Cicada-killer

August 11, 2025

I have been seeing the scattered exoskeletons of the cicada (superfamily, Cicadoidea) brood hatch that is occurring in Arkansas this summer.  Brood XIX emerges every 13 years, and its last emergence was in 2011.  It is a large brood that encompasses 15 states.  Although they are not in Arkansas, Brood XIII is also emerging in other parts of the country.  Although the cicadas are large and a brood hatch can become messy when great numbers emerge at the same time, they are not agricultural pests or a threat to humans.  Trees may be overwhelmed by the sheer number of females laying their eggs in their shoots and small branches.  Yesterday while watering my garden, I noticed what looked like a large wasp trapped between the screen and window on the porch.  When I find wasps on our porch, I shoo them away or if they persist, I will spray them.  I have been stung too many times to allow these pests to establish close to our house.  The insect looked like a yellow jacket but was over twice the normal size.  What I found out was this was an eastern cicada-killer.

When I went online, I found the eastern cicada-killer wasp (Sphecius speciosus) is a large, solitary digger wasp species in the family Bembicidae.  They are also erroneously called sand hornets, although they are not true hornets, which belong to the family Vespidae.  Their name comes as they hunt cicadas and provision their nests with them.  The species is found in the Eastern and Midwest US and south into Mexico and Central America.  Adult eastern cicada wasps are 0.6 to 2.0 inches (1.5 to 5.0 cm) long.  They have hairy, reddish, and black areas on their middles (thoraces), and black to reddish brown rear (abdominal) segments that are marked with light yellow stripes.  The wings are brownish.  The females are slightly larger than the males, and both are among the largest wasps in the Eastern US.  European hornets (Vespa crabro) are often mistaken for eastern cicada killers, although they are smaller at 1.4 inches (3.5 cm) long.  The males are smaller than the females because they are not given as much larval food.  The females benefit from being larger as they must carry the cicadas they have killed to a burrow for nesting.  Cicada killers exert a measure of natural control on cicada populations which may directly benefit the deciduous trees the cicadas feed on.  

Despite their fearsome appearance, female cicada-killers are not aggressive and rarely sting unless they are mistreated.  Their sting is not much more than a “pinprick”.  Males aggressively defend their perching areas on nesting sites against rival males, but they have no stinger.  Although they appear to attack anything that moves near their territories, male cicada killers are just investigating anything that might be a female cicada killer ready to mate.  Their close inspection may appear to be an attack, but male and female cicada killers do not land on people with the intent to sting.  If handled roughly, females will sting, and males will jab with a sharp spine on the tip of their abdomen.  They are generally not aggressive towards humans and usually fly away rather than attacking.  I initially tried to swat the wasp but its size and being behind the screen protected it.  I finally gave up and decided if it could get out of the screen on its own it would go away.  Since it was not there this morning, I assume it had done so. 

THOUGHTS: The size of the cicada-killer and its resemblance to a yellow jacket made me fearful when I first encountered it.  It seemed docile rather than the aggression I have seen from other wasps.  Still, I wanted it to go.  After I found out what it was, I was glad I left it alone.  We do not have a cicadae problem, but this was nature’s way of providing control.  One benefit of my garden is taking time to observe the interaction between the flora and fauna (plants and animals) that thrive there.  Identifying the different species and their place in my sub-ecosystem has been enlightening.  We are all part of the same planet.  Act for all.  Change is coming and it starts with you.