Spotted!

Velvet ant!

Shari informed me the other day that she saw a red velvet ant crawling around. I had never heard of one much less seen one. But then last night, what do I see scampering around by the back porch? An inch-long, red and black fuzzy critter! Quite stunning! "See! A velvet ant!"

So today's research project for myself dealt with velvet ants. First thing I learned? They aren't really ants. Nope! They are wasps. More specifically, a female wasp. Apparently the female wasp is fuzzy with a black and red or orange body and no wings. The black, winged males are very rare to see but the females are easy to spot. They do have stingers and it's my understanding that they hurt so bad that they have been nicknamed "cow killers." Now they are not at all aggressive, which I can attest to. The one I saw ran as fast as she could away from me.

On the bright side, velvet ants are parasitic, laying eggs next to the chambers of underground pests such as beetles, wasps and bumble bees. Which we do have a bit of a wasp problem. So I am going to cheer for our friend, the velvet ant and wish her the best of luck helping to rid us of our more destructive pests.