wow, that hurt!!!!

[neillsayers]

I've noticed this month that european hornets have been pestering my bees. In my last inspection I found 4 that the bees had killed inside the hive. So I lined them out and found their hive behind my house in the wall.

Two days ago I donned my jacket and went after them with some spray. During this event one managed to sting me on my bare knuckle (no gloves).

Great oogly moogly, this is a whole new definition of pain. I'm not a wimp about pain, I once hobbled around for a month on a broken ankle to avoid having to get a cast in the hot summer, but my WORD this hurt. Finger is still swollen and a little bruised-what a punch these little varmints carry.

Not all that little, they are about 3 inches long.

[Nugget Shooter]

Wasps and Hornets are indeed nastier to get stung by and have been popped a few times myself. Worst was when about 11 years old my brother and I were throwing rocks at a large paper nest of Bald Faced Hornets in a cedar tree about a block from home. Took us about 20 minutes, but my brother finally nailed it dead center knocking it from the tree.

They were real mad....

I got stung about 20 or more times trying to run home and got more than him cause I was chubby and he outran me to the hornets glee. Messed me up pretty bad it did and looked like the Michelin Man I was so swollen. I never messed with them again, but got a Golden Wasp up the arm of my leather Jacket one day at 75 on the freeway riding my Harley, that is another story.

[neillsayers]

Nugget,

Around here red wasps are about the worst and very aggressive protecting their nest, also bald faced hornets. Bald faced won't bother you much until ou bother them but once you do its en masse.

These Europeans are not very aggressive, thankfully, and are quite beneficial in many ways but they can raise heck with a bee hive. Sweet Wife is highly allergic and they have been coming in the house. If she gets stung they are no longer beneficial! By the way, I just measured a dead one and they are a little over an inch long. I exaggerated a bit-just like fish story!

I wanted to add a picture but I couldn't make the link work.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_hornet

[Nugget Shooter]

That is some bug and thanks for the link, don't think I have seen one here in Arizona. We have these Yellow Wasps though and also large and is what went up my sleeve. Ouch....

[neillsayers]

I dug that nest out of the wall yesterday, Here is a piece of the brood. Put the pop can there to reference size. Imagine honey comb that size!

[Jen]

Neil? Isn't that a yellow jacket nest?

[lazy shooter]

I thought yellow jactets lived in the ground.  That looks like what the East Texans call a hornet, but the nest doesn't look right.  The nests were built around a limb and had one hole going into it.  I am confused, a condition I find myself in more and more as time passes.

lazy

[iddee]

LS, those things build in trees and buildings. Exposed areas are papered over. The section he is showing is an internal section. If there was exposed areas inside the building, the paper was removed to get to the inside.

[Jen]

I had yellow jackets galore this year! I have them every year tho, they build their nests up in our house eves and in our shed in the same place every year. Nests hang by a thread and then spread out.

Just looked it up, and they nest in the ground as well. You're not loosing all your marbles yet Lazy... 

This is what my nests look like

[neillsayers]

Jen,
Someone was telling how bad a year it is for yellow jackets and  it hit. I haven't seen a one this year. That's weird-usually have them everywhere especially when feeding bees and hummers.  C:-)Then I realized these hornets had chased or killed them all off!

The picture doesn't convey it well but the brood cells in comb are over 1/2 in(13 mm). Lot bigger than yellow jackets, significantly bigger than bald faced hornets. At first I thought they were "good news bees", a common and docile bee in the south.

[Mikey N.C.]

Last year we had thousands of yellow jackets an alot or Euro hornets. This year I've seen a few hornets but no yellow jackets has anyone else noticed this in the southern U.S.
Last year I had to put out like 5 traps this year none.

[Jen]

Neil, I think I see lol.

We have had huge yellow jackets this year, they hover all over my back lawn and especially in front of the hives. I have yet to get nailed by one. But my friend who hikes every weekend got nailed 15 times last weekend mostly in the head. She was lit up for two days. Oof

[neillsayers]

Jen,

Sometimes common names cause a lot of confusion. In New Orleans, we had a large and rather ill tempered paper wasp called a yellow jacket. Looked a lot like a red wasp and made open air paper nest in just about any shady spot. It was red with yellow stripes. Throughout most of the south a Yellow Jacket is a very small, very irritable ground wasp. Most are smaller than a honey bee but for being so small-man do they pack a wallop. When disturbed, day or night they attack en masse and can send anyone or anything running.

Many small town High Schools in the south choose the Yellow Jacket as their mascot, "Small but Fierce!"

[Jen]

Yep, definitely smaller than the honey bee. We also had a few thread waste wasps. Gives me the shivers looking at them.

[neillsayers]

In general, I'm not a fan of wasps but they do fill a very important ecological niche and for the most part are highly beneficial. I wouldn't want to live in a world without them any more than I'd want to live in a world without honey bees.

[lazy shooter]

Below is my vision of a yellow jacket:

"Throughout most of the south a Yellow Jacket is a very small, very irritable ground wasp."

I live in pecan country, and paper wasps are very beneficial to pecan growers.  We have red wasps, black tailed wasps and guinea wasps, all of which are wax winged wasps.  They love to feed on web worms.  They can enter a web worm nest as the web does not stick to their wax wings.  The go inside the web and kill the web worms and place the dead web worms in their next for their larvae to eat.  They are efficient web worm exterminators, and the web worms are destructive to pecan trees.  Therefore, I do not kill paper wing wasps unless they build their next where it is a nuisance to visitors.

Jen, Neil and Iddee cleared up my confusion on hornets.  I have been on the same ranch for 12 years and have never seen a hornet.  That's OK with me.  I have never seen a yellow jacket either, and that too is fine with me.  My friends in East Texas have both and both of them pack a punch.  Those little wee yellow jackets will get your attention quick.

lazy