So, Jeremy caught this ant thing the other day. It was the craziest looking, furry, striped ant I had ever seen. He put it in a container and was letting the kids look at it. My first thought was to smoosh it, but he was curious, as were the kids, so off he went to check online and figure out what kind of ant it was. It didn't take him long to figure out that although it was called a velvet ant, it wasn't actually an ant at all. Here's what the Ask the Exterminator website said:
The velvet ant is actually a wasp that closely resembles an ant. They are covered in hair that is often brightly colored, which serves as a warning to predators that this wasp can deliver a painful sting.
The one we found was a female which are wingless, hence the confusion with an actual ant. They are about ten times bigger than any ant I've ever seen though! After he read that, I said "out" with the wingless wasp. Especially after he read the other name they're known by....."cow killer ant"! What?! Anything that can kill a cow, does not have a place in my home! As Jeremy read on, we discovered why they are actually called that:
You should avoid handling velvet ants because they have a very painful sting. They got the name cow killer because the sting is so painful that it can kill a cow. Actually, that isn't true, and the name might have developed because a sting could lead to infection by bacteria or sawflies that could eventually kill a cow, but the description of how painful their sting is, is how the name cow killer got stuck. Velvet ants are not aggressive and will try to escape rather than defend territory if you approach them. However, if you pick them up they can squeak loudly and deliver a venomous sting.
So what does Jeremy do? He tries to make it squeak. And squeak it did! That little bug was loud! Eventually, after he was done experimenting with his new found ant species, Jeremy let it go out in the yard. I was still voting for the smooshing option!
