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The pet velvet ant is a beautiful wingless wasp with a very powerful sting. Not recommended for children as pets. Buyer beware! Limit 2 per customer at this time. Usually, the specimens offered through this listing are Pacific Velvet Ants, Dasymutilla aureola. Coloration is usually reddish, and sometimes orangey.
The thistledown velvet ant is the most sought after pet velvet ant with their white coloration and often crazy patterning of hair. This wingless wasp has a very powerful sting. Not recommended for children as pets.
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Female velvet ants can deliver a painful sting using their ovipositor. The sting is mildly venomous and can cause serious medical complications for those who are hyperallergic. Larger velvet ant species such as Dasymutilla occidentalis can grow up to ¾ inch.
Insects in the family Mutillidae are often referred to as velvet ants because female members of the family lack wings and have coarse setae that cover most of their body, making them resemble hairy ants.
Velvet ants are sometimes called cow killers due to the excruciating pain a sting can impart, although cows aren't likely to be in any real danger. Stinging is the wasp's last resort, used to shock a predator into letting go, allowing the wasp to get away rather than to seriously harm or kill.
Velvet ants are known for their extremely painful sting (hence the nickname “cow killer” for some species) and their strikingly colorful and fuzzy appearance, which is where the name “velvet” ant comes from.
