Sandbox off limits due to cicada killers

The Arlington Heights Park District recently cordoned off a sandbox in Recreation Park with yellow tape because the cicada killer wasp has returned to the box this year.

The wasp is not particularly aggressive, but it can sting if provoked, park district officials said.

Its 2-inch black body with yellow stripes looks more menacing to people than the bugs actually are.

"The female stings, but in comparison to other insect stings, it's minor," said Brian Huckstadt, director of parks and planning. "They are mostly afraid of us - non-aggressive. But their big size scares people."

The box will be off limits until the wasps leave. And that should be in another few weeks, Huckstadt said.

It's a return for the bugs that found the soft sand of the box, frequented by Arlington Heights kids, so appealing last year.

Park staff decided to eradicate them last fall by scooping up all the box's sand in an attempt to break the wasp's life cycle.

Earlier this summer, when park district workers didn't find any wasps, they determined the district had triumphed, but three weeks later, the bugs made a comeback.

Now, the district has decided to live with the bugs. Spraying pesticides in the area isn't conducive to children playing, Huckstadt said.

The park district doesn't know exactly when its new neighbors might leave, but the life cycle of these wasps is between six and eight weeks.

Since they showed up at the end of July, the wasp could be staying as long as the end of September.

Female wasps kill cicadas as food for their offspring. The females paralyze the cicadas before taken their bodies to their underground nests, so their larva can feed on them, according to Ohio State University entomology department fact sheets. The smaller, male wasps have no stingers.

For more information, call the park district at (847) 577-3009.