I have a healthy population of Great Golden Diggers Wasps in my garden (and around the yard). They are cool to see and I try to dodge them and their tunnels when I can....not that I'm afraid of getting stung but just want them to continue raising their younguns and catching bugs. They're cool.

These wasps are like many other wasps in that they paralyze other bugs...usually spiders or caterpillars...and use them for their young to dine on as they grow. The young basically parasitizes them.

Anyhow, today I got a big treat. I was taking down the electric fence gap going into the garden and when I reached down to unhook the lowest wire one of these wasps caught my attention on the ground. I got to looking and there was what looks like a paralyzed cutworm. Then I spotted a hole. The rest is history. Really cool! A video would have been great but it happened so quick I'm just happy to have gotten the pics that I did get!!!!






















I went back later and could not see where the hole was...I'm going to look again, though. I've never known of them closing the hole off...but, it kinda makes sense!

Digger wasps are adorable! I end up messing up a lot of their holes though because they dig in the garden beds where the sand is softer.
They seal the holes after putting food in it then the babies dig out after eating.

TomatoNut95 said: Digger wasps are adorable! I end up messing up a lot of their holes though because they dig in the garden beds where the sand is softer.
They seal the holes after putting food in it then the babies dig out after eating.

Like I said, it makes sense that they'd seal it off. From what I understand they maybe have several babies in their. I wonder if more than one grub dines on the caterpillar or if each grub gets their own? As big as that caterpillar is I would think it'd feed several grubs for a while! I did go back and check for the hole. I pin-pointed its location and you absolutely couldn't tell there was a hole there...the wasp even pulled a fallen leaf over the spot!

I took a video of another wasp that was dragging a spider on the ground. It drug the spider in the grass, across a gravel driveway, across a cement sidewalk area, and up a brick wall to its nest. Probably close to 50-feet *after* I first saw it dragging the spider!!! Amazing!!!!

Spiders are another reason I like digger wasps. I don't like most spiders.
When digger wasps are digging the sounds they make are super cute and it's kinda entertaining to watch them work.

Very cool photo sequence, Ed. I've watched them drag grasshoppers and crickets, but I've never been lucky enough to witness them going underground.

fun experience, Ed!
My asparagus was plagued by beetle grubs for a few years. I'd pick them off. But eventually I noticed wasps would be flying slowly around between the fronds, looking exactly as I think they would if they were examining the fronds for beetle grabs. And the grubs are rare now, with now effort or chemicals from me.