What do cicada killers eat when there are no cicadas? Well, while cicada killer wasps do hunt cicadas, the adults don’t actually eat them or kill them, their young do. Read on to learn more!
The Cicada Killer Diet
While you may have seen cicada killer wasps flying while carrying what appears to be a dead cicada, it actually wasn’t for them and it wasn’t dead, at least not yet. Female cicada killer wasps hunt cicadas in the trees and tall shrubs. When they find them they attack and sting which paralyzes the cicada.
The cicada is then brought back to the female’s burrow where she lays an egg on it. In a few days when the egg hatches, the larva will feed on the still-living yet totally paralyzed cicada. Unlike their young adult Cicada killer wasps, don’t feed on cicadas at all, both males and females feed on flower nectar and sap.
A Lifecycle Based On Its Host
To ensure that there is enough food for the larva each year, the lifecycle of cicada killers is in sync with their hosts, the annual cicadas. These are cicadas that are present every year, not periodical cicadas.
The adult cicada killers die off at the end of the summer just like the adult cicadas. The larva will spend almost the entire year underground, emerging in mid-summer around the time when the annual cicadas nymphs come out from the ground. And each year the cycle is repeated.
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