Great Golden Digger Wasp

I was outside looking for Monarch butterflies when I glanced over at the stump garden, on the north end of the yard, and saw a flash of orange. As I approached the Swamp Milkweed, I saw the biggest wasp I have ever laid eyes on!

You can bet that I was nervous at first, as I had no idea if it was aggressive, but I've photographed other wasps and have never been stung by them due to remaining calm and moving slowly. It turns out that this Great Golden Digger Wasp (Sphex ichneumoneus) is a very gentle wasp.

This wasp was at least an inch long, maybe more. Males are around 1/2"  long with females getting up to 1-1/2", and rarely up to 2" long. I do believe that this was a female.

These are thread-waisted solitary wasps who feed on the nectar of flowers, and thus are important pollinators. They are called digger wasps because they dig holes in sunny spots, with sandy soil, to lay their eggs in long vertical tunnels.  I believe that in colder climates, the young wasps overwinter underground and emerge the following spring as adults. Possibly in warmer climates, the digger wasps lay eggs in spring and the young wasps mature and emerge as adults later in summer. I found conflicting information on different websites. If you want to know more about them, here is an interesting article on Insect Identification.org