Cicada Killer Wasps

Why, in the card making world do we romanticize bugs and other critters? For two months each summer, my yard is plagued with cicada killer wasps.  They are not pretty, they look similar to yellow jackets but are much larger, nearly two inches in length, requiring their own runway strip.  Unlike our friends the gnomes, cicada killers are solitary so each female digs her own nest about six to ten inches deep leaving behind a big pile of dirt at her front door. The good news, if you can call it good, is that only the female can sting and they are usually very busy underground preparing cells in her burrow in which she will place one egg and one cicada insuring another generation of cicada killers for next year, oh goodie!  Of important note, the best way to get rid of these guys is with a baseball bat or a tennis racket.