Giant wasps

[Ruffgear]

 
yesterday while attempting to make some firewood these giant wasps kept swarming me. May be a bit hard to see but there probably 2.5" long with a 6" tail. Then while splitting giant worms that I would feed to the chickens kept falling out. a closer look at the worms and I believe they are the larvae of wasps. Anyways this was new to me, so I thought I would share.
 

 

[alan gage]

Those are Ichneumon wasps. That long whip like tail is the ovipositor to lay their eggs and the grubs you found are probably what they lay their eggs inside of. Somehow they know where those grubs are and they drill down through the bark with that long ovipositor and inject their eggs into the grub. When the eggs hatch they eat their way out of the grub.

Harmless to us and one cool looking bug.

Alan

[Ruffgear]

Oh wow, that's crazy.. thanks for the info. So they don't bite? I left them alone but they seemed to be getting a bit aggressive with me. Which didn't scare me

[bluthum]

Wasps don't bite they sting. Ones in your pic don't sting for self defense as far as I know. Previous poster explained it well.

[Autocar]

You see simular wasp here in Ohio in Shag bark Hickory

[Ruffgear]

Wasps don't bite they sting. Ones in your pic don't sting for self defense as far as I know. Previous poster explained it well.

Ah yes you are correct I mis spoke... I do apologize..

[thecfarm]

Whatever they do hurts!!!  :(  But if I felt I was in danger or my home was,I would bite or sting too. ;D

[lxskllr]

OT, but I was trying to straighten a ladder for my Alaskan mill today(Ladder is unfixable with reasonable effort), and saw a European hornet and a bald faced hornet battling it out on the ash log. Didn't watch the whole thing, but they both seemed to get away alive, but stunned. My money would have been on a decisive win by the European hornet if I were betting. Since they were stunned, I guess stings were traded. Interesting that it isn't a death sentence on something that relatively small. Perhaps it takes a little more time to get the full effect?

[bluthum]

My reading suggests the euros are a threat to the native bald face populations. 

So far my opinion is euro hornets have 0 redeeming  value.

[Mike W]

lxskllr, yea hate it when fighters tap out, clearly there was a winner to this cage match



 

[alan gage]

lxskllr, yea hate it when fighters tap out, clearly there was a winner to this cage match

Looks like a robber fly. They don't mess around. Nice find.
Alan

[Mike W]

alan,  I didn't know what it was, have seen a couple around before, just didn't pay too much attention to investigate further as they seemed relatively harmless, but apparently they are, at least to other critters it seems.

was setting down into the ranger side by side and it was on the ROPS about 8" from my left eye, just sat there for a while and let me get a photo op before departing.