CHARLOTTE, N.C. — These critters would likely freak you out: they are wasps that range in size between one and a fourth inch and two inches. Experts say there's nearly nothing you can do to get rid of them.
"They're size is very intimidating! They're terrifying," said Nikki Lawrence. She had a yard with the cicada killer wasps all over it.
The insect lives up to its name. Its main goal is to kill cicadas to then stash inside a burrow so its larvae can eat it, according to bug experts.
Pest control experts said they're descending on the Carolinas due to the large amount of cicadas that have invaded our neighborhood trees.
They paralyze their prey with their powerful sting.
"They'll pick it up and fly it down to their burrow -- they dig burrows like prairie dogs -- and they'll stash the cicada down there and lay the egg on it," said urban ecologist Steve Sullivan.
Lawrence said although they rarely sting humans, she's still not wanting them on her yard.
"I will be in my house and I will look out and I'll look out the door and if it's sitting out there, I'll close it and I'll start shaking," Lawrence said. "And if I walk past it and it's out here, I'll start shaking."
She now puts insecticide powder down the burrows to kill them.
However, experts believe they are very helpful in controlling the population of cicadas, which at times have blanketed cities.
"They might come up and hover a few inches within our face and say, 'Hey, what are you doing here,' but they're not going to sting you, they're not going to try to do anything to you," Sullivan said.
However, on what was a rare occasion, a Charlotte woman said she went to the ER twice after she was stung by one. Her right hand was still swollen a week later.
WCNC contacted several pest control companies. Many of them don't try exterminating the killer wasps because they are just that hard to kill.
They did say, however, that you can do what Lawrence does -- but it will only kill the parent wasps.
The larvae are usually in separate chambers which means they'll survive and come out next spring.
