wasp or bee?

Every fall to early spring, I will occasionally see a cocoon that looks like a red/brown bean that is pointed at both ends. I usually find them between the first 1 or 2 inches in the ground. Last summer I saw a few (for the first time in many years) what I thought were hornets. Some had red on them and some were all black I think. I have had problems with wasps each year. As I discover the cocoons throughout the time frame specified, I can see the insect develop. Some look like yellow jackets. What kind of insects are these and are they beneficial? The cocoons I see look similar to these but only about 1/4" to 1/2" long - the size of a bean.

http://davesgarden.com/guides/bf/showimage/5513/

This message was edited Jun 2, 2013 9:50 PM

This message was edited Sep 12, 2013 5:17 PM

I can't answer your question directly, but perhaps you can find your answers in these links

http://www.hud.gov/offices/adm/hudclips/guidebooks/PIH-95-66/HUDGB7C12GUID.pdf

http://extension.usu.edu/files/publications/factsheet/yellowjackets-hornets-wasps09.pdf

http://www.adkinsbeeremoval.com/wasp-identification.php

http://extension.usu.edu/

Thanks. It must not be yellow jackets then. I should keep an eye on that though. I do wish I had taken pictures every time I have thought about it when I saw them.

You might be able to find out which one it is from this site: http://amazingnature.us/insects/#15
The site lists only Utah insects.

A lot of insects have a pupae stage. You'd probably be looking for a solitary wasp or hornet instead of a colony type, so definitely not yellow jackets. Especially since you'd be getting stung like crazy if you were digging up one of their nests.

They do not look like yellow jackets to me either.

-

http://369bugs.com

I didn't think they were, though they do look similar to them. They don't bother me really. Thanks I will have a look.

This winter/spring when I see them, I am going to take pictures and even incubate one or two. I really would like to find out what they are.

it is likely some sort of moth pupae like a cutworm.

http://bugguide.net/node/view/15575

Wasps and bees build nests. The ones we are most familiar with, like honey bees and many others are colony insects, so you would not find pupa just stuck under the ground. Even solitary bees and wasps build some sort of nest. The nest may contain only a few to a dozen pupa, but it is a group of babies.

Single pupa that look like that picture are indeed much more likely to be moths of some sort. They will emerge as adults, lay eggs that hatch into plant eating caterpillars.

Thanks a lot drobarr. I was kind of thinking about that this early summer since there was a couple more moths than we usually get. I have a little bit of a hard time navigating bugguide.net. Thanks for the link. Thanks for the assurance Diana. I was almost afraid that it was some sort of ground nesting wasp. That is almost the exact cocoon I see. Thanks all for your help!

I finally was able to get a picture of a crysalis? I have been pulling weeds in this one area under my pine tree and have found a few more cutworms than I normally find in one year. I unburied this when I pulled some weeds and the pointy end was still in the ground. The whole thing was about an inch undreground. So now, I am thinking more along the lines of it being a cutworm.
My hands are awesomely dry, aren't they?

I am still thinking you are dealing with a moth sort of thing, not anything related to bees or wasps
Yes, I also see cocoons like that when digging in the soil.

I also get dry hands when I work in the soil. I do not use a specialty product, just any kind of moisturizer or lotion, especially right after washing my hands, when they have taken in some of the water. I usually apply it several times over a few hours.

Yea, me too. But that is to just get them to stop hurting. Sometimes they get so dry it is like winter burn. I have to use something like Lubriderm or Burt's Bees (not the greasy stuff) to make them look soft and not cracked again, over a couple of days.
Maybe I should put the cocoon in a jar or something and see what hatches. I have thought about doing that too. I think I shall. Then I will let you know what it is. Hopefully it hasn't hatched yet.

Perhaps one of the Noctuid moths, possibly an owlet moth cocoon /pupa

http://bugguide.net/node/view/451538


This message was edited May 12, 2014 2:32 PM

I have never seen that caterpillar before, but it does have the fork at the tip of the cocoon. The 2 pointy things. It has not hatched yet as far as I know. It wriggles in my hand now. I am looking forward to when it does emerge.

It never did emerge out of the cocoon as far as I know. I kept it in a jar so I could see what it turns in to and after 2 weeks or something, I dumped it out in the greenhouse still alive however. Guess it will remain a slight mystery. Not knowing for sure what kind of moth or bee or whatever it is but having suspicions.

If it is what I am thinking it stays in its cocoon until next spring. Adults emerge and breed as soon as the weather warms, and the caterpillars feed through the summer, then stay dormant over the winter. I wonder if the one you found is alive or dead? Since it has not emerged.

Have you been seeing 'grubs' or caterpillars this summer?
Or eaten parts of leaves?
Or whole seedlings gone?

No, yes, no.
I have some strawberries this year and they are the only things getting munched on. A couple of months ago a little big that looked a lot like a katydid crawl out of one of my strawberry plants when I watered. Only thing is it only had one hind leg. I don't know why (probably because it got in a fight), or if that was normal for that bug. But that probably doesn't have anything to do with the cocoon. Also, I have had more grasshoppers this year though they still aren't a problem. Still has nothing to do with the bug in question. I am just saying, I don't have anything it could be.

Grasshoppers and Katydids do not form cocoons like that, so you are right, they are not that part of the answer.
They are born more like miniatures of the adults, but not quite.
As they molt, each instar (the phase of the bug between molts) looks a bit more like the adult.

So something that looked sort of like, but not exactly a Katydid probably was a baby.

Grasshoppers eat plants, so they sure could be responsible for the holes in the strawberry leaves.

polka dot wasp moth Syntomeida epilais is the adult of the oleander caterpillar


http://davesgarden.com/guides/bf/showimage/5513/


http://entnemdept.ifas.ufl.edu/creatures/orn/oleander_caterpillar.htm

This message was edited Aug 4, 2014 10:56 AM

Just as I thought DianaK.
TMH - It seems the same but the cocoons or instars or whatever I showed in the picture above, has always been found 3-4 inches under ground. This isn't saying much, but I have never seen a caterpillar or moth like that. Only if I could have hatched the cocoon!!! Oh well.
Thanks everyone for your help. Some mysteries are just never solved; are they? And that is ok.