I may have just burned it down... Bald Faced Hornets

[John-W-WI]

I've had a run in with them before. They make all other stinging critters look like fluffy kittens. They are mean!

 

[H20fwler]

We always call them paper hornets but I think they are Bald Face, never seen a nest attached to house they are always in woods here. I think in the winter they bail out of nest and burrow into ground then make a new one in spring, seems like the ones we find bunny hunting are all empty.

Craziest hornets I've ever seen are the cicada hornets...they are huge and live in tunnels and hunt and kill cicadas or as people here call them locust instead of cicadas for some reason.

 

[JFK52]

Holy cow, that is the largest nest of that kind I have ever seen! Would you have been better to attack then at night when they are not so active so that you could have killed more of the buggers? Just asking. I get those same kind of nests built in the same location, the underside of the overhang of a building.
On the life is strange side, I have a friend who antiques with his wife. He has told me that people sell these nests in antique malls. They put some kind of preservative on the nest and it typically brings good money. He has said a regular size nest fetches close to $100. I have no idea how one would go about collecting such a nest.

 

[Native Hunter]

Too cool John. You need to add some music to that. I would suggest the old song, "Looking for Love in all the wrong places..."

 

[John-W-WI]

Too cool John. You need to add some music to that. I would suggest the old song, "Looking for Love in all the wrong places..."

It's not my video, just something I ran into on YT. I'm afraid I would have burned the structure down rather than smoking them and bagging everything. The one and only run in I had with baldfaced hornets was bad. I heard "bzzzzz" then SMACK the 1st one stung me 1/2 a second later. I was climbing up the outside of a metal tower, had a ladder in one hand and hanging on with the other. Managed to get down, promptly went to town (I was pissed) and bought lots of spray. They were disposed of that day.

I always tell Jake bees/hornets will leave you alone if you leave them alone. Not so with baldfaces. Either run or kill them. There is no middle ground.

-John

 

[S.T.Fanatic]

I got stung up by them several years ago. I was walking through a CRP field and they had a small nest on a stalk of golden rod. It was low enough that I never saw it before it was to late.

 

[yoderjac]

I had a nest in some bushes at my house one year. I got hit once or twice. I waited until it was well after dark and cool. I dropped a tarp over the bush, ran away, and waited for an hour to be sure. I then when out an put a couple of those bug bombs under the tarp. It was effective, they were all dead the next day, but I was still very careful when I removed the tarp...just in case. You don't forget those bites quickly!

 

[ruskbucks]

I almost ran into this one with my face while mowing on the riding lawnmower under the apple trees. Does'nt help that I'm allergic either. I went out with a can of stating fluid and a stick lighter. Worked well.

 

[Bowsnbucks]

Just a FYI, gents. I recently read a good article on hornets. It stated that there are 2 main types of hornets - the black ones with the white face, - and a bigger, nastier orange-ish yellow variety. That one is the European hornet, also called the "great hornet". ( it has big orange-colored eyes/face ). It's said to be more aggressive than the black / white variety, 1 1/4" to 1 1/2" in length. The way the article said to identify what variety of hornet ( without actually seeing them ), is to look at the nests. The black / white hornet is said to build a nest that appears light gray-ish white in color. The bigger, nastier great hornet's nests are said to be more yellow-ish gray in color.

FWIW - that's what the article on hornets said. I've seen both types in person - the big orange-ish yellow ones were a full 1 1/2" long and made 8 of us camp members run for our lives after we tore off a big shed roof at the cabin. Nest was in a corner where the rafters came down to meet the cement blocks and continued down into the block hollows. They will chase you. Scared the sh** out of all of us !!

 

[Ben.MN/WI]

That's a cool video. I hate those paper wasp/hornets or whatever they are called in your video. Around here though I get stung by the ground hornets more than anything else. Those little bastards are mean and you can't see them until it's too late.

Do either the paper wasps in your video or the ground wasps serve any good purpose as far as pollination or anything else? Or should they be killed immediately every time?

 

[John-W-WI]

Do either the paper wasps in your video or the ground wasps serve any good purpose as far as pollination or anything else? Or should they be killed immediately every time?

As I understand it wasps are pollinators but more by accident than purpose. I believe most of them feed on aphids more than anything. I'm no expert, that's just what I recall.

Bumble bees are great pollinators.

We have way more "Yellow Jacket" hornets around here. They are super chill, not sure I've ever been stung by one. If they are in a blind when I arrive, I just ignore them and they do the same to me. The white faced dudes... that's another story.

-John

 

[Victor Van Meter]

As kids, my Aunt would have a nest of those on the side of her garage every summer and my cousin and I would use tennis balls to knock it down. If we missed, the balls would bounce off the wall and come back to us. That was fun for a few summers when we avoided getting stung, but we stopped that nonsense when our luck ran out one summer and they lit us up!
For a few years after we built our house, we had, what I always referred to as "sand hornets". They are huge and dark orange and yellow and nested in the bare dirt where the grass hadn't grown yet. They were never overly aggressive and I acutally ran across them on the mower once on accident and they swarmed, but didn't sting.

VV