Bug card No. 0620 of 1,500

Giant woodwasp

Urocerus gigas

The giant woodwasp is a big yellow and black insect that looks just like a scary wasp. Its babies grow up inside the wood of pine and spruce trees.

Lives in

Europe, northern Asia and North Africa, and North America since 2004, in conifer forests

Length

1 to 4 cm (0.39 to 1.6 in)

Top speed

about 35 km/h (22 mph)

Can it hurt you?

Harmless

What does it eat?

Its larvae chew tunnels through the wood of freshly cut or sick conifer trees.

How big is it?

as long as 7 grains of rice in a rowcould fly across a whole football pitch in 11 secondsmoves 240 times its own body length every second

Just maths in your browser. Nothing is saved or sent anywhere.

A kid running fast about 13 km/h (8.1 mph)

A grown-up on a bike about 25 km/h (16 mph)

Giant woodwasp about 35 km/h (22 mph)

A car driving in town about 50 km/h (31 mph)

cool stuff

Its wasp colors are a disguise to trick enemies into leaving it alone.

The female has a long tube with saw-like teeth that she uses to drill into wood and lay her eggs.

The larvae make round tunnels about as wide as a pencil.

Both males and females have a little spike at the end of the body, but it is harmless.

you asked

?What does a giant woodwasp eat?

Its larvae eat their way through the wood of conifer trees.

?How big is a giant woodwasp?

It is 1 to 4 centimetres long.

Urocerus gigas (Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0): what it looks like, where it lives, what it eats, sizes and fun facts, retold in simple words.
Picture by Holger Gröschl. CC BY-SA 2.0 de, Wikimedia Commons. The round sticker of this bug is cut from the same picture.

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