Cicada Killers

One of the most vivid memories of my childhood is the cicada plague of '85. Personally, I think it should go down in history - a plague of epic proportions. At least for me...at the age of five...who was terrified of the things. From that moment on, I knew how the Egyptians felt during the plague of locusts. If I had been Pharaoh, I would have let the Israelites go then and there.

Last summer, there were cicadas in abundance. Not the type that fly at you, scarring you for life. These mostly stayed in the trees, singing every evening. Emry would sing along with them. This year they are a bit more scarce. Perhaps because their arch enemies are about.

I first saw them about the middle of July. Because they were flying about the step up to our back deck where Emry spends quite a bit of time, I looked them up online. After all, they're huge, and look like bees or wasps, and hovered right where my little girl likes to play. I discovered they are called cicada killer wasps.

I had never seen one of these huge striped wasps before, but I've learned a lot about them since. We don't see much of them anymore, but they're like a plague under our yard. They're scary looking, but they don't sting unless really antagonized. They live in underground nests, but you can tell where they are located because they lie under huge ant-hill like things. (We find a new one somewhere every few days, it seems.) And they kill cicadas. I've kind of seen this for they bring them back to the nests to eat. I've seen a couple of them making a landing into their nest with one. One of those "circle of life" things that kind of gives you shivers.

Apparently, they're more of a nuisance than anything, so we haven't really done anything about them. And since they tend to follow cicadas, we may or may not see them again next year. If we do, I'm sure Emry will be even more interested in their nests or their flying about. I'm just not sure how to tell her they kill the cicadas she loves to sing with...