumble bee. It was bright red with black stripes like a bee, no wings but had six black legs. It didn’t move very fast but crawled along the monkey grass and yard. Can you tell me what this was?
Sounds like a Velvet Ant, (Dasymutilla occidentalis) a female flightless wasp, capable of delivering quite a sting. They are sometimes known as cow-killers or mule-killers, and are feared by tobacco farmers who often get stung. See if this photo matches.
