Invaders!!

One sunny Saturday, I sent the three boys outside to play. Soon, Derek came running in and said "there's BEES out there!!". I went out and sure enough, in our backyard, there were literally hundreds of these huge monsters buzzing around low to the ground.

After sending the boys inside, I decided to go back out there, but to take along a fly swatter this time (yes, I have some not-so-bright moments, but I've always liked battling these things from the days back on the farm). I was able to swat a couple of them, and noticed that although they were flying all around me, they didn't seem to be aggressive at all.

After uploading these photos, my mom was able to identify these things as "Cicada-killing Wasps". They are usually completely harmless to humans, they burrow in the ground and they hunt the cicadas that are all over this year.

After that, we just didn't worry about them and left them alone. Sure enough, they all disappeared again around mid-August. I expect we'll see them again next summer, or maybe not depending on the cicadas.