re: Help needed...can you ID this flying menace?

Since you have cow killers in your yard, Mojo, I sure wouldn't recommend walking around barefooted back there. Those things have a stinger that's wicked, too.

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That is by far the worst pain I have ever felt come from a foreign object/creature

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There's a reason they call em cow killers. Up here they don't get as big as they do farther south. I've seen em get as long as two inches and more, and their stinger is a weapon of mass destruction.

Those cow killers have one redeeming virtue, imho. They will also crawl down a yellow jacket, bumblebee, or hornet hole and lay their eggs in that nest, too. They actually help to control yellowjackets, etc. And they're hard to kill. You can step on em, but their exoskeleton is so tough they just crawl off again. I guess its hide is so tough so it can't get stung to death by yellowjackets, hornets, bumblebees when it invades their nest? They make this little squeaking noise when you touch em or pin em down with a stick or something, too. And they'll set off a nuclear explosion in your hide if they sting you.