Native plants they are attracted to include goldenrods, rattlesnake master, mountain mint and boneset, among others.Īs the interest in preserving pollinators continues to grow, it is helpful to find out more about the variety of native wasps and bees that can be found in our own backyards. Most of their adult life is spent pollinating flowers and sipping nectar, except when the females are busy building and provisioning nests. They don’t sting anything other than their prey (tree crickets) and are not aggressive unless you try to handle them. The adults are about 0.75 inch long and shiny black. They belong to the family of thread-waisted wasps (Sphecidae) and are in the genus Isodontia. Grass-carrying wasps are native to North America. Once the larvae have completed their development, they create papery cocoons and transform into pupae where they wait out the winter before emerging as adults in spring.ĭried grass and cocoons from a grass-carrying wasp nest found in a window track. The brood cells are prepared with a lining of grass and provisions of tree crickets for the larvae to feed on. Apparently, in urban environments the tracks of storm window frames are a convenient place to use, too.įemales carry blades of grass to the chosen brood cavity where they lay their eggs in cells. In nature, the females of these solitary wasps use hollow plant stems or abandoned galleries of other species to build their own nests. Grass-carrying wasps prefer to lay their eggs in nests made above ground, unlike some other solitary wasps. It turns out the insects in the cocoons were grass-carrying wasps. Intrigued, I did some digging to find more information. What looked like a wasp was developing inside. Curious about what it was, and a little concerned that it might be something harmful, she brought it to my office.Īfter examining the clump of dried grass and stray insect parts, I opened one of the cocoons. She came across a clump of dried grass with a number of cocoons in it lodged in the track of one of the windows. One such opportunity arrived with a lady who was preparing to install her storm windows for winter. Even though they can sting, they do so only if provoked and they sense their nest is being threatened.As a Michigan State University Extension educator who accepts homeowner samples of insects, plants and pest damage for identification, I have the opportunity to learn about many interesting and unusual creatures. Therefore, they are not aggressive and only the female adult can sting. Since great black wasps are solitary wasps, they do not have a large colony to defend as do the social wasps. Their preferred habitat is areas where prey is located, like meadows, pastures and residential areas where gardens, landscaping plants and flowers are found. Therefore, their primary food source is nectar from surrounding flowers. With all the hunting they do, it is necessary for the female adults to consume lots of high-energy food. In areas where this insect lives, they can be seen flying with paralyzed insect prey in their mouth and stuffing the paralyzed insect into the underground nest. These insects gather prey, most commonly grasshoppers, locusts, cicadas and other large, “fleshy” insects that they feed to their immature offspring. Great black wasps are subterranean wasps, meaning they live underground and construct small underground nests where they care for their offspring. Females can sting, but only do so if their nest is threatened. In fact, male adults do not have the ability to sting and their only purpose in nature is to mate. Although their common name sounds intimidating, their name comes from the size of the insect, rather than the aggressiveness of the insect. Great black wasps are not aggressive due to the fact they do not have a colony to defend and are categorized as solitary wasps. The commonly considered distribution of this wasp is the eastern 2/3 of the U.S. Adult females of the species reach about 1-1 ½ inches long and are a little larger than the males. This wasp is black, mono-colored and without colored stripes, spots or other noticeable patterns on the body. The great black wasp is a very large wasp species, as its name infers.
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