Hornets Nest

[Wavey Davey]

For those interested I thought I'd post a couple of pics up of something you don't see every day of the week. It's an uninhabited (lucky for me) hornets nest probably from last year I'd guess. It's globular and about 5-6" in diameter with the entrance hole slightly offset at the bottom. Glued to the bottom of a tile and a batten on the East side of a house in Playford, Suffolk.

Wavey.

 

[rich59]

Apparently they are only found patchily in Southern England.

Wasps however are very common and the nests are pretty much the same and can be much bigger than this specimen.

I rather like hornets. I gather they are not very aggressive. I was fascinated to watch one hunting for prey in France a few years ago. It would hover underneath a wild carrot flat head of flowers and then surprise insects that had come for the nectar of the flower.

 

[ilovemybed]

I rather like hornets. I gather they are not very aggressive. I was fascinated to watch one hunting for prey in France a few years ago. It would hover underneath a wild carrot flat head of flowers and then surprise insects that had come for the nectar of the flower.

You should look at this then!
HORNETS ATTACK!

There's streaming video which is pretty amazing...

(second copy of the same video here http://www.nearlygood.com/video/beefight.html)

 

[R-J]

hornets are not nice dude! they are, superb hunters yes, but theyre bloody aggressive. we had loads of them when i was in germany, size of B52 bombers they were , well not quite .

but theyre big and not a whole heap of fun, trust me

ps, that clip is a tad over dramatic! theyre just doing what they do, dont see the point of the scarey music and "a horde of natural born killers". i'll stop before i get a rant on about "sexing up" nature doc's. THERE IMPRESSIVE AS THEY ARE, sorry

 

[leon-1]

I have seen them in Brunie and you don't want to meet the big ones. Hornets are territorial as well and a swarm of them can be a frightening sound let alone the effects of stings from them.

 

[rich59]

OK, I will revise my opinion then. Therapy for a wasp phobia has obviously gone too far! So they're not the bumbling cuddly friendly uncles of my waspy friends, with pretty markings then?

I used to be the guy everybody hated when a wasp came along - nervous, swatting it, preparing to make an exit. Then one week in the autumn a local nest seemed to chuck out its extras - a sleepy lot who took up residence on my front door - about 50 each morning. No one else, wife and kids, would leave the house and I had to DO SOMETHING. Had some fly spray so I took my courage in my hands and stole round from the back of the house and did a quick spray and retreated 10 yards to see the effect. 50 irritated, slightly angry and a bit the worse for wear critters took to the air in random, haphazard directions before eventually succombing some minutes later. After a week of this every morning, by some miracle, I did not get stung. Became a bit gungho and bought some wasp killer powder and went out to meet the enemy in her lair over the next few years. Became Mr invincible.

I can even let them walk on my hand now, and ignore them if they come into my office.

 

[R-J]

good to hear it dude. i'm lucky to have never been bothered about wasps, but hornets make the haairs on the back of my neck stand up when theres more than 5 or so (1night, we counted 9)!

 

[JoshG]

I still haven't seen a hornet yet
I mean yeah it would be a scary and thrilling sight, and a swarm/nest would send me flying... but i'd still like to see one.