Unknown bugs bugging.

February 25, 2009 1:49 PM

What kind of wasps (or whatever) are these?

I went outside today to notice a good couple dozen waspy bugs hanging out on my wood pile. Interestingly, they are only interested in the freshly cut wood (a week or two ago) and not any of the drier or partially rotting wood.

I live in Denton, Texas. North Texas, about 30 miles north of Dallas.

They're black with thin white stripes. Some of them have yellowish stripes. There are two that are much bigger than the rest. One of them keeps spinning in circles, and the other keeps mating/fighting with the others, some of which are quite a bit smaller than she. it. Also, if it helps, they were not aggressive at all. My dog actually licked one, and it just ran away. Didn't even fly.

It's not a bald-faced hornet. I don't know if those come down here anyway. Too fat for yellowjackets or paper wasps. None of them are that reddish-brown either. They don't hover around like carpenter bees, and they're not fuzzy.

What are they? Should I do something about them? Why do they only like the fresh wood?

posted by cmoj to science & nature (4 comments total)

Sounds like a Horntail. If not, check out the wasps on What's that Bug?
posted by Bernt Pancreas at 2:12 PM on February 25

Do any of these pics match what you saw? I got them by typing "wasp + wood" into the Bug Guide in Bernt Pancreas' post.
posted by amyms at 3:30 PM on February 25

OK I got closer... they're not wasps. The coloring is from their wings, so I guess some kind of beetle? They've got pretty beefy legs, and they fly like a wasp.
posted by cmoj at 4:02 PM on February 25

Maybe a Mason Wasp?
posted by sanka at 6:04 PM on February 25