More caterpillars eaten alive

I love wasps. I love them even more when they are killing caterpillars. Which was why I was excited to see this:

It is a tomato horn worm -- bane of the tomato growers existence -- covered with the pupal of a tiny little parasitoid wasp. A momma wasp finds a tomato horn worm, and cheerfully lays some eggs inside it. The little baby wasp larva hatch and happily munch on the innards of the caterpillar. Like all good parasitoids, they are careful to save the vital organs for last so the caterpillar doesn't die. Finally, they wriggle their way out of the body of the horn worm, build a little pupa (the white things in the picture) and transform themselves into lovely little adult wasps.
So so cool... Parasitoid wasps are the best. There are tons of different kinds -- some of which are so tiny they actually lay their eggs and grow up inside aphids!

Chair/pantry for wasp babies

I was sitting on my front porch when I noticed a little wasp hoving about in an annoyed manner. I got up, and she quickly landed on my chair and started poking around in the little decorative holes drilled in the wood.

 What is she up to?

 Oh, just shoving a live, but paralyzed, catepillar into one of the holes.

 All finished now -- she flies off. Probably to get another catepillar. When the hole if full, she cap it with mud, as you can see she's already done with several of the other holes in the chair.

Before she caps them, though, she'll lay some eggs. They'll hatch into little baby wasps, which will munch happily on the still living, but paralyzed caterpillars -- they carefully eat the vital organs last, so the catepillars don't die and start rotting.

Kind of gruesome, but mostly cool... besides, I think those caterpillars had been munching on my roses, so they deserve to be eaten alive by wasp larvae.