Sitting in the office one morning I kept hearing a buzzing noise – I turn to Rina to ask if she could hear it. We sit in silence for a couple of minutes – then the hunt begins. We overturn nearly the entire office looking for the origin of the noise. Eventually we are forced to give up.
As I reposition my chair at the desk my eye catches movement on the wall, and right there I spot a Wasp. With the utmost precision he is testing the depth of a small hole in the wall (where a shelf used to be) his wings creating the consistent buzzing. Nearly his entire body is buried in the cavity and only his hind legs are visible on the wall. These wasps are known as Spider Hunting Wasps.
Females of the species are uniformly black with a blue sheen. 
All species of Spider Hunting Wasps are solitary and most species will paralyze their prey after capturing it. Being solitary these wasps do not colonize, they nest alone in burrows or crevices. Although they have the ability to fly rather well they spend most of their time on the ground searching for prey.
These wasps have powerful venom which is used to paralyze their prey (the prey consists mostly of spiders and in particular the Orb Web spider. After stinging its prey, the wasp will drag the prey to a nesting site. The prey is only paralyzed at this point and still very much alive. These wasps are incredibly agile and possess great mobility to maneuver the prey into small crevices and holes which have been pre prepared.
The wasp will then lay a single egg on the Spider’s abdomen; the wasp will exit and close the nest, concealing it completely. In about two days the wasp egg hatches in its underground cell. It will start feasting on the soft tissue of the spider, starting with the abdomen and eventually only leaving behind a hollow carcass and legs. After about seven days it spins a silken cocoon and pupates within, emerging as an adult wasp when the right temperature and humidity is reached.
It completely amazed us how quick and efficient this little insect worked to build its nest. The wasp tirelessly building the perfect little dome for its offspring, so they could emerge and continue the cycle of life, as nature intended. We kept a close eye and managed to snap only a few pictures. We have become rather fond of the wasp in the office and Rina and I keep a close eye on the nest everyday – I will keep you posted when our adoptive “child” is born 🙂
If you happen to come across a large black wasp with a blue sheen, walking on the ground, you will now at least know there is someone monitoring the spider population.
*Justine Ferreira – Photos by: Rina Erasmus 🙂