Rex Trulove
As an avid gardener and outdoorsman, I’m acquainted with most of the creatures that live around me. That includes insects. Imagine my surprise when I was out in the garden and saw a very large wasp I’d never seen before, flying between one onion blossom and another.
It was time to look in the field guide to insects to learn more about the creature and it turns out that this little gal is quite interesting. It is called a Great Golden Digger Wasp.
Great golden digger wasp description
Although its sheer size, warning coloration, and the fact that it is noticeably a wasp are enough to make many people run away as fast as possible, this is actually one wasp you might want to have around. It isn’t even particularly scarce. It is more of a matter of me not having noticed anything like it before.
This wasp is different than most wasps in a few ways. It is much larger than most wasps here in Montana, for one thing. It is two to three times bigger than the yellow jackets and other paper wasps that we have here, and it is longer than the kind of bumblebees we have.
The coloration is also substantially different. Instead of the typical yellow and black, this wasp has orange to red legs and abdomen, with a black tip at the end of the abdomen. It also has golden coloration around the base of the wings. Actually, in as much as any wasp can be beautiful, this one is.
Great golden digger wasp habits
The habits of this wasp are unusual for wasps, putting it mildly. Unlike most wasps, the adult is quite happy to lap up nectar from flowers rather than eating carrion. In fact, it is quite docile, even more so than a bumblebee, and will usually only sting people if it is handled. Make no mistake; it can sting if it is molested.
The reason that this wasp is good to have around is two-fold. Since it laps up nectar, it can be a good pollinator. More importantly, great golden digger wasps don’t build or protect hives like other kinds of wasps.
Instead, they build tunnels in loose soil. They then sting an insect, very often a member of the grasshopper family. The sting doesn’t kill the grasshopper, it merely paralyzes it. The wasp then carries the grasshopper to one of its tunnels.
The grasshopper is dragged into the tunnel, head first, and the great golden digger wasp lays an egg on the body of the grasshopper. It seals the tunnel, then goes in search for another grasshopper for one of its other tunnels.
When the egg hatches, the larvae begins eating the grasshopper, which is still alive but paralyzed. This results in the death of the grasshopper, by the time the wasp pupates and is ready to emerge as an adult.
Thus, even though it is large and intimidating, it is extremely mild mannered, it functions as a pollinator, and it kills insect pests. It doesn’t harm honeybees and tends to fly away if people or animals get too close. It is a wasp that is useful to have around a yard or garden.
Very useful information Rex. Good to know all of this about the wasps out there.
I haven’t seen any golden digger wasps yet this year, but that could be because it has been much wetter and cooler than normal. When it warms up and dries out, they will probably be around. :))
Yes they seem to like hot dry weather.
It makes sense, too, considering where they make their nests. I wouldn’t think that soggy soil would be the best for the larvae.
Nicely
Informative article. Thank you
You are very welcome.
Very excellent and well written article – and that picture is as good as any ID picture could be. Awesome!
Thank you! I think it is pretty easy to see why I was a little apprehensive when I first saw it, especially since we’d been removing wasp nests in our shed, located just a dozen feet from where this one was on the onion blossoms. lol I’m certainly glad to have it around. There is apparently a good population, too, because the day after I wrote this, I notice three on the onion blossoms.
I am afraid of a lot of insects, but appreciate them more now that I know much more about ecology. Thank you so much for your post about the wasps. I still don’t want to be stung by them, though!! You are a very smart man with so many interesting topics Rex!!
Thank you, Sally. I’m interested in a great many things. No, I certainly wouldn’t want to be stung by this big wasp, but a person pretty much would have to work at making them angry, in order to be stung. I can’t think of a single good reason a person would work at getting a wasp angry enough to sting them. haha
Excellently written article. Informative and accessible, and interesting even though we don’t have those wasps here in Ireland (I’m fairly sure!)
To be honest, I’m uncertain if you do or not. It isn’t entirely impossible. I haven’t checked to see what their range is. Still, since they are solitary, even if they aren’t native, it isn’t beyond the scope of reason to figure that some might have found their way there through shipments. Stranger things have happened. lol
Thank you for the compliment.
Excellent article. Do you get the cicada killer wasps in Montana? They are also huge compared to other wasps but peaceful unless bothered. They are starting to get active in Chicago.
We do have them here, Gary, but they are a different species than those in Chicago. In Chicago, they would be eastern cicada killer wasps, Sphecius speciosusm. I’m on the western side of the Continental Divide and appropriately, what we have here is the western cicada killer wasps, Sphecius grandis.
That said, it would take an entomologist to tell the difference. Both are yellow and black, both are digger wasps, both are highly predatory, and both grow to up to two inches in length.
I’m glad you liked the article!
I didn’t realize that there were two species.
Actually, there are 21, with four being found in North America: Eastern cicada killer wasp, western cicada killer wasp, Pacific cicada killer wasp, and Carribean cicada killer wasp. (Sphecius speciosusm, Sphecius grandis, Sphecius convallis, Sphecius hogardii, in order.) 16 species are found in Eurasia, and one is found in South America.
I had no idea there were that many. Thanks for the info.
It looks like a red wasp bred a yellow jacket. I think I have seen them. I wonder if they are the only ones that live in a hole in the ground? Great info and photo.
There are other wasps that dig holes and several species of solitary bees do, too. This is just one of the most docile wasps, probably because it isn’t territorial and doesn’t actively protect a nest.
Oh okay, a nice wasp. Just wondering. Thanks
Thank you for this information , I see this wasp first
That is the great thing. They are found almost anywhere that the soil is loose, where there are nectar bearing flowers, and where there are grasshoppers for prey.
Thank you for this information! I did not know there were more than one kind.
There are actually a lot of different kinds of wasps, but most are yellow and black, looking mostly like yellow jackets (which are one kind of paper wasp). There is also another kind that looks similar to yellow jackets, except that they are tiny; about 1/4 inch long.