Summary: Cicada killer wasps are not as dangerous as their name sounds. Unless you're a cicada, that is. Cicada Killers a big, but generally not interested in humans.
Cicada Killers are big, and when insects are big they can be scary. The female Cicada Killer does have a stinger, but it rarely attacks people. Cicada Killers are solitary wasps that don't build elaborate hives or have castes of workers like honey bees. They hunt cicadas so that they can lay eggs on them, which will provide food for Cicada Killer larvae. They hunt cicadas using a long, venomous stinger which totally paralyzes the cicada. The female Cicada Killer flies back to her burrow carrying the cicada with her legs, which is fairly remarkable since the paralyzed cicada weighs twice as much as the Cicada Killer.
Cicada Killer wasps hunt cicadas that appear annually, not typically the kind that appear every thirteen or seventeen years. The life cycle of a Cicada Killer is synchronized to match the life cycle of annual cicadas. The adult Cicada Killer does not eat cicadas, but actually eats flower nectar or plant sap.
The egg of a Cicada Killer takes a day or two to hatch and larvae spend most of the year underground feeding on a storehouse of cicada corpses. Male Cicada Killer larvae are left with one cicada while female Cicada Killers are left with two, three, or occasionally even four cicadas to feed on. For this reason the female Cicada Killers are much larger than the males and in circumstances when a female Cicada Killer only receives one cicada to eat as a larva, the female will be much smaller and closer in size to a male Cicada Killer.
Female Cicada Killers kill about 100 cicadas during their life and produce about sixty or seventy new Cicada Killers. Cicada Killer larvae spend the fall and winter underground feeding on cicadas, growing larger, until they are ready to emerge as adult Cicada Killers in the late spring or early summer. Adult Cicada Killers do not survive the winter.

photo credit: Ronald Billings, Texas Forest Service
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Male Cicada Killers do not have stingers and do not hunt cicadas. Their primary goal in life is to mate with female cicadas. Much of a male's life is spent outside of a female Cicada Killer's burrow fighting with other male Cicada Killers for the right to mate with a female Cicada Killer. The larger the male, the more likely it will be successful. The males often fight with each other in mid-air, forming balls of battling Cicada Killers that have no control over their flight direction. This might be frightening to someone who encounters this behavior in the wild, but Cicada Killers will flee from humans when they are swatted at.
Cicada Killers are sometimes called sand hornets, although they are wasps, not hornets. They probably got the name because they build their burrows in dry, sandy soil. The female Cicada Killer wasps have specialized hind legs that are equipped with spines that can push dirt out of the burrow.
Cicada Killers are distributed across the US. If there is a Cicada Killer burrow that is in an obtrusive area you can clog the entrance to the burrow with a stick and the Cicada Killer will continue to bring cicada bodies to it for a while, and then give up to try a different location. Hopefully the new location will be somewhere out of the way.
Comments
Isobel
29 Jun 2009, 10:44
Why do the cicada wasps swarm during the day when cicadas only come out at
night? We can't sit out during the day because of the wasps but at night
when we hear the cicadas the wasps have turned in!! Explain please!
Nicole
30 Jun 2009, 22:47
I have the same problem! I live in an apartment upstairs and their nests
must be right under the stairs as they are constantly right at the bottom
where I have to walk every day! I know they aren't harmful but I have a
phobia of wasps and bees. This morning one of the males chased me to my
car and I thought I was gonna have a panic attack! I don't even want to
leave my apartment! The office says the exterminator is coming out in a
day or so but I don't even know if he will do anything. To me since it's a
common area that the 4 tenants share, it should be taken care of.
Julia
13 Jul 2009, 13:11
I have cicada killers that have burrow into the sand and silt in, around,
and throughout our stone patio. The silt and sand are systematically being
removed and I am afraid that the patio will become unsafe, at least around
the outer edges. Is there any way to get rid of them?
Kitty Nelson
29 Jul 2009, 11:40
My email is not so much a question but just my solution to rid the pests.
Has not worked entirely yet but I will prevail. I have a nest of cicada
killers in my front yard flower bed this year. Last year they were all
over the front yard but I continually sprayed the opening entrances with
household pest killer. This year I only have one mound that is hidden and
I can't see it to spray the entrance in my flower bed. They are very
numerous in this one mound and swarm all over in the morning and early
afternoon, then by around 3:00 p.m. they disappear. I'm assuming it's too
hot for them. I'm also assuming it's only the males swarming while the
female is out hunting. However there is one strange very large killer wasp
that acts like a sentinel on this one particular bush by the front door.
He likes to perch on it constantly and then perch on my knee if I sit out
on the porch. (Maybe he thinks I'm a sentinel too) I'm always out working
in my flowers. I'm really freaked out by these big creatures but they will
not keep me out of my yard and I have found their habits are really
interesting to watch. However, I don't think FedEx and UPS see any
interest in these wasps as they attempt to deliver packages here so I will
continue the battle of the big pests or call an exterminator. Why they
don't reside in the woods right behind our house is amazing to me where the
cicada's sing....might be because they have become social?
TL
07 Aug 2009, 16:34
I power spray my land every year in the spring. For the most part, I don't
see a lot of insects, but because you mentioned that the larve could still
exist within the burrow, what can I do to eradicate?
In the evening, I take hose and fill the holes with water up to the point
its flooded. I see the wasps leave the hole, but does it one kill off the
larve and how can I seal off their return?
Can I place boric acid into the hole and surrounding area, then plug it as
best as possible?
TL
08 Aug 2009, 11:44
followup question: in regards to rain or sprinkler system. If I apply the
insecticide, do it before it rains and suspend sprinkler irrigation or it
won't affect the powder application? Please advise. Thanks..>
Tracy
09 Aug 2009, 22:38
We have a wasp catcher in one of our trees and it has captured a type of
flying insect that resembles a wasp, but it is much larger and the coloring
is different. It has black and white bands on its body. I tried to find
something similar in appearance on the internet and the closet thing I
could find is a Cicada Killer. I live in North Idaho. Could it be a
Cicada Killer? I've never seen a wasp like this before.
Kitty Nelson
12 Aug 2009, 19:07
All of a sudden every one of the Cicada Killer Wasps have disappeared from
my yard. Why? I had at least 10 swarming around every morning. All I see
now is one big black hornet that has a nest also in the ground in my yard.
VH
18 Aug 2009, 13:37
I'm on a mission to rid my yard of these Cicada Killer Wasps. They really
are not a problem other than they kill the grass where they kick out the
dirt for their burrow. Little piles of dirt are everywhere! So, I bought
a butterfly net at the dollar store. I wrangle a wasp in the net, slap the
net to the ground and stomp on the wasp. I doubt if I'm making a dent in
the population but I have a challenge and some exercise :)
Carol Tarr
29 Aug 2009, 09:09
I saw a strange flying insect the other day and I can't identify it yet.
It had a wasp-looking body and long (at least 3 inches) wings that looked
like pieces of white opaque tape. I saw it flying around the yard - it was
quite large and captured my attention, then I witnessed it crawl into a
drain pipe, such as the outside drain pipe for central air conditioners.
Do you have any idea what type of insect this was?