A cicada vs. Cicada Killer Wasp, typically isn’t much of a battle — the cicada typically loses.
My friend David Wilson made a display out of an old clock featuring a cicada and Cicada Killer Wasp locked in battle (or the wasp going grocery shopping for its larvae, depending on how you want to look at it).
Check it out, I think it’s very cool.
David said:
The thing is a diorama I made of an unnoticed moment in history. With New Brunswick [New Jersey], as seen from Highland Park circa 1900, in the back round.
Here’s a video of a Cicada Killer wasp captured by my friend David Wilson in Lambertville, NJ. You can hear the cicadas in the background, so you know the wasp is quite frustrated.
Now is the time for big, meaty Tibicen cicadas, and nothing loves Tibicens more than Cicada Killer Wasps. Cicada Killer Wasps are large wasps that use living cicada bodies to nourish their wasp larvae.
People fear these wasps, but they’re not interested in people — only cicadas. They’ll only attack people if people attack them. So keep your distance, but don’t bother to kill them. Respect them, but don’t wreck them.
Prof. Chuck Holiday has the best information about these wasps.
Joe Green sent us this photo of a Cicada Killer Wasp clutching a cicada. See if you can spot the cicada under the wasp.
