confused creature & a new discovery

This past Sunday Baron & I went to Prattville to check out our house. While we were there, we decided to check out several other houses on our street that are still under construction. This made me slightly uncomfortable, as if we were intruders or something, but not uncomfortable enough to diminish my curiousity. So we ventured into the future dwellings of our Turnberry Court peers. (One quick observation: in walking through the 3 different floor plans, we definitely agreed that we like ours the best, even though one other was significantly larger than ours.) When we walked into the last house of the day, we noticed a loud buzzing noise. It sounded to me like a really big insect. I hate insects, so I was kinda scared. But again, my curiosity won that battle. So we walked back to the dining room area, and this is what we found...

He was trying to fly through the window. I think he was confused. We opened the door, but he didn't see us, so he kept trying to fly through the window. Then we opened the window more, but he still did not heed our advice. I really wanted to pick him up & put him outside, but he was so spastic that I was scared he would flutter into my face or something.

As I approached the hummingbird in an attempt to psyche myself up for touching him, I looked out the window and saw a hideous creature. It was the biggest stinging insect I have ever seen. Is that a wasp? No...it's too big. A yellow jacket? It has yellow on its body. No, still too big. I had no idea what it was, but I sure was scared of it. When we were finished looking at this house, we walked out the front door, and there it was again. It had made its way around the house to stage its surprise attack on us. There it was, lurking amongst the mounds of dirt and tall weeds. How would we get around it? It was huge. Needless to say, Baron safely walked past it as I scurried to the safety of the street. (I'm not sure why the street seemed so much safer than the yard, but it did.) So when we got home, I looked it up online and found out it is a cicada killer. It's in the wasp family. Ok, so since we have so many cicadas here in the south, how have I never seen or even heard of one of these things? The one we saw was probably close to 2 inches long. It was so scary. But apparently they are somewhat docile stinging insects, much like the mud dauber. They "supposedly" only sting when provoked, unlike the wasp or yellow jacket (which apparently sting out of pure enjoyment??). Whatever...I'm still staying away from them. Here is a picture, in case you ever come across one & don't know what it is. Beware the cicada killer.

(To read more about cicada killers, click here.)