It will then exit the cocoon, enter the pupal stage and ultimately emerge as an adult. Once the larva is fully grown, it spins a silken cocoon in which it will remain until the following summer. The egg will hatch in a few days, and the developing larva will consume the cicada(s) as it grows during the next two weeks. She will then drag it inside and stuff it, and perhaps one or two more, in a tunnel branch and lay an egg inside the last cicada and seals the branched tunnel. Females locate a cicada, sting it to cause paralysis, and bring it back to the tunnel. The tunnel is a “nursery” for their young. The wasps are not social insects, like honey bees, they just share good nesting sites.įemale cicada killers build nesting tunnels beneath the ground, with several branches leading off from the main tunnel. A good nesting site might be utilized by several female cicada killers. Unfortunately, this sometimes means the nesting sites are adjacent to patios or walkways, or in gardens or nearby embankments. Habitat & Hostsįavored nesting sites are those with light-textured soils that are well drained, and that are reasonably close to trees that will have cicadas in them. The western cicada killer can be found from Texas to California and northward to Nebraska and Washington State. from South Dakota to New Mexico, south to Florida and all along the east coast.
The eastern cicada killer is found in the U.S. If you see this yellow and black zig-zag pattern, the wasp is not an Asian giant hornet. The eastern cicada killer has a black head that is smaller with respect to the body, a black thorax with brown wings, and a zig-zag pattern of yellow stripes on a black abdomen. The Asian Giant Hornet is much larger than an eastern cicada killer, has a wide, orangish head, a black thorax and wings, and a black and orange smoothly striped abdomen. Cicada killer wasp (top) and Asian giant hornet (bottom).
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