Cicada Killer

I believe this hornet is called a European hornet or a cicada killer.  It was on one of the windows of our French door one fall.

Many years ago when we lived in another house, I went out into the yard to do something. I could hear a cicada constantly rattling, not their normal intermittent noise. I didn't look for it, but wondered why it was making noise like that. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw something fall to the ground out of the tree I was underneath and approached it because I could hear it was the cicada. As I did, one of these giant hornets jumped up off of the cicada (which was at least twice the hornet's size) and hovered facing me at my eye level, as if to say, "You want a piece of this?"  I backed away and told it, "No, you can have it."

I had my grandson hold a quarter for comparison behind the glass in one photo.

On another occasion at that same house, we had one fly in through the back door and land on a curtain.  My wife  got some hornet spray while I kept an eye on it. Spraying it only seemed to make it mad and we both bolted for the screen door.  We got stuck shoulder to shoulder in the door way as the thing flew out the door over our heads and landed in a pine tree just over the fence in our neighbor's yard.  It was so big that even at that distance, it looked as big as a hummingbird sitting in the tree.

It is possible this is not a cicada killer because as big as it is, as I remember it, the two in the above instances were even quite a bit larger than this one.

Will they sting? I don't know. I have never been that curious. My guess is they do and it hurts like crazy. Let me know if you ever find out.