cricket eating big black bee?
Hi,
I stumbled onto your web site and figured I’d ask you what the heck is this big black bee, and why is it eating a cricket? I got a picture of it dragging it into it’s hole in the ground. What is it?
Andy from Upstate, NY
Hi Andy,
Your bee is actually a wasp known as a Great Black Wasp, Sphex pennsylvanicus. It has captured a Katydid, not a cricket. The wasp will not eat the Katydid, but instead lay an egg on its paralyzed body. The larval wasp then has a fresh supply of meat. Like most wasps, the adult Great Black Wasps feed on nectar and pollen. They are not considered an aggressive species.
We have had these wasps next to our pool stairs for years. They show up around mid summer and stay around a month. They circle and fly around, drop katydids into the pool but they have never stung anyone.