Cicada Killers

Alice discovered a new kind of "bee" hanging around our back patio this week. It's enormous. Here's a teeny photo I swiped from wikipedia:

May I introduce you to the Eastern Cicada Killer? A solitary sort of bee species whose females dig 6-8 inch burrows into the soil and then ruthlessly hunt down, paralyze, and bury live cicadas (see below) to act as a special food source for their larval young.

Cicadas can be pretty big, too :)

Here's a pic of a cicada killer carrying a paralyzed cicada (courtesy of wikipedia, as well):

 

It's not an aggressive bee. Females only sting humans if they are handled roughly or stepped on. Like male carpenter bees, stingless male cicada killers approach anything that moves in hopes of finding a mate. Both males and females will fly away if you "shoo" them. So, they're pretty harmless overall but really scary-looking and kind of annoying. 

I haven't yet discovered where our particular bee is nesting (I'm pretty sure it's a female). I'd like to, though, just out of curiosity. They only bury one cicada and one egg per hole. If she sticks around, it should be quite obvious.