Eurasian Hornets = Bad News

[dragmerc]

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.

[Moveon]

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.

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.

[dragmerc]

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.

[Moveon]

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.

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.

[dragmerc]

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?

[Moveon]

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?

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.