We didn't know what it was at first. Just that we've seen a lot of them around the ranch lately. They are pretty docile and keep to themselves, but they are HUGE and sound like a helicopter in flight!
Well, when Matt caught one, we decided we'd better do some research and find out what it is.
It's called a Tarantula Hawk. I'm not kidding. Want to read about it? Click here or here. Want the abridged version? Well, basically this thing kills tarantulas. Don't be fooled - that isn't a good thing around here. We are friends to the tarantulas. They eat a LOT of the nastier bugs that live on our ranch. Also, this wasp has the MOST painful sting out of all the wasps. FUN!
This Tarantula Hawk stings a tarantula which then paralyzes it. It doesn't kill it - just paralyzes it. After that, it injects one single egg into the belly of the spider. Then it drags the spider off to a burrow (we have been seeing a TON of burrows around the ground but had NO IDEA what was going on inside) where it then leaves it for the egg to hatch. Once it does, the baby wasp eats the spider from the inside out. SICK! Talk about something from a horror movie!
The remedy? The ONLY thing that will eat one of these wasps is a Roadrunner! We have the whole circle of life thing going on around here lately! The tarantulas have become scarce around here lately and we didn't know why. We figured it was the drought. At the same time, these weird giant black wasps have been hanging around. And we've been seeing a lot more of our Roadrunner lately. Hmm.
Anyway, if you see one of these, feel free to squish it. Just make sure you use a very very large shoe.
1 comment:
I just threw up in my mouth.
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