Hornets

[Paulfreebury]

Apparently the sting is no worse than a wasp! Anyone been stung by one?

[Tony Croft aka hamadryad]

Apparently the sting is no worse than a wasp! Anyone been stung by one?

 

yeah right, the japanese hornet kills 4 a year!

[antipesto]

Had a few visiting an apple tree in the garden last summer, not seen any this year yet

This one was caught in a wasp trap. With an average sized wasp underneath for comparison

[WoodED]

Had a few visiting an apple tree in the garden last summer, not seen any this year yet

This one was caught in a wasp trap. With an average sized wasp underneath for comparison

 

man thats big,, luckly ive never seen one

[Chris Gagen]

i don't remember seeing them in my childhood days, but we seem to get them every year here now. had a socking great nest hanging from the roof of an old barn here about 6 years ago, was approx 2ft across by 3ft long, had that one dealt with as was too close to the house for comfort...

 

got some pictures somewhere of the damage they do to young ash in particular, will have to dig them out...

 

not been stung yet (touch wood!) but come across them every day, caught one in my UV fly killer last year, was zapping away for several minutes, the smoke and the smell is horrendous!

[DN22 Gardening]

once had one on the floor in one of the old chicken sheds.

 

went to stamp on it and i swear, it growled at me !!!!!!!!!

 

cue me backpeddeling rapildy

[Fungus]

nothing will put the fear of god into you like stumbling on a hornets nest, especially when beating on a hollow buttress root like a drum while checking out a hispidus bracket!

 

Or in determining the size of the cavity, sticking your hand up a hornet's nest in a hollow beech .

And here's a photo of a hornet as "lord of the flies" licking the acid foam secreted by the with rhizomorphs of a Honey Fungus invaded cambium of a pendunculate oak.

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[armybloke]

Unwarranted fear has often led to the destruction of nests, leading to the decline of the species, which is often locally threatened or even endangered. European hornets benefit from legal protection in some countries, notably Germany, where it has been illegal to kill a European hornet or nest since 1 January 1987, with a fine up to 50,000 Euros.

 

Diet: Omnivore

Average life span in the wild: Several months (the queen lives through winter)

Size:1.25 in (3.2 cm)

Group name:Grist or hive

[Fungus]

European hornets benefit from legal protection in some countries, notably Germany, where it has been illegal to kill a European hornet or nest since 1 January 1987, with a fine up to 50,000 Euros.

 

Correct, protected by German law, but you can get a permit to move or have moved the nest to another location if the nest is (too) close to your house or in intensively used or visited parts of your vegetable or flower garden. I once had a nest in my Eifel "garden" awfully close to my compost heap, so I moved it, with license, to the far end of my property, so they could still visit the fermentating gooseberries at the back of my house, which they - also being a bit of a sweet tooth - by the way do. It was quite funny watching them eat, getting a bit drunk and being rather clumsy and loud in the return flight to the nest.

Speaking of wasps, has this rather friendly , but impressive looking French field wasp, which regularly visits the flowers of the Yucca and the shallow margins of the pond in my Dutch backyard, already crossed the Canal and reached the U.K. ?

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[kev7937]

Haven't seen any lately but I had several Buzzing me up a gum tree a few years back, found it quite unsettling until I realised they were far more interested in the tree than they were me, they seemed to be chewing on very light areas of bark damage.