Eurasian Hornets = Bad News
This week I discovered a hornet nest up 40 ft in a tree. This past spring a family of gray squirrels were using a hole in the tree as their nest. But they evacuated the nest not long ago. I was looking at the hole in the tree the other day thinking that the squirrels might still be inside the hole. But I noticed some flying insects flying in and out of the hole. I got a pair of binoculars and watched the hole for a while and noticed some yellow faced big 1 1/2 Inch long hornets in the hole. I watched for a while and identified the species using my binoculars and google. So I called a exterminator to have them removed. I got to extimates, one was $185 and the other $150. I went with the latter. They were able to do the job the same day and time that they came out to give me a free estimate. A can of bug spray on a long extenstion pole and a ladder did the job. The guy came back later to spray some powder type poison into the hole to get rid of any hornets that returned to the next. The aerosol spray killed 98% of the hornets as some were away from the nest and returned later. The dust will kill any hornets that get the dust on their bodies. So now it's safe to go back out in the back yard. They were not bothering me right now but they will spread this fall and next spring they could start nesting in the garage or the attic if they find a hole to get into the atic and I didn't want that. I wanted to nip the problem in the bud.
Asian and Eurasian hornets kill honey bees
[QUOTE=dragmerc;575028]well, you surprise me again. i can't figure you out. i thought people that leaned your way didn't kill anything.
i don't know what a eurasian hornet is but, i don't kill any kind of bees except borer bees.
i like regular ole timey hornets. they eat their weight in bad insects like grasshoppers and caterpillars.
honey bees and wasps are almost gone.
i've seen 1 honey bee in the last 2 years.
don't bother a bee and they won't bother you.[/QUOTE]
I'm a gun toting Democrat who is interested in environmental protection but I pack a 9 mm and an AR15. My favorite hobby is shooting guns. Next is fishing. I'm a conservationist in the from of Teddy Roosevelt.
I thought about leaving them alone but read that they produce new queens that overwinter and make new nests the next year. And they don't belong here as they were imported from Europe back in the 1800s. They can get aggressive if they think you are bothering their nest. They can fly 25 mph and you can't out run them. They have stingers that are 1/4 " long. The closest thing we have to them in size is the Cicada Killer Wasp. It's about 2" long for the females. I got stung by a Cicada Killer Wasp while camping at Audobon Park in Henderson, KY. My wife though I was whinning too much until she too go stung and she started to cry. It hurt for three days. These Eurasian Hornets can sting multiple times. They will kill honey bees and feed the bee parts to their young larva.
My reason for having them killed was to prevent them from spreading new colonies in the neighborhood. Being an exotic they don't have a lot of natural enemies to keep their populations in check.
And yes they do eat a lot of other harmful insects but when they start eating honey bees that negates the good things that they did. We need all the honey bees we can get. For without these pollenators the food we need can't develop and grow.
Hornets nest 30 ft up in a hole in the maple tree
[QUOTE=Les Young;575029]Hornets are definitely bad news if they come after you for sure.[/QUOTE]
We hired a professional exterminator to get rid of the nest. He used a spray can of pesticide tapped to the end of a 30 ft long pole. He didn't even put on any protective gear. I was inside our house looking out the window watching him work. There was no way in H that I was going outside with those things flying around (mad as Hornets). They never bothered him at all. He was in a T shirt, Shorts and tennis shoes with no bee suit at all. The hornets came out of the hole in the tree and swarmed around the spray can a bit but the aerosol spray killed them after a while. He directed the entire can of spray into the hole and killed the queen and all the hornets inside the nest. The only hornets that survived were away from the nest gathering food. When they came back all they did was fly around the outside of the hole in the three. He said that they will not come back and if they do to call him and he will treat the hole again. Later he came back and sprayed some white dust like substance into the hole in the tree. Only costs $150. I'm just hoping that we nipped this hornet invasion before they produced more fertile queens for next year. These things have been know to take out an entire honey bee hive killing the bees in midair with their jaws and stinger. These hornets have yellow faces with yellow and brown abdomens and redish brown thoraxes and wings.
Here is what I worry about
[QUOTE=dragmerc;575291]all i can find says we only have european hornets but i don't know.
we've had them here every year i can remember and never had a problem.
they built a big nest in a dogwood tree in my back yard last year.
didn't even know it was there until the leaves fell.
relax, you worry too much about the wrong things...lol.
now those little black/yellow bumble bees that nest in the ground is something to worry about.
they will attack when you run over their nest while mowing.[/QUOTE]
I have a 94-year-old mother who wanders around in the back yard near the hornet nest. I'm concerned that the hornets new queens will hatch out in August this year, mate and then hibernate over the winter and start a new nest inside the house or the garage. These Hornets are 1.5" to 2" longa and have stingers that are 1/4" long and they can sting over and over again. If they sting someone that's allergic to their venom they could die. They are all gone now so no more worrying here. And I won't have to worry about them trying to make a new nest inside the walls of the house or in the attic or the crawl space.
It's called anaphylactic shock and it can kill
[QUOTE=dragmerc;575390]i may have to reconsider how i feel about hornets.
a young local man died after being stung by hornets.
said their stings caused some kind of medical attack.[/QUOTE]
The only true hornets in the North America are the Eurasian Hornets which were brought to North America from Europe back in the 1800's. The body reacts to their poison by swelling up and closing off the airway. I had another guy tell me the same thing you just said. He claimed to me that he had a friend who died from a hornet attack. Only he said they were ground hornets. Yellow Yackets are not a true hornet but are wasps. They live in large nests underground and they too can sting you multiple times. They can also cause anaphalactis. Now I've been stung by Yellow Yackets a few times in my life and they hurt but I only got stung by one of them. Now if I were to run into a nest and get stung muliple times it could be dangerous.
I got stung by one of the big cicada wasp that are about 2" long. They (the females) have a long 1/4" long stinger and they are solitary. They make a nest in the ground and lay a single egg on a ciicada that they sting and paralyze and then put in their nest for the larvae to feed on. I got stung by one of these and it hurt like heck. My leg was sore for two days afterwards.
That is a good idea. Epi pens work
[QUOTE=dragmerc;575392]that's what they said...anaphylactic shock.
maybe we should keep an epinephrine pin around all the time?
wonder if they go out of date?[/QUOTE]
Some people know that they are alleregic to bees and carry an Epi Pen with them every where they go. One time I was over at the IL Garden of the Gods with some friends when I was much younger. We were rappelling off the cliff that day. One of the guys told everyone that he was allergic to bee stings and showed us how to use his Epi Pen that he carried with him in case he got stung.
When I was a little kid I was playing in the back yard at my grandpaws farm house. He kept a bee hive or two back in this area. There was a saw dust pile not too far from the bee hive and I was climbing up on the pile. A honey bee started bussing around me as the bees were starting to swarm. I swatted at the bee and ended up getting stung right on the stomach. The little sucker got me good. :( I ran back to the house and my grandmother was the only one home besides me. She pulled the stinger out and then applied some baking soda to the sting area which helped ease the stinging and itching. I use to catch honey bees with my hands when I was younger. I'd cup then between both hands and was careful to not squish them. Then I'd let them go. I thought I was the king of the world until I got stung on the thumb. ouch that hurt too. I stopped messing with honey bees after that.
When I was a life guard at this private recreational area with a lake I'd have to walk barefooted from the guard shack down to the beach and the life guard chair. We served food and soft drinks in the concession stand and there was always some discarded paper cup that had soft drinks in them before they were discarded on the grass. People would throw their popcycle sticks on the grass too. These sweet liquid would attrack honey bees. So I had to watch where I stepped as I got stung on the foot a few times just walking though the grass. It's hard to work as a life guard with you foot all swollwn up from a bee sting.
