What is that Giant Red and Black Fuzzy Ant crawling around here?
I’ve been coming into contact with more and more people in the area who ask me, “What kind of giant ant is red and black and fuzzy?” The insect that people have been seeing is not a harmful pest but it does have a painful sting. They are not as abundant or as much a nuisance as Fire ants. The large fuzzy red and black large ants are called Velvet Ants and they are a solitary sort of insect.
Velvet Ants are not really ants at all, but wingless wasps. Growing up in nearby Santa Fe, Texas, I learned about them early on. Ranchers called them “Cow Killer Ants” because they said their sting is so painful it could kill a cow. I also learned that they are very hard to kill. Usually stepping on them with a shoe doesn’t do the trick the first time. Their body is hard like an armored beetle. There is no need to kill the Velvet Ants, they are only trying to get away from you and always flee. These ants will never attack unless you pick them up or corner them.
You can find this big beautiful red and black “velvet” ant crawling around here in Seabrook, Kemah, Clear Lake, and EL Lago, and just recenlty I found one over on Egret Bay Blvd. I’ve seen the Velvet Ant crossing trails in Armand Bayou and at Bay Area Park. They are not common but can be seen here by the observant person.
The Velvet Ant also makes squeaking sounds if you capture or try to kill it. I don’t think any other wasp or ant makes a squeaking sound. “Cow killers” do not damage any plants and should be left alone. They feed on nectar and water. The Velvet Ants seen here are always females, the males have wings. The females are the one with the painful stingers.
Unbelievable as it sounds, there are over 470 different species of Velvet Ants found in the United States. The reason Velvet Ants are our good friends is because they are parasitic. The larvae of a Velvet Ant is a parasite. Female Velvet Ants lay their eggs in the nests of other wasps, pucturing the wasp’s cucoon and depositing her eggs. The Velvet Ant larvae then eat and feed on the wasp larvae.
Velvet Ants, our red and black giant crawling “cow killers” are really our friends, because we have common enemies. The Velvet Ant helps to combat nasty stinging Yellowjacket wasps and other paper stinging wasps that tend to build their large paper nests filled with evil flying stinging machines. They are even a friend of the loud buzzing Cicadas that sing their buzz saw songs in our big trees because Velvet Ants crawl down the burrows of the big Cicada Killer hornet and lay their eggs in the cucoon’s of their larvae. Cicada Killer hornets are huge black and yellow striped wasps that burrow into small thunb-sized holes in the earth to lay their eggs.
Next time you see a very big red and black ant crawling in your lawn, just leave her alone and let her go on her way. She’ll help rid you of pesky wasps that sting and you won’t be sorry when you get stung by a “Cow Killer” when you try to mess with her.