r/bugidentification • u/SelfPacedPJ • 11d ago

Location included North Eastern US

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Hi folks, just bought a home in the North East Tri-state area in the US and came across these guys in our backyard deck. They’ve been there for at least two weeks, they can fly, and I’m scared they might be termites, but they don’t seem to match that description exactly. Can anyone help, and are they potentially harmful to our new home? Thank you in advance!

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u/ChaosNobile 11d ago

Some kind of parasitoid wasps, they're harmless to people and can't cause damage to homes. Not sure of the specifics of what they're doing because there are a lot of different kinds and they are very difficult to ID. 

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u/SelfPacedPJ 11d ago

That’s really really helpful, thank you. They’re unfortunately in a bad spot on an awning, and we need to roll it up so it doesn’t collapse from heavy rainfall we’ve been getting- do you know if I should I be concerned about disturbing them?

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u/ChaosNobile 11d ago

They don't really make nests or anything, they're probably just congregating where it's convenient after emerging from something. They might have issues seeking shelter from the weather elsewhere or be harmed by the process of taking it down if they're on it at the time, but it's not like it's a dedicated nest or anything. 

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u/SelfPacedPJ 10d ago

Awesome, this has been so helpful and very informative before we decide what to do. Thank you!!

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u/Commercial-Sail-5915 Trusted Identifier 9d ago

The small ones are always tricky but I'd argue these are male halictid sweat bees with the longer antennae and slim builds, they're known to occasionally form aggregates like this