OK took down 2 Norway maples today that were dead/ dying. Noticed these wasps all over them, appeared to be laying eggs. How the heck they insert that needle/stinger an inch or so into wood is beyond me.
The ones here only lay their eggs in trees that are weak and dying. Very prolific in the white fir almost immediately after falling the tree. I think their called Dobson flies or something like that. The locals call them stump F'rs
Is this a clear wing borer moth instead of a wasp. The antennae are not jointed. I can't see it clear enough to see if the antennae have the little hairs on them that moths have. Around here in the fall you find all sorts of the clear wings clinging to the side of the trees, dead. They look enough like wasps to scare the crap out of you when you are climbing and one lands on your arm, but no sting involved. I always wondered how they got that long ovipositor into the trunk.
They drill. I had one bore through my jacket, behind my shoulder, and kept getting this irritating feeling. I ask a guy at work if he could see any thing there. "Oh yeah, Jer, you got a stump F'r on your back"
After a fire those buggers get whipped into a frenzy of egg laying, except they aren't too good at telling the difference between the trunk of a tree and the back of your neck. You're not getting bitten but it hurts all the same.
First pic is a Giant Ichneumon. Not sure if I spelled it right, but I found one a few years ago and remember looking it up. Pretty cool bug, if you ask me!
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