WASP? Hornet? WTF???

fields5069

I've just vacuumed up some kind of wasp-creature. About an inch long. I'm hoping it can't find its way out of the cleaner. What the actual F was it?

bingefeller

I dont know man.

capo4th

Queen wasps hibernate during the winter inside the old nest or construct a small “golf ball” sized hibernation cell. During April and until early June, the queen wasp will leave the old nest or hibernation cell and begin the construction of a brand new nest in a new location.

capo4th

You just saved yourself a £40 bill next spring 

fields5069

Aha. Yes it did look a bit wasp-like, but hooooooj. Phew!

markblack

same here - buzzed past me, beast of thing. Just threw it out the window. Think it was a hornet judging by the markings.



you can get fined upto €50,0000 in Germany if you kill a hornet.

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

fields5069

Hmm. Could have been a hornet. I don't think I've ever seen one before.

quarky

What the hell is an inch?

Hornets are big. I thought they were a couple of "inches" from memory. When I have seen them (in Germany) they were less aggressive than wasps too. But maybe that is because it was night.

axisus

quarky said:

What the hell is an inch?

Approximately a sixth of the prize in most cases

axisus

I saw a hornet once, it was bigger than that, somewhere between 1.5 to 2 inches I'd say. I didn't stay long enough to measure it, it was acting very aggressive and territorial.

octatonic

We had a hornet here a couple of weeks ago.
They are nasty fuckers- don't try to usher them out- gas the bastards and leave the room sharpish.

Paul_C

fields5069 said:

I've just vacuumed up some kind of wasp-creature. About an inch long. I'm hoping it can't find its way out of the cleaner. What the actual F was it?

?

ChrisMusic

Just take the hoover outside and let the poor thing go, it never did you any harm.

Although it may be getting a little cool to fly this late in a cool evening.
I wouldn't handle it as it may be a little pissed with you by now for covering it with dust and trying to suffocate it, wouldn't you be ?

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Wasps are usually just fine, had them nest in the roof and ceiling spaces many times, they never even came in the house.

Hornets on the other hand have a reputation of being protective of their nest sites, and are big enough to back it up, especially en mass, so I would keep a healthy distance from their nests.

Nature rarely instigates aggression, unless provoked to defend itself, you can live in peace with most creatures if you have the will.


Queens of both species are a lot larger than the workers, all they want to do right now is find somewhere safe for the winter, bit like us I guess.

There was a hornets nest near where I used to live, had the upstairs window open last summer, and looked up to see a hornet hovering about a foot in front of me at eye level, stared at each other for about 10 seconds, then it flew out and away.  They really are quite stunning close up, oh and quite large. !

A few years back in another house, early spring I think, there was a sound like a B52 bomber coming from the quite small landing, went to investigate, and there in front of me was a queen hornet, about three inches or so long, they are big mofos, especially at close quarters when eye to eye !

I shut all the doors to the bedrooms, walked past it with a little adrenaline flowing by now as it was never more than a couple of feet away from me, and you could feel the air vibrate to it's wing beats.  I opened the bathroom window and waited for it to make it's way out, then closed the window behind when it obliged, so it couldn't return to start a nest, and never saw it again.

Quite a privileged experience though, IMO  

Deijavoo

I was playing golf a few weeks back and as usual had to play out of rubbish position in the trees. Swung back and then got stung halfway through on my thumb, it was the biggest thing you've ever seen, had teeth like a donkey, was 6" wide and was wearing a Stone Island jumper.

Still got a black mark.  I hope that lad and his mates all die a horrible death. Wasps and Hornets. Bees are sound though.
 

CloudNine

Hairspray -> Lighter ->  /Wasp -> /Thread

Emp_Fab

You do know that you've just given it a perfect nest, don't you ?  Unless you get it out of the hoover, it's going to build a nest and then you'll have an army of pissed-off killer hornets coming for you.  You've seen Aliens right ?

It won't be long before you're saying to the missus "We have to nuke the house from space - it's the only way to be sure'.

fields5069

Hmm, good point. I thought pretty much every beastie was as intolerant to a dust bag as spiders. I was working on that premise. It can make its nest at the local landfill site in that case!

Sambostar

http://www.eakringbirds.com/eakringbirds2/insectswasps.htm

Median Wasps are the softest, they always vacate the nest at the end of August at the latest without fail and don't ever hassle you for meat and sugar.  I like wasps, they've stripped my front door and saved me sanding it.

None the less, all wasps have had a hard time of late with the exception of this year, so leave the queens alone.

Hornets are great too, wouldn't want to be a moth or a butterfly though.  You see them land and dissect their prey in situ and then fly off with the meaty parts.  You often see them around trees and shrubs where smaller insects and butterflies are hanging around.

If you see an Asian Hornet though and you're 100% sure it's not a native hornet, which are actually larger, kill it and send the details about where and when you saw it as they prey on bees.  Enough god damn French bumblebees here already.  But Asian hornets are particularly devastating to native honey bee colonies.

Remember, save the WASP and destroy the Asian hornet.

Yep, that is exactly what DEFRA are advocating. The humanity.

http://fera.co.uk/news/showNews.cfm?id=795

hungrymark

Hornets are way less aggressive than wasps, but pack a bit more heat if they do decide to roll. More like bees in temperament. Wasps tend to be OK earlier in the summer but get a bit pokey later on when there's less food available. 

LoFi

The day I moved into my flat, we found a wood wasp on the door. I was 30, the mate helping me move was closer to 40, but neither of us had ever seen one before, and neither of us were going near that door until it fucked right off.

Turns out they're harmless, but it looked like a 2" long wasp...

richardhomer

Slightly unconnected - a friend told me he went into a pet shop recently and asked to buy a wasp. He was told, "We don't sell wasps". He said, "Well you've got one in the window..."

/Coat.....