Texas warns of cicada-killing wasps that are paralyzing prey across the state
What happens to the cicadas trapped by these wasps are the stuff of nightmares.
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One trillion cicadas are expected to emerge with warm weather across the U.S. this year. One Carolina man is getting creative with ways to get rid of the cicadas. He threw a dinner party for his friends featuring the insect in every course.
Cicadas beware. Wasps known as "Cicada Killers" are out and about this summer – and they’re hungry.
Measuring about 2 inches long, the large wasps do exactly as their name implies as they are only aggressive to cicadas, according to the City of Austin Park Rangers.
In fact, only female Cicada Killers hunt down the insects, and they do so to feed their young.
These femme fatales capture cicadas in flight, according to the Smithsonian. The wasp then stings the cicada, which becomes paralyzed by the wasp's venom. This allows the wasp’s young to feed on the cicada while it is still alive.
Cicada Killer wasp holding into a cicada.
(Ronald F. Billings, Texas A&M Forest Service, Bugwood.org / FOX Weather)
After the wasp stings the cicada, she then performs an Olympic feat. She carries her prey, which greatly outweighs her, up high in trees or walls. From there, she flies while holding onto the hefty cicada toward her nest, the City of Austin Park Rangers said.
CICADAS: IF YOU CAN'T BEAT THEM, EAT THEM
The Smithsonian noted that, without trees or anything to climb up, the wasp will carry her paralyzed bounty back to her burrow, which could lie 100 yards away.
Cicada Killer wasp holding on to a cicada while climbing up a wall.
(City of Austin Park Rangers / FOX Weather)
Once back in the burrow, the wasp lays an egg on the cicada and drops it into one of the chambers that she’s hollowed out in the burrow. The City of Austin Park Rangers said the wasp may repeat this and keep multiple egg-laden cicadas in one chamber.
Once the chamber is full, the wasp fills in its opening to block in the still-alive-yet-paralyzed cicadas with her eggs.
What happens next is the stuff of nightmares.
"This cicada tomb slowly turns into a wasp nursery as the eggs hatch and the larval wasps eat the cicada alive from the inside," the City of Austin Park Rangers said.
Cicada Killer wasp holding on to a cicada while climbing up a wall.
(City of Austin Park Rangers / FOX Weather)
According to the Smithsonian, the majority of cicadas hunted by Cicada Killer wasps are female. This indicates that the wasps track down cicadas by sight, instead of by sound, as female cicadas make no sound.
Texas A&M AgriLife Research said that female Cicada Killers rarely sting humans, unless the insects are handled. Male Cicada Killers have no stingers, so they are not a danger to humans.