Are you aware of Tarantula Hawks?

By: Noah Nicholas

Have you heard of Tarantula Hawks? These aren’t hawks too, these are a type of Wasp. These wasps primarily hunt Tarantulas (hence the name). These creatures are in Texas and they will sting a human, and their stings are painful (I haven’t been stung by these wasps I read about tarantula hawk stings). When the females fight tarantulas they either kill the Tarantula, or they paralyze the spider and lay eggs in the tarantula so when the eggs hatch the larvae eat the spider from the inside. Oh and if you aren’t aware their venom is the thing that paralyzes the spider (just if you were wondering). Fun Fact! Tarantula Hawks are actually the state insect of New Mexico. Tarantula Hawks are relatively docile but will attack if startled. The Tarantula Hawk species has been observed far North up to Lakewood, Washington and as South as Argentina so Tarantula Hawks are in Texas. Tarantula Hawks aren’t like normal wasps that build nest, Tarantula Hawks are pretty solitary so they don’t build nests. If you want to find Tarantula Hawks you should try to grow Milkweeds, western soap-berry trees, or mesquite trees. Tarantula Hawks look like (if you didn’t know) are black wasps with orange wings and the insect is as big as two inches. So if you now extremely intrigued in Tarantula Hawks go look for them start growing those three plants I told you about. If you don’t like being face to face with wasps and you want to see one, go a Zoo (If the Zoo has insect exhibits). Hope you enjoyed this article and feel like you didn’t waste your time reading this article. Thanks for reading!

Category: News, Science News