jOhN wrote:
Previously a poster had mentioned cicada killers. Coincidently my back
yard became the playground of a tarantula hawk. This is a rather large
wasp that successfully drags a tarantula out of their burrow, stings it,
and turns it into a paralyzed buffet for its own offspring.
snip
Speaking of cicada killers, I just noticed one buzzing around today.
From this tamu website it appears it was a stingless male on patrol.

http://bexar-tx.tamu.edu/HomeHort/F1...cles/AUG22.htm

However, as I was standing there watching it fly off a very noisy cicada
in the tree right above my head abruptly fell silent. Seconds later I
heard something go "thunk" in the area under the tree around my pool
equipment but I couldn't find the body.

Cicada killers appear to be quite less aggressive than the tarantula
hawk from the literature so I'll ignore it. They do look mean though.