My recommendation would be to enjoy the insect and not use insecticides but try environment modification. Females rarely come into sufficient contact with those as she crawls in and out of her hole which is why they are intermittently successful. There are a number of insecticidal dusts that can be applied near or around the hole the female digs if that is the option you intend to follow. This is because the soil underneath is warmer and typically much drier (unless the driveway or sidewalk is permeable or has lots of cracks). Females also will dig holes near sidewalks or driveways. Management that encourages a uniform lawn and provides shade to the area (equally challenging to have a shaded lawn that is lush with little gaps or no weeds) is one of the better tactics to adopt as you try and combat this insect. Lawns without uniform canopies (difficult to grow because of weeds) can have sparsely vegetated areas without there being large bare spots in the lawn. Females will dig in sunny, open, sparsely vegetated (relative term because sparse to an insect is different to us most likely), and dry. The best way to manage cicada killers is to change the environment where they occur. I have dug up cicada killer holes/"nests" with the female there crawling up and down my legs and I have never been stung. Females either dig a hole or hunt for cicadas to bring back to their nest. Male cicada killers will fly around and chase people, cats, dogs, other insects, other cicada killers in an attempt to keep "their yard" free from competition for the female digging a hole there. Treatments do not need to be made to manage the insect because it rarely, if ever, stings. Consequently, insecticides provide poor control of this beneficial insect. The best insecticides typically have difficulty coming into contact with the wasp. ![]() This is due to where the insect digs it's hole to provision with cicadas. ![]() The cicada killer is a non-aggressive solitary wasp that attacks annual cicadas.
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