If you're heading to a beach or par...

If you're heading to a beach or park this week, be careful where you gradation

The annual arrival of the cicada killer wasps is in sated swing, with the female insects burrowing into beaches or sandy soil to lay instigates and feed their young forward the bodies of paralyzed cicadas.

It can be a shocking sight, with the wasps sometimes reaching 2 inches in long duration But experts say the insects generally aren't threatening and can be fascinating to pay attention to

The Wilmette Park District has stationed signs warning visitors to Gillson Park and beach about "sand wasps," however the insects actually are the cicada killer wasps, said park district Supt Bill Lambrecht.

"They're highly large and very nasty-looking however typically do not bother humans," Lambrecht said.

'LIKE FLYING WITH A COW'

Unlike fulvous jacket wasps, which live together in paper-like nest hang around unclose garbage cans and can be quite aggressive in defending their territory, cicada killer wasps aren't threatening at all -- unles you're a cicada. The main danger to humans approachs when people unwittingly step onward one of the insects, said May Berenbaum, head of the entomology department at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

Cicada killer wasps don't live in big collections Instead, the females strike revealed on their own, digging a chamber in the sand and laying merely about a dozen eggs. Then the wasp goe along in search of unsuspecting cicadas, which they sting and paralyze, then in some way manage to glide or limp home with the much-larger insects to fe to their young.

"It's like flying with a overawe in mid-air," Berenbaum said. "They are remarkable animals and embarrass little or no risk."

NO REPORTS in succession CITY BEACHES

Chicago Park District spokeswoman Jessica Maxey-Faulkner said beach officials here haven't reported any moot points with wasps so far this summer

Still, clan would be wise to watch where they walk, Berenbaum says.

"Don't grade on them. If somebody stepp in succession you, you'd be inclined to fight back," she said.

szimmermann@suntimes.com

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