The season of sand wasps and cicada-killer wasps has returned. In the Northeast, these insects generally appear on golf courses from midsummer until early fall. The two wasps in question look menacing and some people cannot believe that they will not sting them. In the case of cicada-killer wasps, they look like they could pick up a rodent and fly away with it!
However, both cicada-killers and sand wasps are mild mannered and nonaggressive. They are focused on making underground burrows and filling them with as much food as possible. Why are they found in bunkers? These wasps target locations with loosely packed soils, in the sun, often under trees where their primary food source – cicadas – are found.
The principal question from golfers when these wasps emerge is “Can they hurt us?” While females have stingers which they use to paralyze their food, they are not aggressive and do not have nest protection instincts like honeybees. If they do not feel threatened, they will not attack. That is why you can play a bunker shot, or the maintenance team can rake bunkers, and the wasps will harmlessly fly around your ankles paying you no attention.
The other half of the population cannot harm us or anything else. Males do not have stingers. They might hover around your ankles out of curiosity, but they will not and cannot harm you. I know you probably won’t spend the time to identify whether a male or female is flying around your ankles, but I like the odds when 50% of a population cannot harm you and the other half doesn’t care about you.
Northeast Region Agronomists:
Adam Moeller, director, Green Section Education – amoeller@usga.org
Darin Bevard, director, Championship Agronomy – dbevard@usga.org
Elliott Dowling, agronomist – edowling@usga.org
John Daniels, agronomist – jdaniels@usga.org