Is This A Yellowjacket ?

[ownyourfuture]

Two of them tried to get into my garage yesterday.
I swatted this one down & gave him a WD-40 bath
South Central Minnesota

 

[audreyh1]

Looks like it. Was a bit hard to tell give the strange wasp position. https://www.google.com/search?q=yel...hUHQ60KHbPICpQQ_AUoAXoECAIQAQ&biw=539&bih=647

 

[ownyourfuture]

Was a bit hard to tell give the strange wasp position.

As soon as I sprayed the WD-40 on him, he went into the defense/sting position & stayed that way.

 

[SD-455]

not a yellow jacket, we have tons of them here. That looks more like a cicada killer especially if he is bigger than a typical wasps in size

 

[Jerry1]

Agree. It’s not a yellow jacket. Does look like the picture SD-455 posted (wondering if that’s on SD-455’s hand ).

 

[skipro33]

Two of them tried to get into my garage yesterday.
I swatted this one down & gave him a WD-40 bath
South Central Minnesota

Looks like this photo of a hornet out of Florida;

This news article from the Tampa Bay Times says it's a cicada killer wasp;
https://www.tampabay.com/news/bizar...hose-murder-hornets-buzzing-in-our-backyards/

 

[Venturer]

I agree with skipro, that looks like a hornet. Yellow jackets are much smaller.

 

[EastWest Gal]

I say wasp. Hornets have rounder fatter abdomens. We had a hornets’ nest dangling from our pool slide after a long vacation. Frightening. They had shorter fatter abdomens.

https://www.diffen.com/difference/Hornet_vs_Wasp

 

[Sojourner]

Two of them tried to get into my garage yesterday.
I swatted this one down & gave him a WD-40 bath

Did it try to sting you? Are you allergic to bee stings? It this had happened to me, unless I thought it was acting aggressively and trying to sting me (which bees, wasps, and hornets generally avoid unless they feel threatened), I would have just let it fly back out of the garage on its own.

I agree with others that it's not a yellowjacket.

 

[ExFlyBoy5]

I say wasp. Hornets have rounder fatter abdomens. We had a hornets’ nest dangling from our pool slide after a long vacation. Frightening. They had shorter fatter abdomens.

https://www.diffen.com/difference/Hornet_vs_Wasp

Well, to be fair a hornet is a type of wasp.

All hornets are wasps, but not all wasps are hornets. In the U.S., we have no native hornets.

https://www.almanac.com/wasps-bees-and-hornets-whats-difference

 

[ExFlyBoy5]

Did it try to sting you? Are you allergic to bee stings? It this had happened to me, unless I thought it was acting aggressively and trying to sting me (which bees, wasps, and hornets generally avoid unless they feel threatened), I would have just let it fly back of out the garage on its own.

I agree with others that it's not a yellowjacket.

If I used WD-40 on all the flying critters that try to get in my garage, I would need a 50 gallon barrel of the stuff. I pretty much leave 'em alone and they leave me alone.

 

[Sojourner]

If I used WD-40 on all the flying critters that try to get in my garage, I would need a 50 gallon barrel of the stuff. I pretty much leave 'em alone and they leave me alone.

+1

 

[Aerides]

If I used WD-40 on all the flying critters that try to get in my garage, I would need a 50 gallon barrel of the stuff. I pretty much leave 'em alone and they leave me alone.

Yup! and I like them as pollinators. I have a lot of butterfly friendly plants which means I get a lot of bees/wasps etc., hanging out too. They aren't interested in me. Left on their own they would likely have preferred to leave your garage.

When the bees go; we all go soon after...

(yes I know bees aren't the same as wasps but etc...)

 

[MissMolly]

I think it is a cicada wasp. Here is one I had in my yard the other week with his dinner. Cicada wasp are not aggressive and serve a good purpose getting the cicadas.

 

[ownyourfuture]

Did it try to sting you?
All I can say is that the 2 of them were acting aggressively.
It wasn't so much them trying to get in the garage, as them trying to keep me from leaving. Maybe there's a hive nearby that I'm not aware of ?

I'm not allergic to bee stings.
I wouldn't have grabbed the flyswatter & engaged them if I was

Unless someone comes up with more compelling evidence, I'm going to say it’s a hornet.

The comparison picture from skipro33 was the clincher, as the length/size is a match as well.

Kind of strange that we both photographed them on a small piece of paper towel, maybe even the same brand

 

[Graybeard]

Yellow Jacket.

Yellowjackets may be confused with other wasps, such as hornets and paper wasps such as Polistes dominula. A typical yellowjacket worker is about 12 mm (0.47 in) long, with alternating bands on the abdomen; the queen is larger, about 19 mm (0.75 in) long (the different patterns on their abdomens help separate various species).

 

[audreyh1]

Cicada Killer! Hadn't ever seen one of those!

But here we have the Tarantula Hawk:

I would never hold one. The sting is supposed to be extremely painful. But this does give some scale.

They are quite large and capable of paralyzing a tarantula and dragging off to its burrow. Well, you really don't want to know the rest.

I occasionally see one flying around. We have tarantulas too.

 

[REWahoo]

Cicada Killer! Hadn't ever seen one of those!

But here we have the Tarantula Hawk:

I would never hold one. The sting is supposed to be extremely painful. But this does give some scale.

They are quite large and capable of paralyzing a tarantula and dragging off to its burrow. Well, you really don't want to know the rest.

I occasionally see one flying around. We have tarantulas too.

Here is one in action on my sidewalk a couple of years ago. It was dragging a small paralyzed tarantula to its den to feed the young hawks.