Tarantula Hawk

insects · amazing hunters · extreme pain

Giant wasp hunter. Tarantula hawks are among the largest parasitoid wasps on Earth, and they have one job: find tarantulas and turn them into food for their babies.

Legendary sting. Their sting is considered one of the most painful insect stings in the world. Thankfully, they are not aggressive toward humans unless provoked.

Clever hunting trick. A tarantula hawk finds a tarantula, stings it to paralyze it completely, and drags the spider into a burrow as a living pantry for its future baby wasp.

Creepy baby care. The mother wasp lays a single egg on the paralyzed tarantula, and when the egg hatches, the baby wasp eats the still-living spider from the inside out.

Found almost everywhere. Tarantula hawks live on every continent except Antarctica, hunting in warm and temperate regions around the world.