2 - 3 inch hornet type thing with various colors?

I'm still freaked out.
We just saw a hornet type thing that had a lot of colors on its abdomen and had a HUGE stinger. It was flying around and checking out all the flowers and then made a bee line for me. Any clue what we may have seen? I've never seen anything like it before and it scared the daylights out of me.
It was 2 - 3 inches long and had a very colorful abdomen with a very large stinger.
Any ideas would be appreciated.
Thanks!

http://www.uky.edu/Ag/Entomology/entfacts/misc/ef004.htm
http://www.fcps.edu/StratfordLandingES/Ecology/mpages/cicada_killer.htm
Is it possible you saw one of these?
http://davesgarden.com/forums/t/627855/

No, Vicki, and the first post I ran to look at after I saw this thing was your Giant Ground Wasp too!

This thing was very colorful -- red, green, and yellow. It was actually kinda pretty -- except for the intidimating stinger! I think it was larger than the Giant Ground Wasp. We watched it come from my neighbor's yard, and at first thought it was a hummingbird.

I wish we would have had the presence of mind to take a picture.

Thanks for trying to help out, Vicki!

Hummingbird was my next thought too. Lunatic hummingbird flying backwards ... hee!
I've just gotta see a pic of your critter. Sounds so beautiful but scary!

The more I think about it, and the more I look online, I'm beginning to wonder if it wasn't a hummingbird moth. Do they like roses and hibiscus? Because we saw one on one of the rose blooms. Unfortunately, we didn't get the camera fast enough.

Yes, hummingbird moths will nectar on flowers just like other moths and butterflies.

I remember watching a nature show about either giant bees or giant wasps, which were several times the size of a regular honey bee. I'll wander over to Google and see what I get.

That would totally freak me out. I'm afraid of stinging insects as it is.

With all my phobias, it's a good thing dentists aren't one of them. I had to go back today about a problem with a different tooth. Turns out I cracked the filling and have to get a crown. Sigh. Just when I think I've got a little money to buy something for my new house....

White, it was grinding your teeth over all these varmint problems. Ouch!

Oh do not even say the word "dentist" around me!!! I am the biggest baby when it comes to that!! Massive phobia there!

White, I did Google searches all day long, and none of the bees or wasps were as large as this, or as colorful.

Kinda glad and sad I didn't see it again tonight!

I hate toothaches way more than I hate dentists.

Actually the dentist who saw me today was pretty cute.

I hate toothaches too! But I still don't like dentists. I guess it's helpful to have the "eye candy" when going to the dentist, I suppose. As for me, just put me under and wake me when it's over. :)

This may or may not be your bug, but it's HUGE!

http://www.i-am-bored.com/bored_link.cfm?link_id=17858

Have you tried Ichnumen wasps? These often have very large ovipositors that resemble stingers. they are often large, although they are usually more thin in the body than most wasps.

Here is an example of one in this picture. The colors of yours may not be the same, but see if the body shape is familiar. http://bugguide.net/node/view/59666/bgpage

Some wood wasps (horntails) also have long ovipositors that resemble stingers. Here are a bunch of those... http://bugguide.net/node/view/226/bgpage . Click on the individual genera and/or on the smaller pictures to get a larger view. Some of these are also very colorfull. Especially check out these gals... http://bugguide.net/node/view/36830/bgimage .

My last guess would be a squash vine borer - but in that case you would've been seeing the tongue, not the tail. Here's what they look like... http://bugguide.net/node/view/11809/bgimage . Again, you can click for a larger image.

That's about the extent of my guesses for now.

Thanks for trying to help me out, Night & White. Unfortunately, none of those links were it.
Maybe I'll see it again, and will have a camera ready for a change. :)

Indiana, I freaked out over dentists till I found my current one. He gives painless novicaine. I feel very comfortable going to him. When I was a kid, luckily I didn't get many cavities, but those I did get were filled without novicaine. That started my adversion. Now I'm cured of my fear.

No novacaine!? Ooh, gosh. That makes my fillings hurt just thinking about it.

I think I'm lucky in that I never had a really bad dental visit.

Now don't get me going about gynecologists, though....

Agghhhhhhhhhhhhhh, ow.

This rainbow wasp is haunting me, and I didn't even see the thing. When you find out what it is, indylily, you *must* let us know.

Billy, you're very lucky you've found a dentist that's actually good. The ones I have on my dental plan seem to like to instill fear and pain. Shudder!

White, I won't even go there! However, I'll take the gyne over a dentist any day of the week!

Zeppy, you betcha! I'm still very curious as to what it was I saw. The more I think about it, it was too colorful and too big to be a giant wasp or bee. It was low-flying, and very erratic at that.

Now, if I could just see the huge Buck and coyotes again....

It was probably a drunken University of Michigan student on a hang glider.

Soferdig,
I'm almost positive it is not a University of Michigan student; they are afraid to come this far south.
I'm thinking more like Indiana University or University of Kentucky football players since the movement was so erratic. :)

ROTFL!

hahahah too funny Soferdig!! too funny!!

actually I think it was a dragon fly that indiana_lily saw. (???)

Night_Bloom: thanks for the link: http://bugguide.net/node/view/59666/bgpage

I seen one of those, years ago, I thought someone slipped acid into my coffee!!

It was on my door window, by the porch light at dark.

Thanks!!

http://www.aeshna.com/insects/odonata/Sympetrum%20semicinctum/sympetrum%20semicinctum%20001.htm
aeshna.com/insects/odonata/Sympetrum%20semicinctum/sympetrum%20semicinctum%20001.htm

http://www.dragonhunter.net/bandwingedmeadowhawk_m.html
dragonhunter.net/bandwingedmeadowhawk_m.html

just guessing.

I'm with Nightbloom on this one, but was going to guess Ichneumon Fly vs wasp. The wasp is more colorful though. That long ovipositor is absolutely terrifying and when I see it on the wasp link I know I would be freaked out all over again.

We had one once buzzing around on high livingroom ceiling so my sister and I added every possible extension to the vacuum hose, got the ladder and vacuumed the long-tailed terror into oblivion. Or so we thought.......

After we got done panicking, ewwing and sissying around, we simultaneously had the same horrifying thought staring at the silenced vacuum hose end and our thoughts came true: the darn thing clambored out of its dusty hell! We began the sissying around all over again until it flew out the open door.

Really a scary looking bug: at least 2.5-3 inches from head to ovipositor. Haven't seen one since so I guess it was a chance encounter.

Nope, Jen, definitely not a dragonfly. They are all over and like to hover around me, but that wasn't it.

Poochella, way too funny in a horrifying way!! I've seen those too, and I'd be doing the same thing as you and your sister did. Or, maybe I'd evacuate the room (house) until someone got rid of it for me!

don't even talk to me about mice in my house.....

Ahh mice. I moved into a farm house that had been abandoned for over 5 years and had some of the origional furniture still remaining. After placing my stuff in the house I took a nap on the couch and when I was startled by something on my chest I awoke to seeing at least 5 mice on me and many scattering to places unknown. My 50 # bag of dog food dissapeared in one day through a small hole in the bottom. Quite a welcoming from the old tenants to the new one.

When I was living in Chicago, I had a cat who thought he was a mighty hunter. One morning he woke me up playing with something on the bed. As I watched, he lifted his paw and the biggest roach in the whole world sped toward me.

I levitated and flew out the door. I came back to put a shoe on top of it till my husband came home and dispatched it for me.

The next morning, the dang cat did the same thing! Only this time it was a dead giant cockroach. I guess he figured I wasn't quite ready for "hunting lessons" with live prey yet.

Yeah those cockroaches are pretty scratchy running across you face.

Oh yeah, I remember my Chicago/roach days very well! The apartment I rented was so infested with roaches, they hung out on the ceiling. Shudder!!

Soferdig, I would have suffered a massive heart attack had I woken to that!! I had a mouse fall in a bag of dog food once. My daughter saw it and wanted to keep it, so I told her she could keep it at her dad's house!! So, when he picked her up a few days later, I pack her along with the bag of dog food with mouse in tow. :)

Soferdig, 50 # of dog food must have seemed like winning the Lottery to those mice. Mice on chest- ewww. Beats a cougar on chest though!

I don't think we are blessed to have giant roaches out here- little ones in the city for sure. I discreetly trapped one under my coffee cup in a small restaurant, called the owner over and told him of my achievement. "They aren't our roaches" he said. "They are left from the previous owners" LOL Well they were his now! Lunch was on the house, he was so grateful I didn't make a scene or pee on the floor in fright.

White Hydrangea " I levitated..." LOL! Funny what you can do when the proper motivation is racing toward you!

Alright. It had to have been a hummingbird that was simply flying low and looking for nectar. The more I watch these hummingbirds around my feeder, the more I think that's what I saw. Just wasn't prepare for it to fly right towards me. The stinger-looking thing must have been his little legs and feet.
I truly feel embarassed now. :(

But we had some great stories and a few laughs!

Well, we can still have some great stories and laughs!!
I could tell ya'll the mouse story, that was pretty funny. Or my terrible fear of the bats that fly around here. Or the story about the spider that built a web on the side of my car, and no matter how fast I went, I could not get rid of it. Or the fact that even though I have 2 bird feeders and a hummingbird feeder, I'm scared of birds.
My bug/bat/spider/bird stories are limitless. :)

I'm rolling on the floor already over the spider web!

Yeah. I was very lucky the spider and its web were on the passenger side. Otherwise, I would have had to crawl across the bucket seat to get into the drivers seat. It was a huge spider, by the way.

No broom? LOL!

I bet you didn't have any aphids in your car or bees for that matter. The worse one I had was when I was riding on my motor cycle and a wasp flew down the sleeve of my shirt. By the time I got the bike stopped it had stung me several times before I rolled on it beside the road. I'm sure anyone watching was in stitches. I too liked the spider in the car the best! Steve

Darn it, Billyporter! I had never even thought about a broom! Good grief!! You know, the spider would build a web from my parked car to the retaining wall on the opposite side of the sidewalk before I would have to go to work. So, I would avoid that area when getting to my car.

Steve, ouch!! You're pretty much defenseless when riding! I'm glad that never happened to me. I've been in a storm with hail and could do nothing about it, but a wasp up your sleeve? Hmmm... was your bike a Harley? See, that would make a difference as far as dropping it or not. :)