Missouri Department of Conservation

Velvet Ants

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Velvet Ants

Numerous species in Missouri
Family: 
Mutillidae (velvet ants) in the order Hymenoptera (ants, bees, wasps)
Description: 

Velvet ants are not true ants. True ants are social, while velvet ants are a group of solitary wasps. Female velvet ants are wingless throughout their lives; males are winged. There are many species and several genera of velvet ants in Missouri; they look like large, furry ants and are usually brightly colored, often in shades of red and orange, with blackish legs. Males look more like “normal” wasps. Velvet ants usually run on the ground quite rapidly.

Don’t try to handle them: Velvet ants are not aggressive, but they will sting if held or if stepped on with bare feet. The stinger is extraordinarily long, and the sting is excruciating, hence the popular name “cow killer.” (A 1996 study showed that, oddly enough, their venom is comparatively less toxic than that of, say harvester ants and honeybees.)

Size: 
Length: about 1/2 to 1 1/4 inches, depending on species.
Habitat and conservation: 
Velvet ants occur in places where their host species dig their nests. They are most often found in open, dry, sunny, sandy areas such as sunny lawns or cemeteries. Females of several species can produce chirping or squeaking sounds by scraping one abdominal segment against another. Sometimes they make this sound as a warning prior to deploying their sting. Velvet ants are not pests; instead, they represent another piece of nature's endlessly fascinating tapestry.
Foods: 
Adult velvet ants, like many other wasps and bees, eat nectar. Immature velvet ants hatch out in the nest chambers of their host species and consume the larvae, pupae or cocoons of the host.
Distribution in Missouri: 
Statewide.
Life cycle: 
Young develop as parasite of other immature insects, most often the larvae of other wasps and bees. Velvet ants that attack bees and wasps place their eggs in the cells of the host; nests are often entered forcibly and the velvet ant may remain in the nest for several days. Dasymutilla occidentalis, the largest and most brightly colored species of velvet ant in the state, parasitizes bumblebee nests. Other velvet ant species parasitize, for example, cicada killer wasps.
Human connections: 
Look, but don’t touch. The naturalist Edwin Way Teale described his boyhood encounter with a velvet ant: “I was holding it, trying to decide what it was, when it went into action. The effect of its sting was like a series of powerful electric shocks following each other in quick succession.” Ouch!
Ecosystem connections: 
It's hard to envy the female velvet ant, which must somehow locate the well-concealed subterranean nests of the correct host species, then find a way inside the tunnel without being stung or otherwise driven away by the defensive mother (often another wasp) that had dug the nest.

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