DIGGER WASP

INTRODUCTION: These wasps get their name from the fact that the female digs into the ground to locate the scarab beetle larval host. There are 20 species in the United States.

RECOGNITION: Adults are about 5/8-3/4” long; the body is robust and hairy, black color with bands or areas of red, yellow, and/or white.

HABITS: These wasps appear in the early morning and fly low over lawns infested with scarab beetle larvae all day. They leave with the approach of evening.

BIOLOGY: These are solitary wasp. Digger wasps fly above lawns that are infested with scarab beetle larvae (white grub). The females do not dig their own burrows but instead sting the scarab larva to paralyze it, attach their eggs, and then build a crude cell around the larva. The wasp larvae feed on the paralyzed scarab larva. These wasps rarely sting people. As a matter of fact, one can safely walk through them as they fly over a lawn.