Cicada Killer

These things won't hurt you. They don't sting people. In fact, we like them because they kill cicadas. Why, here's one of them now, hauling off a live cicada so that she can stun it, bury it alive, then lay her eggs in it, so they have some fresh food to feed on as they hatch. Appropriately, this picture was taken as she tromped along the picnic table out back at my job.

The fact that they look like hornets on steroids does nothing to ease one's fears. They nest in the ground, so if you walk past them in a dress, who's to say what their reaction would be if they fly up said dress and can't get out? Would I find myself being dragged around the wooden support of a picnic table somewhere, just waiting for the implantation of baby cicada killers to feed on my stunned flesh?

I don't really think I want to risk that.