Скачать или смотреть Blue Winged Wasps - Nature's Answer To The Japanese Beetle

As I was mowing I noticed large numbers of Blue Winged Wasps (Scolia dubia) flying low to the ground on my property. So I decided to hop off the mower to try and film them. Unfortunately they are speedy little critters!

These are some of nature's best control of the notorious plant pest and invasive beetle, the Japanese beetle (Popillia japonica). The females of this wasp species lay their eggs in the burrows of Japanese beetle larvae, which then hatch and eat the larvae. This is very similar to the cicada killer hornets, except they focus on the larvae and not the adult beetles.

They tend to swarm areas of high grub numbers and most often during the hottest, sunniest days of mid/late summer. As a former pest control technician, I used to get calls for these wasps often during the dog days of summer. Much to the annoyance of my customers though, the way to remove the wasps, was to kill off the Japanese beetle larvae below their feet. A lengthy lawn treatment was needed and it was never cheap. In my opinion though the wasps did a phenomenal job on their own and within a few weeks the wasps were all dead and the larvae were being devoured. Nature always finds a way to balance itself.