Wasp Watching: The Great Golden Digger Wasp (Sphex ichneumoneus)

Wasp watching can yield some of the best wildlife encounters! One such was with this very plucky female Great Golden Digger Wasp (Sphex ichneumoneus) from West Monroe, Louisiana, featured in this short wildlife documentary. This is a short wildlife documentary film (under 14 minutes) filmed by Kimmie and Charles Paxton in UHD and highspeed 130 fps HD set to some very groovy music 'See you on the other side' from the 126ers made available courtesy of Google's awesome YouTube Audio Library.

A very characterful, busy little creature, just over an inch long, with purplish glossy, transparent wings folded neatly over an orange-brown abdomen with black tip. Her golden head and neck fuzz, collar and shoulder trimmings and her energetic earth workings give her her English name, these along with her large shiny compound eyes won our affection instantly.

The Sphex was so sweet and perky. Her moves so crisp and deliberate! She scooted up and down a little sandy run and then disappeared neatly down her burrow, only to emerge again backwards after a short while with a clump of sand between her curved orange fore-legs. This sand was then flung very quickly underneath her between her legs and then back she'd go for more. On  occasion she would spend a little extra time above ground splaying out her legs to spread the sand. This gives the rather amusing appearance of her 'revving up' to go back down her hole. At first I didn't even see the sand being spread, she was so fast, I just saw her revving up and down her little track, constantly feeling the ground ahead of her alternately with each feathery antenna and occasionally flapping her wings a little!

We immediately returned with our Lumix cameras and set to filming her endeavours in UHD at 30 FPS and in high speed HD (130 fps) mounted on tripods and lain on the ground and upon a rice bag. She was very tolerant of our presence and so preoccupied with the task of excavating her nest burrow that we were entirely free to get down low and get in close! The tiny quartz crystals looked a little like precious stones when enlarged in close-up. She looks great in the 4K video and her moves are so fast that they were blurring at 30 fps.  She even allowed the tripod to be set directly over her hole! The Sphex are non-aggressive. Don't try such liberties with the eusocial wasps (like Red Wasps) as they are not as sweet-natured as the solitary wasps and unlike this lovely, tolerant Sphex.

Kimmie and Charles are members of the Louisiana Master Naturalists Northeast chapter and are seeking to document cool wildlife encounters during lock-down due to COVID-19. Stay safe and well, wear masks and maintain six foot distance and hopefully we'll see you on the other side of this pandemic, folks! Thank you 126ers! Your music works very well with this film I think!

[tinavanvliet]

Thank you for sharing! I live in Ontario, Canada and we watched this wasp dig her tunnel and bury a grass hopper in it. We were at deer Creek conservation area

[francoisdisney]

I have one in my yard. I’ve named her Reba. She’s just a single mom who works two jobs, who loves her kids and never stops, with gentle hands and the heart of a fighter, she’s a survivor.

[emyywolf]

There’s one that is digging close to my front porch. Man, THEY TERRITORIAL . 😂 She will fly to me, and hover in front of me like she’s a security guard 😂 to see who I am and what I’m doing there

[jamfox]

How do you have only 14 subscribers? This is algorithm gold.

[hymenopteraofnorthamerica]

This is documenting natural history at its finest. Remarkable behavior caught on film and remarkable videography - multiple angles! Just, stunning. This thirteen minute video illustrates so much about solitary wasp behavior. Watching her hide the evidence of nesting at the end is incredible. She alternates rapidly from 'pulling stick behavior' to 'scattering leaf debris behavior.' Appearing almost satisfied by the look of randomness she created, she eventually departs. Wow.

[markwilliams]

We only ever give credit to bees for being busy but wasps are hard workers too. Exhibit A

[GeorgeAlexanderTrebek]

Nice video. Just found one of these guys dead center of my garden. They are very loud and seen a grasshopper outside of the burrow, very cool! These things are way bigger that i expected lol

[duncaninnature]

Glad I stumbled across this after observing one of these in the garden. Great footage!

[shaunajoyce]

very good in the way you describe every detail thank you sir bestvwishes

[TraversD]

Great video! Thank you for making this!

[ofcv]

The best part is hearing thumps as female lands nearby burrow with oversized & paralyzed future egg recipient.

[ricardoaquino]

Tank you for your filming time, very good👍👋

[hammerheadxray]

After watching videos like this I've learned to not fear every single wasp. Hell Cicada Killers are my new best friend, they're huge but want nothing to do with you

[martinowong]

Beautiful footage! I’d love to use it for an educational video I’m working on, can I contact you in some way?

[janSimiman]

10:48 I never seen insect downdraft before

[sunspiral]

Im surprised to the extent it went to hide its burrow

[GettingSchwiftyy]

Wow, I thought this was a professional video. Very cool. Very original. To think that katydid is still alive and will be even the egg hatches and the larva hatches and while it feeds on the katydid. That is so intense.

[unusualpond]

Amazing video thank you! But what’s with the nut shell thing? Did I miss something?

[BetteKauffman]

Fascinating. I'm curious what the total span was from the time you began shooting until she was satisfied with her covering over of the burrow and left.

[SullyyBones]

I was mowing a customers backyard and I guess stumbled on about 15-20 of these things. When I ran over that area they all exploded out of the ground and swarming everywhere but I didn't get stung thankfully. They just freak out lol