Two new concerns have popped up recently in landscapes and lawns in the Troup county area –one issue being insect related and the other issue involving a disease. The cicada killer wasp is one of the largest wasps in Georgia. The cicada killer wasp is almost two inches long. Although intimidating in appearance, these wasps are not something we humans have to worry about. Cicadas, on the other hand, should be very afraid. Cicada killer wasp adults feed on nectar but use paralyzed cicadas to feed their young. Female cicada killers are hard to provoke to sting. The female uses her stinger to paralyze her prey (cicadas) rather than in self-defense. The female’s attention is focused on providing food for young cicada killer wasps, so she poses little threat to humans. Cicada killer wasps prefer to nest in sandy, open, sunlit areas. As the female digs, she kicks out soil that forms a semicircle around the burrow opening. She burrows six to ten inches into the ground, prepares a chamber, catches a cicada to fill the chamber, lays an egg on the cicada, and finally seals the chamber. She may do this over a dozen times in one burrow. When a female finds a cicada, she paralyzes it with her stinger, straddles it, and attempts to fly with it to her burrow. Because the cicada typically weighs more than she does, these flights are usually hops, with more dragging than gliding. The eggs hatch in a few days and the larvae feed on the paralyzed cicadas until nothing is left but a shell. Then…
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