Be sure to wear shoes while outside! My one and only sting from a Hymenopteran occured when I stepped on a cicada killer. I only screamed for a little while, lol!

Valiche, I hear ya on the cicada killer wasps. I learned about them a couple of years ago - had *never* seen them before then and found the information on the web... sheesh, wasps on steroids, just what I needed! I have only seen one pair in our yard for each of the past two years. The female isn't my problem as she digs her holes in a mulched slope that I don't have to look at anyway... it's that territorial male who dive-bombs anything that moves in the area! This means no gardening for me, and no playing in the yard for the kids when he's on duty. I'm not sure how yet, but I may have to try to get rid of them this year when/if they arrive, although I hate to. The first year, I thought - they're helping reduce the cicada population. Now I find out the cicadas are annuals (didn't know there was such a thing, philmont! Just figured these cicadas were chronologically challenged and came out the wrong year, lol) and the CKW are probably not making much of a dent in that population. I dunno. Maybe we'll see how aggressive this year's CKW are first.

The adult wasps are probably long gone in your area. It is only the female wasp that bothers to defend her nest, anyway. By 'long gone', I mean dead. Grubs may overwinter, OR the egg chamber may be empty. It is the developing grub that feeds on cicadas. Once it reaches a certain stage, it either transforms into an adults and flies away, or it remains in a quiescent pupal stage through the winter....no stinging involved. If I were in your place, I would move this plant with total confidence, 100% security that you will not be swooped down upon and attacked. Nothing inside the nest CAN do so. Feel better? Besides, the sting of these particular insects really isn't nearly as horrid as reputed. I stepped on one with my bare feet a few years ago and only screamed for a couple of days. (Just kidding...about the days, not about the sting!)

You could come up here and hear cicadas only for a little bit each summer, but you'd have to endure 6 months of winter. I sometimes dream of how nice it'd be to have warm weather year round, or much longer than we get here, but there's a price to pay for that. A long cold winter is like a reset button, taking care a lot of insect problems, like the cicadas, but more notable to me, the hornets, wasps, and pesky mosquitos. Nice flower there too by the way. I've never had much luck getting any cacti to flower, so I just like to enjoy pictures of other people's cactus flowers. Joe