Black Widow Versus Velvet Ant

I captured the black widow one day while working on my house in central Oklahoma, and the next day I caught this bright orange insect which I wanted to identify.

After giving up on some insect websites and my somehwat experienced use of the terms orange, insect, large, ant, fuzzy, and various other combinations...

Then I used Google images search to finaly find one very similar, although the image on the internet showed a stinger, and my little wingless wasp didn't appear to have one...

My cheap little camera kept wanting to focus on the jar, so the quality could be better. These arachnids and insects are common in my front yard, so perhaps I will repeat the experiment with a better photographer running the camera.

I have two more black widows caught, but I am working too late to catch more stinging wingless wasps. They according to my search, will kill the bumble bees and hornets in the yard, and maybe even run off the moles I can't seem to get rid of.

Category:

Pets & Animals

Tags:

• black widow
• velvet ant
• insect battle

[Magneticitist]

widow was jabbing him testing him to see if a stinger would come out =D

[TheOkiePC]

@Magneticitist The widow was oblivious to the stinger, did you see where she put herself right in front of it and got nailed? That happened at least one other time, perhaps it killed her eventually.

[1crazyfocker]

at 08:30 to 08:50 the velvet ant/wasp was going to town with its stinger, you can baerly see it, as their stingers are very thin, but long as hell (like half their body size). so it was stinging away just at nothing tho. but if you look close you can see it going in and out..... since you said it did not apear to have a stinger. will it does i bet you just missed it looking thru the camera.

[TheOkiePC]

@1crazyfocker Yes, I meant before it began that defensive posture I didn't think I had Googled the right bug. I caught it in a plastic beef jerky container, and it never revealed it's stinger until it fell into the web of the black widow. That stinger must have went in and out of that abdomen thousands of times, like a 3/4" long hypodermic needle! I am less worried about surprising a black widow and getting bit now, but on high alert for orange when barefoot outside!

[TheFPSTurtle]

Why is the black widow trying to punch it...

[TheOkiePC]

@TheFPSTurtle I found that interesting too. It looked to me, like the spider was putting venom from its fangs onto its short legs and trying to "poke" the wasp with it...Like little poison spears or something. Maybe that is not possible, but it went on for about twenty minutes like a boxing match like that with that chirping sound from the wasp. I have a small yellow scoripion, but the black widows are gone.

[AcermanHD]

You want to trade pokemon? I have a brown recluse!

[AntiNubDevice]

/watch?v=JnguQZjRBVA to check this guy's stinger out. It's pretty savage.

[athtitan123]

The black widow hit em wita right and a left and a right and a left hahaha

[cchanderson]

So it looks like the cow killer ant is the North American grand champion insect?

You still need to try a scorpion, wind scorpion (vinegaroon), and a tarantula.

We already know it kicks the shit our of bumble bees, and cicada wasps, and tarantula wasps by their laying of eggs in their nests.

One of these ran across my porch and my first instinct was to run like a school gorl.



[Nicknick8000]

nice pool.

[colin9413c]

black widow slap match 1:43 - pretty much the rest of it lol

[Magneticitist]

@TheOkiePC yea it did look like she was getting nailed.. couldnt tell if the stinger was striking or not. earlier this week a friend had knocked down a yellow jacket and he threw it in this black widow nesting hole and the widow jumped on it and starting wrapping it up. it was cool cause she spun the bee around as the bee was trying to sting her and started wrapping the tail end up til the point the stinger wasnt moving anymore, the whole time looked like she was again oblivious to it.

[Raiienn]

gooo sonic wave attack nooo taste these fury jabs