Black head and thorax are covered with short golden hair; the abdomen is reddish-orange and black; the legs are reddish-orange. The Great Golden Digger Wasp is a beneficial insect, and should be considered an asset in any type of garden. They are black with yellow markings on the thorax and abdomen and they have rusty colored wings. Great Golden Digger ••• wasp image by Marek Kosmal from Fotolia.com. You'll know you've got ground-digger wasp nests when you see small granular mounds of dirt piled up anywhere from two-to-five inches in height.
Her scientific name is (probably) Sphex ichneumoneus (the “probablies” are a nod to the fact that “picture-keying”—matching the bug to the picture in the Field Guide—is a chancy sport). The developing wasps spend the winter in their nest. The abdomen is orange or rusty-red in front and black at the end. Great golden diggers are solitary wasps and relatively large in size. Despite its vivid alarm coloration, the Great Golden Digger Wasp is not an aggressive species of wasp. They live in nests dug into the ground, particularly in open areas exposed to the sun. The most common of the digger wasps are the great golden digger wasp and the blue digger wasp. At the base of the mound of granular dirt will be a finger-sized hole with a "path" of dirt leading out from it. Despite their relatively small size, great golden digger wasps are easy to spot with their black and gold spots.
Wasp hairs and bee hairs differ, and if you were to look under the microscope, you would see that wasp hairs are straight and unbranched, while bee hairs often …

Female great golden digger wasps dig nearly vertical burrows, with individual larval cells branching off horizontally. The great golden digger has a bee-like appearance with gold or amber stripes along its thin torso, while the blue digger has a similar body type but a blue-metallic sheen. The great golden digger wasp (Sphex ichneumoneus) is found in North America. Its peaceful attitude and pest hunting nature, make it a beautiful helper that requires simply a bare spot of dirt, and a healthy population of grasshoppers. The abdomen is reddish-orange except at the tip which is black. Building a nest. Females will … The Great Golden Digger Wasp is a member of the thread-waisted wasp family (Sphecidae), so named for the wasps’ cinched waists. These insects range in size from about one-half of an inch to over an inch long. FIGURE 3. A large solitary wasp, the great golden digger wasp occurs throughout Missouri. Sphex ichneumoneus, known commonly as the great golden digger wasp or great golden sand digger is a wasp in the family Sphecidae. They tend to mind their own business and can be found sipping on flower nectar during the summer, but in the early spring, females prepare to lay eggs. I took these photos that same summer, August 2013, as the Great Black Wasp … Significance: Does not harm people or property More information on Great golden digger wasp It is identified by the golden pubescence on its head and thorax, its reddish orange legs, and partly reddish orange body.