Bug Encounter

So remember how I said Mississippi has big bugs? Ya, met another one the other day....

Olivia and I had been at  a mommy group that some women in our area put together (they do like 3 every week. I love it) and we got back home and parked in our driveway. I got Olivia and her car seat out of the car and we were walking up the front steps when I saw a big black dragonfly. Now, I'm not scared of dragonflies... so we walked a little closer... and realized it's "tail" was curving down and forward and was bright red and looked more like a stinger... o, that's not a dragonfly? right. back. it. up.

So, there we were, stranded on the driveway with this giant wasp thing hovering by my front door. 

(Side note, that car seat is kind of heavy, so I'm wanting to put it down, but that makes things much more difficult in the running away department, but so does holding it. You see this other dilemma? Hard day all around.)

Anyways, so sometimes the bug will fly a little off by the front window and I think we can run for the door, but as soon as I walk forward, it goes back to the door! It reminded me of those wasps on Donkey Kong- that go back and forth guarding stuff... except this wasn't a video game and I needed to get inside my house.

So I threw a rock at it. I missed, and we were back at square one.

So I called Clint. He always has answers. And he came through for me again. He had left the side gate open (it's big and if its locked there is no way I could open it from the front or climb over it, which is why I didn't think about this. But let's be honest, I was freaking out and probably wouldn't have thought of it anyways) So Olivia and I snuck around the wasp and got in the back door.

Then I googled the bug.
It was/is a Digger wasp.

ew. ew. ew.

So apparently they burrow into dry lawns and make nests and eat cicadas that live in trees around here. I also found out that cicadas also live underground, hence the burrowing nest, but that is beside the point. Cicadas are big bugs too. The biggest one I've seen are about as round as a quarter and an inch or so long with a hard body... so these wasps have quite the bug to capture and eat. A full grown digger wasp is 1 1/2 inches long and have wing span of 1 1/4 inches! Which is why I thought it was a dragonfly at first. They are HUGE!

that length should say one and a half inches... it did on the google search... and wiki-how...

of course I look at all the most reliable websites for my research.

I know you are all worried about the Prestwich family's safety, so let me also tell you that everything I read about these digger wasps said that they are basically harmless. They are really passive bugs and you would practically have to sit there digging up their nest for them to sting you. They use their size to intimidate though and will hover to scare things away (like me... well done wasp, you are good at what you do!)

So that's my story. I really hope that wasp doesn't have a nest in my lawn. But I guess its basically harmless right? So I shouldn't worry anyways... and look at how much smarter I am about digger wasps! I should thank the little critters for some real life learning.

Man, if I could just get rid of the bugs in Mississippi, these next four years would be so much easier...