Garden Green
10-11-2008, 04:58 PM
We were blessed by a wandering Velvet Ant today. They aren't actually ants, they are wingless wasps. At least the females are. The males can fly and are larger than the females.
She was huge! And she was not pleased with me running around after her with my camera snapping shots of her. I'm betting she won't be coming back to lay her eggs on the burrowing wasps in my yard since I harrassed her into getting into an area where I could get a good shot of her.
I was stung by one of these wasps as a child and man it hurt! And she heckled me after she stung me, too! They can make all sorts of noises. I remember the throbbing pain. So be careful if you see one of these wingless wasps. They are helpful and will try to escape you but they aren't shy about knocking you a good one if you mess with them enough.
For whatever reason I can't get a pic to post properly here, but you can find a picture of her on my blog:
http://alotgreener.blogspot.com/2008/10/blessed-by-velvet-ant.html
She was huge! And she was not pleased with me running around after her with my camera snapping shots of her. I'm betting she won't be coming back to lay her eggs on the burrowing wasps in my yard since I harrassed her into getting into an area where I could get a good shot of her.
I was stung by one of these wasps as a child and man it hurt! And she heckled me after she stung me, too! They can make all sorts of noises. I remember the throbbing pain. So be careful if you see one of these wingless wasps. They are helpful and will try to escape you but they aren't shy about knocking you a good one if you mess with them enough.
For whatever reason I can't get a pic to post properly here, but you can find a picture of her on my blog:
http://alotgreener.blogspot.com/2008/10/blessed-by-velvet-ant.html