First cicadas, now "tarantula hawk" wasps! Good news not aggressive; bad, there are *tarantulas*!1
And yea, before I get told that tarantulas ain't that bad, am cognizant, have seen people treat them as pets, letting them stroll on their arms.
First heard of these wasps as a kid on a Disney nature segment, sounded scarifying, must have missed the info below that they're not aggressive. Might have seen one back then, but never again in my lifetime until the past couple of weeks when there have been a half dozen separate ones.
So interesting tidbits: The tarantula is eaten ALIVE; the wasps get drunk on fermented nectar to the point of impaired flying; the sting pain is zowie!1
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tarantula_hawk
is a spider wasp (Pompilidae) that preys on tarantulas. Tarantula hawks belong to any of the many species in the genera Pepsis and Hemipepsis. They are one of the largest parasitoid wasps, using their sting to paralyze their prey before dragging it to a brood nest as living food; a single egg is laid on the prey, hatching to a larva which eats the still-living prey. ....
The female tarantula hawk wasp stings a tarantula between the legs, paralyzes it, then drags the prey to a specially prepared burrow, where a single egg is laid on the spider's abdomen, and the burrow entrance is covered.[3] Sex of the larvae is determined by fertilization; fertilized eggs produce females, while unfertilized eggs produce males.[3] When the wasp larva hatches, it creates a small hole in the spider's abdomen, then enters and feeds voraciously, avoiding vital organs for as long as possible to keep the spider alive.[3] After several weeks, the larva pupates. Finally, the wasp becomes an adult and emerges from the spider's abdomen to continue the life cycle. ....
Tarantula hawk wasps are relatively docile and rarely sting without provocation. However, the sting—particularly that of P. grossa—is among the most painful of all insects, though the intense pain only lasts about five minutes.[9] One researcher described the pain as "...immediate, excruciating, unrelenting pain that simply shuts down one's ability to do anything, except scream. Mental discipline simply does not work in these situations."[6] In terms of scale, the wasp's sting is rated near the top of the Schmidt sting pain index, second only to that of the bullet ant, and is described by Schmidt as "blinding, fierce[, and] shockingly electric".[2] Because of their extremely large stingers, very few animals are able to eat them; one of the few that can is the roadrunner. Many predatory animals avoid these wasps, and many different insects mimic them, including various other wasps and bees (Müllerian mimics), as well as moths, flies (e.g., mydas flies), and beetles (e.g., Tragidion) (Batesian mimics).
Aside from the possibility of triggering an allergic reaction, the sting is not dangerous and does not require medical attention. Local redness appears in most cases after the pain, and lasts for up to a week. ....
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= new reply since forum marked as read
metalic blue. both tarantulas and wasps are ok with me. you can keep caterpillars, though. (fortunately there are wasps that take care of some of those, too 
)
snails were bad, but slugs were the absolute worst. 
it takes really wet years and imported plants for me to see snails anymore. still, they are supposed to be good in garlic butter (what isn't?!!), so maybe if you start consuming them and find them delicious they will just disappear. isn't that the way things go?
oh yeah, we have a really toxic caterpillar out here https://arizonadailyindependent.com/2018/01/21/dont-touch-buckmoth-caterpillars/
there are a few other stinging ones, but that one is the worst.
how about a giant African snail, weighing up to a lb?
But interesting. Looking at it, I am both grossed out and sort of fascinated at the same time. 
