# Help me identify these huge bugs
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-identify-these-huge-bugs/76381
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [August 15, 2001, 2:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-identify-these-huge-bugs/76381 "2001-08-15T14:12:48Z")
**Posts on this page:** 16
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Tranquilis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tranquilis)
#### Post date: [August 15, 2001, 2:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-identify-these-huge-bugs/76381/1 "2001-08-15T14:12:48Z")
Around the place where I live there is a squadron of hummingbird-sized hornets or bees. They dig burrows in the ground, typically alongside concrete foundations or under landscaping stones and wooden planters, and seem to spend a lot of time hovering over their burrows. I’m not joking about their size: When one landed on my windshield (a startlong experience!), I took the oportunity to hold a business card up to it (it was outside, I was _inside_, thank you!), and d\*mn if it wasnt _longer_ than my card, making it at least 2 1/2 inches long. It had a nasty-looking point on it’s abdomen, which I assume to be a stinger, was mostly black, but had “spilled paint” style markings in a dull-yellow collor, and was as big around as my index finger.
What the heck are these? Do they sting? If so, how badly? Are they known to be aggressive? Should I be setting up anti-aircraft weapons? Calling for the combat air patrol?
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### Author:  [@Doughboy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Doughboy)
#### Post date: [August 15, 2001, 2:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-identify-these-huge-bugs/76381/2 "2001-08-15T14:29:32Z")
I’ve seen these things lately too. I have lived in Chicago for four years and lived in Michigan before that and have never seen these things before. A whole bunch of them just seemed to show up around the building I work at, burrowing nests around the sidewalks. Anybody know what they are?
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### Author:  [@unwashed\_brain](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/unwashed_brain)
#### Post date: [August 15, 2001, 2:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-identify-these-huge-bugs/76381/3 "2001-08-15T14:30:14Z")
I forget what they are called, but I had a slew of them outside my old job (Atlanta, GA) and although they are very large and nasty-looking, they were never aggressive and would always buzz out of the way when you walked by. They came back evey year around a certain time in the spring or summer and would hang around for a few months, then would disappear again.
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### Author:  [@Many\_Crows](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Many_Crows)
#### Post date: [August 15, 2001, 2:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-identify-these-huge-bugs/76381/4 "2001-08-15T14:40:32Z")
Cicada?
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### Author:  [@Doughboy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Doughboy)
#### Post date: [August 15, 2001, 2:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-identify-these-huge-bugs/76381/5 "2001-08-15T14:43:21Z")
Can’t speak for Tranquilis, but what I was talking about wasn’t a cicada. It was similar in size, but is looked just like a huge hornet.
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### Author:  [@Tranquilis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tranquilis)
#### Post date: [August 15, 2001, 2:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-identify-these-huge-bugs/76381/6 "2001-08-15T14:43:43Z")
Nah, cicadas are well known, and only about 1/3 as large as these. Also, they can’t hover.
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### Author:  [@unwashed\_brain](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/unwashed_brain)
#### Post date: [August 15, 2001, 2:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-identify-these-huge-bugs/76381/7 "2001-08-15T14:45:04Z")
Got it!
they are cicada killers…the arch-enemy of the pesky cicadas.
check out this link:
[http://www.uri.edu/ce/factsheets/sheets/miningbees.html](http://www.uri.edu/ce/factsheets/sheets/miningbees.html)
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### Author:  [@Squink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Squink)
#### Post date: [August 15, 2001, 2:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-identify-these-huge-bugs/76381/8 "2001-08-15T14:51:43Z")
They might be Cicada killer wasps:
[http://www.troyb.com/photo/gallery/017-21-CicadaKiller.htm](http://www.troyb.com/photo/gallery/017-21-CicadaKiller.htm)
[http://www.ent.iastate.edu/ipm/iiin/bdigwas.html](http://www.ent.iastate.edu/ipm/iiin/bdigwas.html)
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### Author:  [@Tranquilis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tranquilis)
#### Post date: [August 15, 2001, 2:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-identify-these-huge-bugs/76381/9 "2001-08-15T14:53:18Z")
Thanks folks!
I have to say though, either I’ve got giant mutant Cicada Killers, or the factsheet isn’t fully up to date. The mosnters I’ve got buzzing about are more on the 7 to 8 cm size, rather than 5 cm.
Well, cool…
I can stop freaking now.
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### Author:  [@Squink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Squink)
#### Post date: [August 15, 2001, 2:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-identify-these-huge-bugs/76381/10 "2001-08-15T14:53:19Z")
Too late again !
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### Author:  [@astro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astro)
#### Post date: [August 15, 2001, 2:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-identify-these-huge-bugs/76381/11 "2001-08-15T14:55:42Z")
The only wasp or hymenopteran type insect in that size range or larger in the United States is a Tarantula Hawk and they aren’t any of those in your area. 2.5" + is too big for even the largest hornet or bee except maybe a queen. Do they have a “pinched” waist like wasps or more of a cigar shape?
Per the other poster they might well be cicadas.
Do they look like this
[http://www.britannica.com/search?query=cicada&ct=](http://www.britannica.com/search?query=cicada&ct=)
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### Author:  [@astro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astro)
#### Post date: [August 15, 2001, 3:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-identify-these-huge-bugs/76381/12 "2001-08-15T15:03:01Z")
Blush. Never mind that last post.
While whistling casually sweeps assertion of fact about wasp size under the rug hoping no one notices.
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### Author:  [@Tranquilis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tranquilis)
#### Post date: [August 15, 2001, 3:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-identify-these-huge-bugs/76381/13 "2001-08-15T15:04:38Z")
Nope. I’m quite familiar with cicadas, and if you look at **Squink** ’s first link, you’ll get a beautiful picture of exactly what I’m talking about. I only measured the one wasp, and that was via the guage of my business card, which is 2 1/2 inches long. I suppose it may’ve been a mutant, but I don’t have a proper scientific sample to be sure.
Is there significant sexual dimorphism in Cicada Killers?
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### Author:  [@Squink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Squink)
#### Post date: [August 15, 2001, 3:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-identify-these-huge-bugs/76381/14 "2001-08-15T15:12:37Z")
## [http://www.culver.edu/Homepages/Faculty/Jcoelho/abstract.htm#dimorph](http://www.culver.edu/Homepages/Faculty/Jcoelho/abstract.htm#dimorph) Paraphrased:
## Female Cicada killers are nearly two and one-half times the size of males.
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### Author:  [@TheNerd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TheNerd)
#### Post date: [August 15, 2001, 3:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-identify-these-huge-bugs/76381/15 "2001-08-15T15:27:45Z")
We had these things at my family’s house in Houston. I _hate_ wasps. These things buzz in a very characteristic manner, that still causes the “fight-or-flight” reflex in me.
_shudder_
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### Author:  [@Tranquilis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tranquilis)
#### Post date: [August 15, 2001, 3:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-identify-these-huge-bugs/76381/16 "2001-08-15T15:46:18Z")
> [@](#):
>
> ## \*Originally posted by Squink \* Paraphrased:
>
> Female Cicada killers are nearly two and one-half times the size of males.
D\*mn, **Squink** , where do you _find_ this stuff?
Thanks!