Great Golden Digger Wasps are benign, gentle wasps. They are pollinators and protect plants against damage done by grasshoppers and katydids.
Are great golden digger wasps dangerous?
Great golden digger wasps are virtually harmless; the males don’t even have stingers. Despite their vivid alarm coloration, Great Golden Digger Wasps are not an aggressive species of wasp. They tend to mind their own business and can be found sipping on flower nectar during the summer. However, if you try to handle them, or make them feel threatened, the females will sting. Avoid their nesting site in the sand in this area where you are currently standing while they’re visiting. Once their one offspring is born, they will leave.
How do they nurture their babies?
Females dig into loose soil and create many deep tunnels. Then they cover them to hide their existence. A female will track a small insect, sting it to paralyze it, and carry it back to her tunnel. If it looks like
the tunnel is still intact, she will pull the paralyzed insect, head first, down into it. She then lays an egg on the insect, exits the tunnel, and covers it over again. She repeats this process for each tunnel. Once hatched, the wasp larvae will feed on the living, yet immobile, insect until they are developed enough to leave the tunnel lair in the summer. If you look carefully, you may see them emerging from the sand.
With such gorgeous orange and black coloration, mild demeanor, and interesting behaviors, the Great Golden Digger Wasp is one to admire, not destroy. Please help us protect them here.
