Any one ever seen one of these....Giant wood wasp

[josaphine32]

http://www.amentsoc.o...noptera-symphyta.html

I was just out side in the garden and this massive insect buzzed around my head, The picture does not do it justice as it must have been 1 1/2 inches long and very loud, I had never seen one before.
Anyone else seen any unusual insects/things in there garden.

[puma86]

I recently found a Crab spider in our back garden....never knew they existed. after reading about them online they are rather impressive little things.

I did also find a weird looking cocoon thing. looked like wood. I broke it open and it was full to the brim with dead baby spiders??? never found out what that was. Freaked me out a little though :o(

[mccfluff]

arghhhhhhhhh wish i hadn;t read that puma, gone all itchy now

[RATTER15]

I used to work in a clay mine many years ago, we would often see these down in the mine, they were imported in the timber that we used to prop up the mine when mining, they were a bit scary!

[puma86]

sorry :O)

[notasyoungasiwas]

Once saw something that frightened the life out of me. It was black and looked like a scorpion with the curled over tail and was about three inches long (yes, three inches!) It was on my back step. I ran inside and locked all windows and doors! Later learned it was a devils coach horse beetle. Seen only one more since and it was a lot smaller.

[supersuezy24]

Just read all these posts and got shivers!!! Ewww eww ewwwww :(

[sherrardk]

My husband's got wood stacked up (neatly in an 'arty' way) in his showroom and when it got warm last summer all the wood wasps hatched at the same time and he had to do a runner - there was a swarm of them (and he is petrified of normal wasps).

[askyourgran]

I haven't seen the wood wasp, but we have a lot of those saw flies this year. We have a giant hosta plant and a very tall rosebush, both of them have been completely ruined by the sawflies stripping the leaves.