Cicada Killer burrow

Description:

The female cicada killer digs homes for her young in home lawns or in any sandy, bare, well-drained soil exposed to full sun.

Habitat:

Sandy bank along trickle trough in development greenbelt.

Notes:

The cicada killer lives in burrows dug into soft dirt or sandy areas. In this burrow, a single wasp makes up to sixteen short tunnels or cells (2), just large enough to hold an adult cicada. The female wasp drags and carries her paralyzed victim any way she can all the way from the tops of the trees down to the ground and into the burrow. This is a strenuous activity as the adult cicada can be just as large as the wasp herself. Once in the burrow, the wasp tugs the cicada into one of the prepared cells, then deposits a single egg on to it. After this, the wasp seals the tunnel shut. When the egg hatches and the wasp larvae emerges, it finds a quick and easy meal to hold it over until it is ready to emerge from the burrow as an adult. The lives of cicada killers are short as the adults do not overwinter. They live their life in a single season, capture cicadas and lay their young before expiring. The larvae emerge and overwinter in the prepared cicada tomb, feasting entirely on the cicada until they reach maturity and emerge the following spring. Adult cicada killer wasps feed exclusively on flower nectar. As such, they are beneficial pollinators to a small degree, but are furthermore helpful in that they kill excessive cicada populations.