A couple of days ago this huge, florescent bug was climbing up my office wall. What the heck? Where could it have come from? I didn't think we had holes in the house.
Art Googled it under florescent green wasp and discovered that it is an Emerald Cockroach Wasp.
Got this from Wikipedia:
Art tried to smack it with his slipper but he missed and it went flying around my office and landed behind the bed and promptly disappeared. We hunted all over for it and finally gave up. Art closed all the doors to make sure it didn't go into any of the other rooms and we went to bed.
I'd closed most of my office windows the night before because it often rains at night and I don't want my computer to get wet. When I got up in the morning I saw that the wasp was between the sliding glass window and outside screen. How did it get there? Did it go through the glass? I called Art to look and he was shocked. We should call this the Houdini wasp.
Whatever the case, it died because we didn't want to let it back into the room. It does have a stinger and I have enough welts from bug bites on me.
Now we see that this is a wasp who kills American (Periplaneta americana) cockroaches. Those are the GIANT cockroaches that local writer, Lisa Matsumoto wrote a children's book about called "How the B52 Cockroach Learned to Fly." Now Art is very sorry he had to kill that bug because it was probably keeping the American cockroach population under control in our area. Sigh...
Hopefully Houdini Wasp has some friends who are still around. And hopefully they are outside of the house.
Art Googled it under florescent green wasp and discovered that it is an Emerald Cockroach Wasp.
Got this from Wikipedia:
"The emerald cockroach wasp or jewel wasp (Ampulex compressa) is a solitary wasp of the family Ampulicidae. It is known for its unusual reproductive behavior, which involves stinging a cockroach and using it as a host for its larvae. It thus belongs to the entomophagous parasites."
"A. compressa was introduced to Hawaii by F.X. Williams in 1941 as a method of biocontrol. This has been unsuccessful because of the territorial tendencies of the wasp, and the small scale on which they hunt."
Art tried to smack it with his slipper but he missed and it went flying around my office and landed behind the bed and promptly disappeared. We hunted all over for it and finally gave up. Art closed all the doors to make sure it didn't go into any of the other rooms and we went to bed.
I'd closed most of my office windows the night before because it often rains at night and I don't want my computer to get wet. When I got up in the morning I saw that the wasp was between the sliding glass window and outside screen. How did it get there? Did it go through the glass? I called Art to look and he was shocked. We should call this the Houdini wasp.
Whatever the case, it died because we didn't want to let it back into the room. It does have a stinger and I have enough welts from bug bites on me.
Now we see that this is a wasp who kills American (Periplaneta americana) cockroaches. Those are the GIANT cockroaches that local writer, Lisa Matsumoto wrote a children's book about called "How the B52 Cockroach Learned to Fly." Now Art is very sorry he had to kill that bug because it was probably keeping the American cockroach population under control in our area. Sigh...
Hopefully Houdini Wasp has some friends who are still around. And hopefully they are outside of the house.
All bugs are buggy, but not all bugs are bad. Such a dilemma.
ReplyDeleteI've never seen one of those and this area thankfully, doesn't seem to have cockroaches. However, we deal with other pests. We struggle with centipedes, ants, and flat stink bugs inside the house. The day I discovered a snake inside the shower of the second floor bathroom, I was feeling a bit creepy--still can't figure out how it got there. Thankfully, each year we get cold weather and they go away for several months. If I lived in your area, I would probably have an exterminator scheduled monthly.Friends who live in Florida and Texas have big problems with bugs.
ReplyDeleteI never heard of such a bug, but it is kind of pretty. Glad it died, though. Houdini bug indeed!
ReplyDeleteits a beautiful color, and since they kill cockroaches its probably a good thing, do you know I have never saw a cockroach in my life, they aren't very common this far north.Probably the cold kills them off,
ReplyDeleteToo bad you didn't know about the cockroach-killing tendencies before the bug died. Next time....
ReplyDeletewow I've never heard of such a wasp, interesting.
ReplyDeleteWow, who would have thought such a vicious looking bug could actually be good for something.
ReplyDeleteeven ugly bugs have a purpose in life...lol!
ReplyDeleteAre you sure there aren't two you've contended with? One behind the bed, and a different one between the glass? It's pretty...but still buggy. DrumMajor
ReplyDeleteThat is quite a bug! I would have done what Art did, but bugs do have a purpose in life. I just hope they use their skills outside of my house.
ReplyDeleteI do like his jade green color, if that counts for anything....
ReplyDeleteOh, yes, even though I'm not fond of wasps, I could get fond of a wasp who killed cockroaches.
ReplyDeleteLet's hope this was a male, and not a female who would kill a cockroach as host for her eggs.
K
Thanks for the info...I have never seen one, but now I'll be sure to let the creature live. If one comes in our house, I'll try shooing it out instead of killing it. Recently we had a rat come in our house (our neighbor complained about having rats also). We finally caught it but not before some damage to the wooden door and moldings as it tried to chew its way out. Imagine being stuck on the glue rat trap while nibbling away...such a pathetic sight.
ReplyDeleteL. from W.
It's a rather pretty bug. I wouldn't mind having a lapel pin that looked like that. You remind me I have to go get more of those cockroach pills that kill the big flying cockroaches. They get into my kitchen via the diswasher (????) We have rats in the attic, too. Terry has caught ten of them in the last two weeks.
ReplyDeleteThe vermin never give up around here.
fascinating post! And your clever use of Google should be instructive! We can now find out almost anything if we refine our search smarts like you did, Kay
ReplyDeleteAloha from Waikiki,
Comfort Spiral
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