What kind of bee/hornet is this!

Sean

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These things are huge and seem to live in the ground. This one measures about 1.5 inches long with a 2.75 inch wingspan. I'm guessing it's a hornet. Does anyone have anymore info about these?

bigbee1.jpg


bigbee3.jpg
 

lasercrazy

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I don't recall the name but it isn't a yellow jacket. Stay away from those little buggers, they're nasty and so is their sting.
 

Sean

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[ QUOTE ]
lasercrazy said:
I don't recall the name but it isn't a yellow jacket. Stay away from those little buggers, they're nasty and so is their sting.

[/ QUOTE ]

/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/mecry.gif I don't even like to go outside because they are always flying around. The scare me half to death! /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/aaa.gif
 

shiftd

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eeew
i hate to have them (hornets and even bees) around /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/eek.gif
especially when they (or it, does not matter) start to fly around you. it feels like sitting on a land mine.
 

3rd_shift

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Cicada killers.
We have a bunch of those here in Texas.
What they do is find a cicada,
sting it to paralyze it,
airlift the huge vegetized cicada to a burrow in the ground where it can stay alive for a while,
lay an egg,
hatched juvenile cicada killer has fresh, living paralyzed meat available. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/eek.gif /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/eeew.gif /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/str.gif
Btw; cicadas are those big, 2-4 inch long, wide eyed sap suckers that sing out loud in our trees.
 

Sean

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Interesting, my mom said she saw one of these bees carrying a secada. Great info! So do these bees attack people too? /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/eek.gif
 

The_LED_Museum

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We don't have cicadas, crickets, katydids, or other "singing" insects here; that's probably why we don't have cicada killers in Seattle.
/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/icon15.gif /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/str.gif /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/icon15.gif
 

3rd_shift

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[ QUOTE ]
Sean said:
Interesting, my mom said she saw one of these bees carrying a secada. Great info! So do these bees attack people too? /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/eek.gif

[/ QUOTE ]
They usually won't.
They are too busy looking for "singers" to feed thier young with.
I used to swat down cicada killers with a badmitten raquette
as they came out of the ground at my grandparent's house.
Mainly because they were making the yard look like a battlefield with thier burrows.
Now I know the good that they really do for maintaining the peace in the neighborhood, by reducing the number of bugs screaming. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/tongue.gif
 

kongfuchicken

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Oy!
I'm guessing they are like all other bees and will attack if they feel like it...
Be carefull! These things are huge! If I were you, I'd be scared like the first guy who ate blowfish /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/mpr.gif /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/aaa.gif
 

Empath

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When I was a kid in Oklahoma, there was one year that there must have been millions of them. Although they look fearsome, that didn't seem aggressive at all. Kids started taking them to school to find out what they were, and that's when we found out they were called cicada killers. We were told that they often appear en mass about every seven years, but we never had a repeat year with that many. I've found since, some areas have an appearance from them every year.

Cicadas are what we Okies called "jar flies", and were favorites with the kids. They were easy to catch, and you could keep them quite awhile in a jar as a pet. The year we had the cicada killers, they weren't easy to catch, because the cicada killers were so good at catching them first.
 

tvodrd

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Any similarities to the So. Cal "Tarantula Hawk?" An enormous blue with orange highlights wasp that supposedly dines on tarantulas? They aren't agressive, but really scary if you have an aversion to genus Hymenoptera.

Larry
 

The_LED_Museum

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[ QUOTE ]
tvodrd said:
...genus Hymenoptera.

[/ QUOTE ]
Hymenoptera: Bees, wasps, and ants; if you don't know a lot about entomology. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif
 

tequilathursday

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Secada killer? I thought you were kidding at first but it makes sense. Holy crap! have you ever hit a secada on a bike at 60mph. Ouch /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/whoopin.gif Now imagine gettin hit by one of those gigantic bees carrying one. It must look like a 747 with the shuttle on top. only up side down.
 

Negeltu

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I believe I've read that hornets and the such are actually less aggressive and have less of the "toxic stuff" than honeybees.
 

Billson

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Guys,

Did a search on google because I was sure you were spelling it wrong. They're spelled "cicada" not "secada" unless you're referring to the singer in which case I hope he's careful as there are flying insects trying to kill him so they could feed their young with him. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif
 
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