Unidentified Large Wasp

We were sitting on our deck in the back yard and the same wasp flew into the deck.
We were shocked at the size of the wasp. I went immediately to the internet to find one like it, with no success. Where do you live, what state and city. I live in Rayne, Louisiana, which is a small town sort of in country rural area. Please e-mail back with your information soon.

I caught this wasp later after I had taken this picture. I live in a small town in southeastern Illinois near Indiana. After reading about this wasp, I have no idea how it ended up on my porch. There is an old school being demolished nearby and my best guess is that it was unearthed in that process. I hope there are no more to follow! I've read they actually dive bomb people!

Naddine,

We also had some removal of some brush or pile of old dead trees lately behind our home. They are getting ready to build a new subdivision, so maybe the nest was destroyed so now they are looking for a new home. Funny isn't that we live in different regions of the country. Our weather here is hot and humbid, how is yours.

Gatorfrinzy

Naddine,

I forgot to ask, you said you had read about this wasp. Where did you read about and what is it. Please inform me so I can look it up.

Thanks,

Gatorfrinzy

The wasp is called a Cicada Killer...it is the largest wasp and packs quite a sting I've read. I'm not sure where I was reading on the web, just got lucky and finally found a similar photo..and then someone posted on here so I knew I was correct. Our weather is very similar to Louisiana (I lived there for 10 years). Hot muggy and humid. If you want to email me directly it is naddine@charter.net

if thats a cicada killer, there was just an article in the paper here about those, accourding to it, they are very docile, the males dont even have stingers, and the females rarely come out of the burrows, and only do so to get 3 cicadas to breed the younge in.

This is the very wasp I saw today on a nieghbor's lawn(In northern NJ) Incidentally, it had a Cicada. At the time, it really frightened me that it was so large, so I brought the dog in right away. I'm glad to here it is relatively docile. This infomation has been very useful to me, because I was worried about it appearing near my pets. Thank you for the help.

-Ren