Appearance

• Characteristics: One of the most observable differences between ants and wasps is that ants have elbowed or L-shaped antennae, while wasp antennae are normally straight or C-shaped.
• Females: The female is wingless, hairy, and colored red and black.
• Males: The males look similar to the females, except they have two pairs of dark colored wings.

Diet

Adults feed on nectar, while the larval stages are parasites of ground bees and wasps .

Habitat

Their preferred habitats are pastures and the edges of forests. In urban and suburban areas, cow killers are seen crawling through lawn vegetation, digging around in the soil, or perhaps in garages where they have wandered in by accident.

Geographic Range

The range of the cow killer is from the east coast of Florida to Connecticut and westward to Missouri and Texas.

Reproduction

Female cow killer wasps dig into the nests of these bees and wasps , and lay their eggs on the larvae inside the nest. When the eggs hatch, the larvae consume their host, then spit its pupal case on its host.