Refugees from Picture threads

[storm5510]

Originally Posted by Uncwilly

Looks like Retina is not happy with the idea of opening things back up:

Murder hornets. From what I have seen, the hornets in my area make those look small. Typical is around three inches in length. If you leave them alone, they leave you alone, even close up.

[retina]

Originally Posted by Uncwilly

Looks like Retina is not happy with the idea of opening things back up:

I hope nobody finds out the virus came from my lair.

[Dr Sardonicus]

Originally Posted by storm5510

Murder hornets. From what I have seen, the hornets in my area make those look small. Typical is around three inches in length. If you leave them alone, they leave you alone, even close up.

The largest wasp I am familiar with is the Eastern Cicada Killer, (Sphecius speciosus) which is about 2 inches long. It is a solitary "digger wasp." The females provide for their larvae with cicadas, which they hunt down and paralyze with their stingers.

To get a load as heavy as a cicada to the burrow is quite arduous. The wasp lugs it along the ground until it finds something to climb, then climbs as high as it can, aims itself at the burrow and takes off. It flies on a descending trajectory because of the heavy load. It repeats the operation as many times as necessary to get to its burrow.

Luckily, Cicada Killers, though territorial with each other WRT burrowing sites, are not inclined to attack people.

[kladner]

I remember cicada killers from Gulf Coast Texas. As you say, they are intent on their business and unconcerned with people if not bothered. I had not known about the extreme efforts required to get the prey back to the burrow.

[Dr Sardonicus]

Originally Posted by kladner

I remember cicada killers from Gulf Coast Texas. As you say, they are intent on their business and unconcerned with people if not bothered. I had not known about the extreme efforts required to get the prey back to the burrow.

I'm not sure how far they actually have to go. I've read, up to 100 yards. And if there's nothing to climb, the wasp has to drag the cicada (which weighs twice as much as it does) on the ground all the way to the burrow.

[storm5510]

Something from my youth: A friend I worked with at a local factory owned a house not far from where I lived at the time. I go there one evening and get inside and he tells me he has something he wants me to see. We go back outside and he shines a flashlight under the eave on the side of his house. There was this really large gray thing hanging up there. He told me it was a hornet's nest.

None of the local exterminators would deal with it until it got really cold, as in well below freezing. The plan was to get up there with a ladder, put a really heavy plastic bag over the nest, and snip its anchor to the house allowing the nest to fall into the bag then sealing it inside. To keep the hornets blinded, the exterminator placed a brilliant bright light on the ground which shined directly into the hole in the bottom of the nest.

From what I gather, this species of hornets were quite aggressive. My friend's children came and went from the back door of his house, well away from the nest, until it was removed.

[Dr Sardonicus]

Originally Posted by storm5510

Something from my youth: A friend I worked with at a local factory owned a house not far from where I lived at the time. I go there one evening and get inside and he tells me he has something he wants me to see. We go back outside and he shines a flashlight under the eave on the side of his house. There was this really large gray thing hanging up there. He told me it was a hornet's nest.

None of the local exterminators would deal with it until it got really cold, as in well below freezing. The plan was to get up there with a ladder, put a really heavy plastic bag over the nest, and snip its anchor to the house allowing the nest to fall into the bag then sealing it inside. To keep the hornets blinded, the exterminator placed a brilliant bright light on the ground which shined directly into the hole in the bottom of the nest.

From what I gather, this species of hornets were quite aggressive. My friend's children came and went from the back door of his house, well away from the nest, until it was removed.

Most likely the Bald-faced Hornet --Dolichovespula maculata. They are black-and-white, larger than paper wasps, and build gray paper nests that hang from an attachment point, and are covered on the outside, with an entrance hole at the bottom. The covering is roundish, and usually sort of oval or turnip-shaped. Hornet nests can become quite large. They are often somewhat out in the open, hanging from a tree branch big enough to provide some shelter, but they will certainly hang their nests from eaves or soffits.

Bald-faced hornets will vigorously defend their nests -- if you come near, a few will buzz over and check you out. If they decide you're a threat, they will attack. If you crush any of them, the resulting scent will bring in reinforcements.

For an exposed nest that's not too high off the ground, you can annihilate it with canned spray sold for just this purpose. Buy 2 or more cans. Wait until dark to make sure they're all in the nest. Wear protective clothing. Have a flashlight, a helper to hand you the next can of spray, and an escape route. Stand somewhere near but NOT directly below the entrance hole, using the flashlight to be sure of your aim, and start shooting a jet of spray into the entrance hole. The hornets will start dropping out. If they get on your clothing, you or your helper can brush them off. They won't live long. When your can of spray runs low, drop it and continue with the next can. Continue until you run out of spray. Then, run!

By next morning, the hornets should all be dead or dying in a pile below the entrance, and it should be safe to remove the nest.

If you're willing to tolerate the presence of a hornet's nest until the weather turns cold, it will probably be safe to remove it after the first hard freeze. If the nest isn't already abandoned, any resident hornets will be immobilized by the cold. But in areas that get cold winter weather, bald-faced hornets usually abandon their nests by first frost. The workers all die. Surviving queens hunker down in protected places to overwinter, and emerge in the spring. They build a round "starter nest" which is enlarged as the supply of workers increases.

Paper wasps also hang their nests from eaves, but are downright placid compared to hornets. I was once helping a neighbor paint his house. I was at the top of a long ladder, painting the underside of the soffits. When I got near where the heavy conduit from the electric meter went through the soffit, I noticed I had an audience -- wasps were buzzing around my head. Paper wasps. Not on the warpath, but obviously I had gotten the attention if a nest of them. Moving very slowly, I put the paint brush in the container of paint, looked to see where the wasps were coming from -- it was from above the soffit where the conduit went through -- and climbed down the ladder. I told my neighbor I had to skip that area because he had a wasp nest there. He sprayed that night, and next morning there was a pile of dead wasps. I was able to finish the soffits.

[xilman]

Originally Posted by storm5510

From what I gather, this species of hornets were quite aggressive. My friend's children came and went from the back door of his house, well away from the nest, until it was removed.

I doubt we have that species over here but my view is that if they don't hassle us, we don't hassle them. Live and let live.

For both species self-preservation is a given. For both species it is a good idea not to annoy the other. By and large it is Homo sapiens which is the more aggressive species in my experience.

[Uncwilly]

Originally Posted by storm5510

Something from my youth:

Originally Posted by Dr Sardonicus

Most likely the Bald-faced Hornet

Originally Posted by xilman

I doubt we have that species

As a reminder to everyone. Mike has often come through this thread and eliminated all text, leaving only the pictures. It used to be stated so somewhere.

[Dr Sardonicus]

Inspired by

Originally Posted by Uncwilly

As a reminder to everyone. Mike has often come through this thread and eliminated all text, leaving only the pictures. It used to be stated so somewhere.

I created a new thread so such posts could be moved rather than nuked. This post established the thread, but was of course younger than the posts I moved to the new thread.

In future, posts to the "Silly, Picture" thread that don't have pictures (or any other thread in the Lounge where such posts may be deemed unsuitable) can be moved here.

[kladner]

Originally Posted by masser

How I removed hornet nests (at age 7, approximately); I had some lessons to learn...

Oh dear. Sounds like a friend of mine who was around that age when he decided to poke a paper wasp nest. It was high up, and he used a long stick. A single wasp spiraled down and stung him on his bare chest. He said he could hardly breath, it hurt so much. He didn't tell, because he said, "I would have got a whippin' from Mom," for being where he was in the first place.