Eastern Cicada Killer Wasp - Photo Essay

While watering my flowers today I noticed that something was burrowing underground. 

 I figured maybe it was a Cicada because they are supposed to burrowing underground, but when I looked up the picture, it wasn't a Cicada. 

 I did some more searching.  This bug was like a bee and buzzed like a bee, but was really big.  Scary big, but didn't attack, just flew around and buzzed a lot, trying to get to the hole it was making so it could go down underground and dig some more.  After putting in Bees that live underground and clicking on a few choices I found out it is a Cicada Killer. 

Very interesting.  I never heard of this.  It's a Crabronidae family wasp that uses cicadas as prey.  They can be up to 2" long.  This one was almost that big.  This one must be a female since they are the ones who build the nest and are usually alone. 

The males fly in a swarm but don't attack.  They will only fight with other insects, and possess no stinger. 

 Here you can see her going into the burrow.

Sorry it is a little blurred, but I was probably shaking a little.

The females dig a nest about 6 to 10" deep by about 1 to 2" wide.  This is what I saw before I saw the wasp itself.  It was really interesting to see her go down into the hole and push the dirt out and pile it up, each time pushing it a little further away from the hole until there was a trench along the pile of dug up soil.  After she is finished building her nest chamber in the burrow, she will capture cicadas, paralyzing them with a sting and the dead cicadas will serve as food to rear her young. 

 Here she is pushing the dirt she has dug and kicked out of the burrow further away from the entrance.

I know someone is thinking that I should have put a quarter or something so you would know what size this was.  No thanks.  I was staying as far away as I could.  This wasp was loud and fast and I didn't know at the time it probably wouldn't sting me. It is almost 2" long.

 After she kills the Cicada, she straddles it and takes off toward her burrow; this return flight to the burrow is difficult for the wasp because the cicada is twice her weight.   After putting the cicada in the nest cell, the female deposits an egg on the cicada and closes the cell with dirt.  Male eggs are laid on a single cicada but female eggs are given two or  three cicadas because the female wasp is twice as large as the male and needs more food. She will add nest cells if she needs to off of the main burrow tunnel and a single burrow may eventually have 10 to 20 cells. The eggs will hatch in one or two days, and the cicadas serve as food.  The new wasps are complete in two weeks.  They hibernate in a earth coated cocoon in the winter and metamorphosis in the Spring after 25 to 30 days. 

 So, it looks like this wasp is really harmless unless threatened by humans in some way.  I still choose to stay away and let it do it's thing.  I will be watching though to see if I can photograph it dragging the dead Cicada into it's nest.  It took me three days to get these pictures, so I won't hold my breath trying to capture the next chapter in her life.

I'm not into science, but I do like nature and this was something neat to learn and take pictures of.  You can teach an old lady something new.