I’d like to introduce you to my 10-year-old granddaughter, Anna. She’s doing this blog.
My grandma and I were looking for red-spotted purple butterfly eggs on a cherry tree in the yard, before it got too hot. Her cat, Callie, was laying down when a flash of red caught my eye. At that moment, I knew exactly what it was but forgot the name. I stuttered, “There’s a red… velvet… bull… ant… thing!” Grandma said, “Ooh, that’ll be a great blog idea!” Later on we found out that it was nicknamed Cow Killer, but the scientific name is Dasymutilla occidentalis. But that’s a whole nother story. Let’s not get to that yet.
When I saw the ant, it was like a mini red bullet train. That little rascal was zooming away, and it was hard to take a picture because grandma and I were following it with the camera. The total length it went before stopping (and that we followed it) was 26 yards! It must have been a 5k for the little ant! The entire time it was going in a straight line very quickly. After the 26 yards was up, it went down into a crack that seemed random. We wondered if the crack was the ant’s destination. I was trying to get a picture of the crack she went in, and that’s when she came out and posed for this last picture.
These are known to run quickly and fight ferociously. Cow Killers get their name from their painful sting. The pain is so severe that most people claim it can kill a cow. At least now you know the story I was talking about the “Cow Killer” name and how we found it :D.
The males have wings, and the females don’t. Apparently the one above is a female since it doesn’t have any wings. The females search for a bumble bee nest and lay one egg beside each brood chamber. The young feed on the bee larvae.
Cow Killers are not actually an ant. They are a wasp.
Warning to people who have allergies: Some people have severe allergic reactions to this bite. LOOK OUT!
Visit Anna’s blog site at: naturalistanna.wordpress.com