This very large wasp is apparently what is called an Eastern Cicada Killer. Sounds ferocious, does it not?  The females are indeed deadly to cicadas, though they don’t pose much of a threat, if any, to people or pets. But around here, the insects get so obsessed with drinking nectar from passion flowers that I can reach out and adjust a flower bearing a wasp to get a better viewing angle without disturbing them at all. 

I have lots of these lovely creatures in the garden, though they are not really social wasps. The adults are among the numerous kinds of pollinators that very much enjoy the passion vines that flourish here, and today in particular, I saw many flowers with two or three wasps on board at the same time. They wallow in the intricate flowers like kids’ feet in the first green grass of spring.

The adults sip nectar, but the female also hunts cicadas to leave in an underground larder of sorts - or meat locker - with her eggs. From what I understand, every egg gets its own chamber and provisions. The eggs destined to be female wasps need to be stashed with three fat cicadas, while those destined to be male need but one. The females require more food because as adults, they must be large enough to grasp and airlift paralyzed cicadas to the nest site and wrestle them into position. 
The job of the male is to give her cover while she does this, because to a hungry bird, a wasp carrying a cicada is quite a temptation, as close to a DoorDash lunch delivery as it gets. in Waspville.

The male has to distract all the possible porch pirates looking for easy pickings. He has to do it unarmed, too, because he cannot sting; so, he buzzes anything that might be a threat hoping to scare it off. This bold buzzing behavior, while no danger to us, can frighten people who then, unfortunately, call up pest control.

I need to read up on cicada killers and verify the details. But in the meanwhile I am enjoying their presence. They really are handsome, and they are welcome here.

—- Susan Walton