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View Full Version : The Cicada Killers Are Back

SQUEAKS
06-02-2006, 03:23 PM
:D These little predator bees are fantastic around horses they kill flies and skeeters. We had them the first year we moved here by the hundreds and then just a few for a couple of years but as I sit here and watch the horses graze I can see lots of them around the horses as well as a lot of cow birds another good bug catcher. They don't sting and don't land on the horses they just fly around their legs and belly catching flies. Last year I watched as 3 of them ganged up on a big horse fly and in short time the fly was gone.

They dig holes in the ground and put what they catch in the holes and then lay their eggs in the hole.
Bob :D
Pasogirlz
06-02-2006, 03:25 PM
We have those at our place in Sebring too. They look big and scary! :shock:
lisa l aka marci
06-02-2006, 03:41 PM
:PICS
Linda Y
06-02-2006, 03:55 PM
http://www.fcps.k12.va.us/StratfordLandingES/Ecology/Insects/Cicada%20Killer/cicada_killer_wasp.jpeg
JennLM
06-02-2006, 04:10 PM
That looks scarey to me. And they don't sting humans and only kill flies? Wow, need abunch of them here as fly season has just started and even I am getting swarmed just walking outside on the porch. The front yard is buzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzing with flies. Ick!
appyday
06-02-2006, 05:01 PM
Ewwwwwwww I dont like him..
Linda Y
06-02-2006, 05:55 PM
If you see what they do, you would LOVVVVVE him! They patrol the horses and zap flies that land on them. I wish I had bunches of them. No, they don't sting people. I never knew their real name until today...just called them fly zappers. First time I saw them, I thought they were bot flies. Then I saw them get one of the flies on the horse's leg...thought hmmm....this bears watching.
appyday
06-02-2006, 06:15 PM
If you see what they do, you would LOVVVVVE him! They patrol the horses and zap flies that land on them. I wish I had bunches of them. No, they don't sting people. I never knew their real name until today...just called them fly zappers. First time I saw them, I thought they were bot flies. Then I saw them get one of the flies on the horse's leg...thought hmmm....this bears watching.

I'm sold where do I buy them....you sure they dont sting people??
Pasogirlz
06-02-2006, 06:25 PM
This is what they are named for killing.... :shock:

Cicada
http://www.markbashista.com/Insects/images/Cicada.jpg

http://eppftpserver.ag.utk.edu/profiles/insects/homelg/cicada-l.jpg
JennLM
06-02-2006, 10:40 PM
Yanno, I really hate the heat here in Nevada, but with all the creepy crawlies you guys keep posting I may just never leave here LOL
ASB.Immortality
06-03-2006, 12:06 AM
I love the cicadas and the sound that they make. We have them here, but don't get lots of them but every some many years. I would love to have the bees around just to eat the flies. They are driving us nuts. We are covered up in them & have never had a problem like this before. I will take the cicadas over the flies any day. We never had a problem with the cicadas.

The best thing I have seen around here for killing flies is those hornets that are striped with neon green & have the antennas that come out of each side them then turn straight up. You don't see them often but they are awesome to watch. They will come up to you and check you over real good. And they are fast! if you move just the tinest bit, they haul butt! LOL!!! Then they will come to check you out somemore. They look dangerous as all get out but I have never seen anyone or anything that has been stung by them.
motorgypsy
06-03-2006, 04:11 AM
Are these the wasps you buy or are they just native to certain areas? Tell us more about them???
JennLM
06-03-2006, 05:38 AM
Just read on that bug site:

"I'm sure the sting is painful, and might send a sensitive person, or surely one with allergic reactions, to the hospital."

"Mating males are sometimes aggressive, and females will deliver a nasty sting if provoked."
Jane Hurl
06-04-2006, 12:13 AM
So ... how do you pronounce "cicada"? And what is it?
Pam M
06-04-2006, 02:32 AM
Jane, around here we say "suh-kay-duh" and consider them to be nasty little beasts that make lots of noise and destroy gardens. They're only one step below grasshoppers on my "evil bug" list. Fortunately, we don't get many of them. Anything that kills them HAS to be good. They do have a cool sound that makes you reminisce about good old summer days but if you're a gardner, you hate them. My husband is sensitive to their noise (crickets, too) and some nights he can't sleep because they bug him so much! They're kind of like locusts - do you have them?
motorgypsy
06-04-2006, 03:17 AM
They are one of the sounds of summer. In Colombia they were deafening there were so many of them. They really are pretty interesting. Japanese beetles are what eat our stuff up, not cicadas.
Jane Hurl
06-04-2006, 04:16 AM
Pam ... I thought "locust" was just another name for grasshoppers-en-mass! No, huh?

We get grasshoppers some summers. Other summers we don't. We had them so bad a few years ago that there were no crops left at all. Hay cost a fortune that winter, most of it coming from the far northern part of the province (where you'd think they'd not HAVE good hay, but they ALWAYS do) or down in the usually parched south. Of course THOSE 'hoppers laid enough eggs to keep us in midges for the next decade. A wet spring is the only thing that deters them.

So, no locusts. No cicadas. (No snakes, no alligators, etc.) We do such wildly differing seasons that bugs have to be really tough and critters pretty much have to be furry to live here.