Large wasp like insect

[MickG]

Hi
I will try to put a photo on later
Had a large flying wasp/ hornet came into my home
The body was 3 cm long and then there was a tube sticking out of the back end
Same markings as a wasp
I have found a photo of hornet which just looks like a large wasp so not the same
The second insect again has the same black and yellow as a wasp but it was smaller than a wasp,wings stuck out at 90 deg to the body and three small yellow dots on the back
It has been flying in and out for a few days and I found it in a screw hole in a wooden frame
I shone a torch in and found it was full of small green caterpillars
It was making a nest in there so it could lay eggs on them
Mick

 

[Wayland]

One of these?

Wood Wasp.

Big and scary looking but harmless really.

 

[MickG]

Thanks for the info that is the one
Did not know it was harmless it had come in twice so I killed it thinking it was a hornet
Mick

 

[Wayland]

One buzzed the assembly at the Bushmoot one year.

Caused quite a stir. They do look scary but the sting has been adapted into an ovipositor for laying eggs.

They usually favour burnt wood I'm told.

 

[Nice65]

She won't be visiting to lay eggs on or in caterpillars. They lay their eggs in wood, particularly felled timber. The larvae hatch then burrow through the wood. The caterpillars may be larvae of the same species. They may even have been living in your wooden frame.

 

[Trotsky]

One buzzed the assembly at the Bushmoot one year.

Caused quite a stir. They do look scary but the sting has been adapted into an ovipositor for laying eggs.

They usually favour burnt wood I'm told.

One buzzed around the nettle cordage workshop last year, it landed on me so I did my best "I am not a tree" impression and it moved on sending more than one person into blind panic. I wasn't sure what it was at first but, I wasn't about to provoke or harm it.

 

[daveO]

It's called Batesian mimicry if you ever need that for a pub quiz or something. "mimicry in which an edible animal is protected by its resemblance to one avoided by predators". Sadly this works the opposite way when they come near people.

 

[MickG]

The one that was storing the caterpillars was not he one in the photo it was the smaller one I described with three dots on its body
Hope this helps
Mick