It's a hornet but I don't know which one. They are not dangerous unless threatened by humans and I for one don't intend to hang around if I see one!!

I'm with you sista! They love to encircle you and get up close to your face & make a loud hissing sound.

Yep! I'd stay away from the nest, and don't let them get trapped in your clothes! The bright yellow paper wasps that we have here are much the same.

well it is certainly one of the wasp family. as to which one no idea. It could be a predatory hornet but which species you get in the USA I don't know.

Thank You

omg would not like this near me,bad enough with our little wasps

It is a cicada killer wasp (pictured is a female) Bath. They dig a hole, find a cicada, paralyze it, bring it into the hole, lay an egg on it, cover the hole...well it does what most solitary digger wasps do. When you hear the drumming of the emerged cicadas in the trees you will see them out and about and they are of no harm to anyone so it is neither nasty nor vicious....I would say.

Loosestrife2 that's exactly what I saw this one do right in front of me. He grabbed a cicada in mid-flight and pierced his brain. The cicada dropped dead right in front of me, but he was too heavy for the wasp to move. The cicada gave a few gasps, then went silent. The wasp just left him laying there dead.

She will be back for some will dig a hole nearby the cicada then drag it in. If it saw you it will not be back until you have left to get the digging job done. For those members outside of the USA, I have one in my insect collections that is 2 inches long. These adult wasps are only to be seen for two months in the summer so you have been privileged to see a rare sight Bathgate.

Wow! ain't I lucky! Remember those crazy Sci-Fi movies?

Thank goodness we don't have them in the UK.

He's huge! I thought it was a bird until he got up in my face - and that sound he makes!

Ah! Different from our paper wasps then! I have read about this kind, but never met one personally. They seem to be missing from our ecology, though we certainly don't lack cicadas. Learn something new every day! :)

LOL we have the other kind too - the ones that hide in the grass and harpoon your foot when you step it - and make your foot swell up having to soak it in epsom salt for a couple days. We have those too!

Bathgate there were two si-fi movies which were absolutely the worst films ever made. One was " Plan 9 From Outer Space" and the other was " The Attack Of The Wasp Woman". Using a Yogi- ism, they are so bad that everybody watches them.

I remember them, they seem corny now, but I loved them. That was good TV. Here's the one I had in mind about killer mantis.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UBos7oKAn_w

But aren't they pretty? That's a terrific photo, is it one of yours?
Live and let live if you can (perhaps not a rule to live by if you are a cicada!)

We are quite lucky in the UK, at least we don't have nasty harpooning insects, rattlesnakes or poison ivy trying to waylay us although the weather is trying its hardest this summer.

Thanks Honeysuckle. Yes, this is my photo. Cammomile: we have all of the above and many others (bats), too many to mention & I had tornado clouds whirling above my house last week.