Category Archives: Wasp

Yellow Sand Wasps

Mention of a wasp is enough to make you fear. They deliver painful stings. One of the species of wasps is Sand Wasps or Bembix. They nest in the ground preferably in the sand. These live in urban areas, forests and woodlands.

Adult sand wasps feed on nectar but most hunt for flies to feed to their larvae in the nest. They are excellent hunters, capturing flies on the wing, paralysing them with venom in mid-air and carrying them back to the waiting larvae. Sand wasps can deliver painful stings only when they are disturbed.

I spotted these wasps many times in a forest area near me. One of them was furiously digging a nest in the sand. It was doing it very deftly. As the sand piled up at the mouth of the hole, it comes out to clear it so that further digging is continued.

Wasp digging the hole