Pest Control Supplies

Soil Dwellers

There are several families of wasps that create large chambers in the soil for their larvae, and again supply the larva with a paralyzed insect of some sort that sustains the larvae through this very early stage of its life. The variety of insects used runs the entire range of the insect world, but caterpillars, crickets, grasshoppers, and some other easily captured bugs are tops on the list. In the southern parts of the U.S. we have one more enormous wasp called the Cicada Killer, and this one, like the tarantula hawks, causes a great deal of concern among homeowners whose yards are chosen for nesting. A sting is possible and can be excruiatingly painfully, but as with the all the other solitary wasps it is unlikely. The most common biggest complaint, really, is the really very large holes and all the large piles of soil made by the female wasp as she digs her burrows, sometimes in a nicely and very well manicured lawn. As the name suggests, a primary food of these 2 inch long wasps will be cicadas, those large, loud noise making, buzzing insects that sit up in the trees, and are referred to as “locusts” in the northeastern states when they emerge from the soil by the billions. Controlling Cicada Killers really is best viewed as “discouraging” them, and you can accomplish this by raking over their holes as they try to create them. You may possibly be able to dry out a soil area so that it does not allow the wasp to dig a tunnel, collapsing due to the dryness. Insecticide applications into the holes may be at times the only really effective method, but the use of toxic materials is generally best done by a licensed and trained professional pest control operator, especially when dealing with wasps. We have similar activity in the soil from a number of other wasp families, and they are given various names such as Digger Wasp, Mason Wasp and Burrowing Wasp just to name a few.