What Do Golden Digger Wasps Eat?

Golden digger wasps are often called friends of the gardener, but did you know the reasons behind them? What do golden digger wasps eat that is so beneficial for gardens? Let’s check it out.

Golden diggers wasps are carnivorous as larvae but grow to become nectarivores in adulthood. Adult wasps only feed on nectar from flowers and overripe fruits.

The larvae grow up by preying on a paralyzed insect that their mother hunts for them.

Digger wasps prey on pests of the order Orthoptera, which include grasshoppers, crickets, and katydids. They are considered friends of farmers and gardeners.

What Are These Wasps?

The golden digger wasps are scientifically known as Sphex Ichneumoneus. You can find these wasps in South America, Mexico, Central America, North America, and the Caribbean.

These solitary wasps have bicolored bodies. They have a black head and body, but their abdomen is rusty orange or bright orange.

Great golden’s are thread-waisted wasps, and their head and thorax region have golden hairs. They measure about one and a half inches.

What Do They Eat?

Adult wasps feed exclusively on the nectar of flowers and overripe fruits.

However, female wasps also hunt insects such as crickets, grasshoppers, and katydids. These are meant for the soon-to-hatch larvae of the wasps.

The wasps sting these insects, paralyzing them. They then carry them to their burrow and lay their egg on it. When the larvae hatch, they get to feast on the insect.

Insects such as katydids and grasshoppers damage crops and most garden plants by chewing on their leaves.

They are pests that cause retarded growth or premature senescence (untimely death) in your precious plants.

Beneficial insects such as golden digger wasps help control the population of these pests and are a natural way of avoiding harmful chemical pesticides.

How Do The Adults Females Hunt to Feed The Larvae?

Great Golden Diggers are not social wasps and prefer to live alone in their separate nests. They also like to hunt separately from each other rather than swarming their prey.

Let’s look at their hunting process.

Building the nest

Female wasps, after mating, build clusters of nests in the ground, which look like small holes in the sandy soil.

The females follow a particular pattern ritually every time they create a nest.

Thus, the nests are almost identical and have a standard structure that comprises various interconnected tunnels of different sizes.

After building their nests, the female chooses a particular nest based on the best possible location and size.

Hunting the prey

Next, she goes hunting and captures many small insects, such as katydids, crickets, and grasshoppers.

The wasps use their mandible to grasp the antennas of the insects. Then they sting them, which paralyzes and makes the insect incapable of moving.

If it’s an insect smaller than the wasp, the female wasp carries it in between her legs and flies to her nest.

But for bigger ones, she drags them across the ground back to her nest.

Laying her eggs

On reaching her nest, the female drops her prey and goes inside to check on the nest.

This is a ritual habit with the wasp, and if you move the insect even a few inches before she is back, she will drag it back and then again go to check her nest.

This habit has been the subject of study among entomologists because it shows that even seemingly well-thought-out things (checking the nest) can be ritualistic.

Once assured, she drags the prey into the inner tunnels, where she lays one egg on the bottom of each insect.

As the egg hatches and the larva emerges, it starts to eat the insect alive. The larvae keep the vital organs intact till the end so that the insect remains fresh as they feed and grow.

Lifecycle of the Great Golden Digger Wasp?

Golden diggers wasps can have only one generation in a year.

When she lays her eggs as described above, they hatch in 2 to 3 days. The larvae live in the nest, feeding on the insect provided.

After a few weeks, they start pupating and weave a cocoon of silk threads. They overwinter as pupae.

They emerge during the summer months as adult great golden wasps and live for about one to two months, during which they create nests, mate, and reproduce again.

How Are They Beneficial To Us?

It would not be wrong to say that the great golden digger wasps are an asset to any garden or agricultural field.

These wasps are solitary and are not aggressive towards humans until you try to touch them. They do a lot of good for your garden:

• They are beneficial predatory insects that prey on common garden pests such as grasshoppers, katydids, and crickets that eat on the leaves of your precious plants.
• The adult wasps feed on the nectar and pollinate the entomophilous flowers of plants in your garden.
• These wasps dig the soil while building nests in the ground. Digging helps in soil aeration, which improves its water-absorbing capacity, thus preventing water logging in the rainy season.

How To Invite Them To Your Garden?

One of the best ways to lure the helpful golden digger wasps to your garden is to provide a place to nest for them.

Female wasps begin their nest hunting and mating in early July. You can set up appropriate areas for them to nest beforehand.

Female wasps prefer open spaces without vegetation or grassy covers that receive direct sunlight for burrowing and making nests.

You can create such a patch in a part of your garden and make sure to add sandy and granular soil to the place.

Moreover, it’s best if you do not use pesticides in your garden. Chemical pesticides are harsh and kill both harmful pests and beneficial insects such as digger wasps.

You can also try planting a few plants, such as swamp milkweed, which are known to attract these wasps.

Frequently Asked Questions

Wrap Up

The adult female wasps strictly feed only on nectar or plant sap. But it also arranges an insect meal for its wasp larva to feed on during its development.

It lays each egg on its paralyzed prey which the larvae eat to grow while still in the nest. These insects have usually planted pests such as grasshoppers, crickets, and katydids.

For this reason, great golden digger wasps are friends of gardeners and planters.

Thank you for reading!

Mydas Fly	Great Golden Digger Wasp

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