The buzzing is annoying and the sight of the huge wasps brings up images from 1950s horror movies for golfers who cross their path.
The cicada killer wasps that have sprouted up on some Chattanooga-area golf courses are big, violent-looking flying insects that appear big enough to take down an elephant with one sting.
But they are, more or less, harmless to golfers who may encounter them this summer while putting on a green or splashing out of a bunker.
“If you don’t bother them, they won’t bother you,” said Jeff Hollister, superintendent of Chattanooga Golf and Country Club. “They are mean-looking, but I’ve never had one sting anybody, and I think the only way that could happen would be if you grabbed one.
“They’re just meaner looking than they are mean.”