Giant wood wasp

[HonestJohn]

First time ever seen these. In Scottish Borders

Anyone else seen them in the UK?

 

[finbar]

A think so sent photo to a mate who told me it was a wood wasp

 

[HonestJohn]

Seems like according to google they live in pine woods - none around here at all. Very odd. At least they’re not harmful! Almost whacked it out of instinct, but guidance is to leave them alone

 

[paulst]

Yes, seen them in Cumbria although not often.

 

[marineboy]

Seen them in Oxfordshire

 

[Stuart Mitchell]

My anvil sits on a portion of tree trunk that we got from the Chatsworth Estate, for a couple of weeks after it landed with us those pesky blighters were making their way out of it.

 

[sako751sg]

Seen them loads through the years.
Most common is when the roofers start sarking and presuming they must smell the wood from a distance.Scary looking beasts right enough.

 

[Mickeydredd]

In Lauder around 12 years ago.

 

[csl]

Haven't seen one in the South West, but you fairly regularly see smaller species... I'll stick them on the 'no thanks' board next to Asian giant hornet, even though they are native, they aren't native here!

 

[Smallholder]

I've seen the odd one down here in Devon, completely harmless unless you have some wood on you. We get far more native hornets about the place, which haven't caused us any problems either even though the large queens often pop into the house hunting.

 

[Freeforester]

Seen regularly in Grampian.

 

[shezza87]

I see them regularly in the summer in Scotland. I’m a joiner to trade. I don’t know if they appear from the timber i’m using or attracted to the smell. The long spine attached to their abdomen isn’t for stinging. it’s for laying eggs i’m led to believe.

 

[csl]

i’m using or attracted to the smell.

That's interesting. There was always a lot of common wasps coming when I was sawing up leylandii and other sappy pine trees.

 

[User00056]

I used to see a lot of the larvae when splitting pine for firewood. The 'stinger' is actually the ovipositor. The wasp lays her eggs in the bark, and the larvae eat their way into the wood. They're pretty large, too. We see a fair few around here. Totally harmless, and pretty interesting I think

 

[doric_prince]

First time ever seen these. In Scottish Borders

Anyone else seen them in the UK?

I’m in the Scottish Borders, have seen them in our mixed woods twice these past 5 years. As early as last year. Looks more vicious than it actually is (it’s not a stinging wasp).

 

[JH83]

2 weeks ago in N Lancs whilst on a pen fixing day.

 

[Swedish]

Completely harmless but often emerges on new housing estates from building timber. It's not a true wasp but a giant sawfly.

 

[Sonicdmb73]

First time I saw one was about 30 years ago. Unloading a delivery of oak into the workshop. Lifted a board to see one of these sat on the next board down. A definite WTF moment.
Looked it up in a book, No google search then, once we found out it was harmless (unless you're a tree) we moved it and carried on with stacking the oak

 

[andy R204]

Seen a odd one when I did NDT at Egger in Hexham.
I've worked at a timber importers for 9 year & have only seen 1 in our yard.
Their quite a size,very slow & loud when they get close.
Harmless apparently but wouldn't like one in my cab

 

[Rake Aboot]

Had a couple come out of my logs, luckily before they went in the burner.