I had about 6 wasps making a nest under the eave of my back patio for the past month or so. My patio is enclosed with windows so I didn't feel the need to disturb them and enjoyed watching them built their next and seeing it grow bigger each day. Last week, by the time they had about 4 little eggs in the holes of the nest, I went out in the morning to see the nest gone and laying on the ground! The landscaper for the hoa found it and knocked it down sometime that morning. I even saw some spray residue on my window. I was pretty pissed and upset for those poor wasps. Now a week later, there's 3 wasps left and they've started a new nest, but only a very tiny ball...much smaller than the original nest and they seem to be just hanging off it. They're hardly moving at all and I feel so sorry for them. Are they dying because it's late in the season and they don't have the energy to start a whole new nest? I feel so badly for them. They're just clinging to the tiny new nest and each other and hardly moving at all. Are they grieving? Dying? I wish I could help the poor little things. I have another nest in the front on the inside the porch light. Landscaper obviously hasn't seen that one (hopefully never does!) and I pass it pretty close when entering and exiting my house daily. They never bother me and I don't bother them.

Several years ago when we lived in Baltimore, we had yellow jackets invade our roof space. It was a 3 story townhouse so getting up to that level from the outside took a seriously tall ladder. We had a hard time finding a pest company to spray and it took them a couple tries before they successfully got rid of them. They estimated there were thousands and thousands of them up there. It got so bad that I could constantly hear them making that crunching, munching noise - crinkle up a regular piece of printer paper and you'll know exactly what it sounded like. Now imagine trying to sleep with that going on! I was terrified that they would come through the ceiling and I would suddenly be surrounded by swarms of the little things. It was not fun.

Why do you have to kill the cicada killer wasps? They are loading up those burrows with numbed cicadas, for their kids to eat. Cicada larva chew on your plants' roots & damage/kill them if there are enough larvae. If you have cicada killers, you must have plenty of cicadas---bugs don't go places where they can't find food. In other words, they are your friends, just like lady bug larva---as ugly as can be but boy do they eat aphids. The cicada killers are attracted to the sandy soil; it is easy for them to dig & it is banked a bit. That is what they need, a sandy bank. They won't hurt your plants unless there are thousands of them in a very concentrated spot. They won't sting you (unlike yellow jackets) unless you do something like grab one. All they want is to dig burrows & drag home drugged cicadas. Leave 'em alone & enjoy the show when they are dragging home the booty (Last year we had a very entertaining afternoon keeping a cat from a Mama cicada killer who was trying to drag her catch across our back lawn--too big to fly with).

Cicada killer wasps don’t ”dive bomb”. considering their solitary nests are small tunnels in the ground. They aren’t considered particularly aggressive but their sting, when delivered, is a mighty one. I stepped on one in my bare feet several years ago and I’ve been told that my screech can still be heard to this day, wafting in the morning mists of the Lowcountry. The male wasps are harmless and cannot sting; the females, though armed, never attack an intruder. Arcy is confusing these dive bombers with something else. If anything, these particular wasps should be considered beneficial and left alone.