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#1
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Bug identification
I have a couple of wasp-like critters that sit around on the front
steps of my house (Texas). They are approx. an inch long, mostly black, with three white bands on the abdominal segment. Other than the white color, they appear to match the description of Cicada Killer given at http://insects.tamu.edu/images/insec...e/cimg331.html Can anyone help in identifying these? Also, how would one go about pursuading them to take up residence elsewhere? Thanks. John |
#2
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Bug identification
In article 80db58c0.0307050658.2f2afc70
@posting.google.com, says... I have a couple of wasp-like critters that sit around on the front steps of my house (Texas). They are approx. an inch long, mostly black, with three white bands on the abdominal segment. Other than the white color, they appear to match the description of Cicada Killer given at http://insects.tamu.edu/images/insec...e/cimg331.html Can anyone help in identifying these? Also, how would one go about pursuading them to take up residence elsewhere? Thanks. John Cicada killers will have rust colored wings where the wings of other type of digger wasps with the abdomen bands will range from black to a smoked gray. The bands on the cicada killers can also be a cream color rather than yellow. Keeping the area they are digging in saturated will probably move them along, but that is not always a practical solution. In flower beds, covering the soil with gravel or a rock mulch might help. -- We child proofed our home, but they are still getting in. Lar. (to e-mail, get rid of the BUGS!! |
#3
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Bug identification
I'm also in Texas and have had an incredible infestation of cicada killers last
year and year before last. There is no real solution other than mulching deeply around hard surfaces like bricks, foundations, rock walls, raised beds where you line rock with, etc. We had on average last year upwards of 500 of these huge, lumbering creatures. I did all the reading anyone could have done and the simple answer was to prevent them reproducing. The way my husband has been successful is with a nice tennis racket I bought for him at Goodwill, for a dollar. Last year he wacked an average 50 to 100 PER DAY! This year, we still have them, but under no conditions are they anywhere in the same range of numbers this year. What they do is hunt the cicada, drag it back to the hole they burrowed (usually always in a bed bordered with a hard substance or bare soil) and put the cicada down in. They lay the eggs where the larvae hatch and eat the carcass of the cicada till it ultimately emerges the following year. This year, his wacking has been lowered to approximately 10-20 per day. It's definitely MUCH better. Next year it will be less, yet. They do sting, but the pain only lasts about an hour as a resultant of the sting. Their sole purpose, as in all other life, is to procreate and prosper! Oh, I did another thing, I bought a few bags of Cedarcide mulch. It's a very powdered down version of cedar mulch with added cedar oil. It is non-toxic and I used two bags to cover all the areas where they like to burrow and it definitely did help manage where they hunkered down. I don't even mind having them, but hundreds wizzing by my head as I'm in my hot tub is not very tolerable. Victoria On 5 Jul 2003 07:58:37 -0700, (John) wrote: I have a couple of wasp-like critters that sit around on the front steps of my house (Texas). They are approx. an inch long, mostly black, with three white bands on the abdominal segment. Other than the white color, they appear to match the description of Cicada Killer given at http://insects.tamu.edu/images/insec...e/cimg331.html Can anyone help in identifying these? Also, how would one go about pursuading them to take up residence elsewhere? Thanks. John |
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