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GIANT God dam hornet in my room!
Mingle
Veteran
There I was just sitting there watching a film in my room, minding my own business. Then this motherf£&@er just flew in my doorway. I think I quite literally shouted "JESUS F***ING CHRIST" it's the biggest wasp/hornet/giant stingy thing I've ever seen. I know I have been noticing some rather large ones in my house lately each one bigger than the last but this one was just ridiculous. If there is a nest around I know it's not very Zen but I'm gonna get the flamethrower out I think.
Dunno if the pic does it justice but it was like three inches long.
So now to sit back and anticipate those of you that are Aussies scoffing and telling me how tiny it was and how wimpy I'm being lol
2
Comments
Perhaps not three inches, maybe I exaggerated that a bit. More like two thirds of an average thumb.
I blame the EU.
That's nothing. I was stung by two of them in France.
Phhht! yours is child's play.
And no - don't you dare destroy the nest. They're an endangered insect. Leave them alone, they won't harm you if you just don't bother them....
Really!? I bet that was nasty. How much did they hurt?
a fucking lot, thank you very much.
A two-pronged (literally!) attack, funnily enough, one on each arm, in almost the same places.
I left the location pdq.
They got on with their business, and I minded mine.
My arms swelled up to quite a sizeable lump, but one antihistamine tablet, and half an hour later, I had forgotten I had even been stung....
They like to keep thing's symmetrical huh? There's nothing worse than giant stingy things with ocd.
Any particular reason they attacked you? I mean you did then say "they'll leave you alone if you leave them alone"
Unfortunately we don't yet get hornets here
They seem nice. I am sure they make good home or temple protectors. You just have to speak kindly to them. I speak 'wasp' incidentally. I am sure hornet is similar. Bees are the best.
Ah yes my electric toothbrush also speaks wasp. It is a rare gift.
-I bet those wasps are using that chunnel! :-)
Organised crime is enough, I don't think I can live in a world with organised hornets too.
It was on a camp site where I was General curator/manager. The washing facilities both for clothing and for people) consisted of a relatively open-plan building, much of which was exposed to the elements, which didn't really matter much as the weather in the open months was clement, sunny and usually very warm. The washing facilities (6 washing machines, 5 toilets and 7 shower cubicles) ran along the three sides - left, back & right - of the building, with a large open space in the middle, which had two large tables, and several laundry baskets underneath. The 4th side was open right across, but the whole, was covered with one large roof.
The beams, cross-beams and roof laths were covered in by panels, like a second skin.
I was clearing some cobwebs, brushing up in a haphazard way with a duster on an extension, and I must have disturbed a forming nest, because these two sentinels decided I was attacking them, and acted accordingly.
I think, as a result of our contretemps, they must have decided it was not such a good place to build, because I never saw any again, after that....
Hm. I think mine is bilingual.
Stinging flying insects could be used to make athletes run faster. I know they did when I was young. The least scary ones - like the bumble bee, only made me deathly afraid because they were so loud when they'd fly by me out in the yard. Talk about getting your heart rate up...
My brother was riding his bike in the yard and rode over a hornet nest - they flew straight up inside his shirt and was stinging him all over his chest - I was in the kitchen when he ran in screaming for help. Probably the first and biggest time I ever actually felt sorry for him. (I do love him though, I really do!)
I liked the look on his face in your picture
Normally we leave them be but it was in a tree that adjoins the next yard and they have a daycare with 3 kids with severe bee allergies. We didn't even know it was there until my son and a few friends were stung several times when they were playing. I had actually mowed the day before and didn't see it, despite it being only 6 feet off the ground and the size of a basketball. The welts the kids got were the diameter of a tennis ball. Awful. They hurt for hours.
We had to get rid of a hornet's nest in our year last year
I can't bear to look at it. But 2/3 of a normal thumb is a huge honking insect, aaaakkkkk! It's too big to try to catch by my usual method; putting a cup over it, sliding some paper underneath, then opening a window or door to release it outside. I'd be terrified of that thing!
You can talk to a bee removal service. See what methods they use. Depending on the type of bee/wasp/hornet, they may smoke 'em out, which doesn't kill them. They remove the nest. The critters leave to build a nest elsewhere. Anyway, it can't hurt to inform yourself, then decide on your next move. The experts should be able to tell you what kind it is, too, that's so abnormally large. I'll tell you one thing; you don't want them to get the idea they can make themselves cozy inside your walls!!
Better address the issue before they drive you out of your own home.
Mate it scared the crap out of me. Now extremely weary of any buzzing noises I hear. You wouldn't think from this that I used to have a tarantula that I put on my head lol.
See my 2nd paragraph, that I added while you were responding to the 1st one.
Call for help. Seriously! And keep us posted, please.
Hey, I just had a thought. They don't like cold temperatures. They get sluggish, and collapse if it gets cold enough. Does your place have air conditioning? If so, make the house really cold, while you call a specialist. That will at least keep you safe.
I beg to differ... if you mean in the UK that is. I've seen hornets round here, no joking...
We currently have a tree-bumble-bee nest just under the eaves of our roof. They nest in a completely different way to honey bees. Our Estate Agents were going to have them destroyed, but I pleaded with - and successfully convinced - them to leave them be.
They don't nest for long; maybe a couple of months - then, they leave.
Suck it up princess!!
Na, just kidding. That looks scary.
For all the fuss made about deadly creatures in Australia, when you live in the middle of suburbia (as most of the population do), the worst you can expect is the odd ant sting and maybe seeing a huntsman spider (harmless!) on the wall once in a while. It's not like we're dodging crocodiles on the way to work every day!
@federica
Ah, bumble bees, one of my favorites. I don't think they like the climate in Alaska - they act kind of bewildered much of the time, as though they were drunk and looking for someplace to sleep it off. They have a habit of getting into clothing to get warm, and then, when they get pinched, they sting. I feel a bit sorry for them, but their stings are more troublesome than those of the local hornets, and they itch and hurt for a week or more. No big deal.
The hornets I usually only worry about when the dogs are getting stung. Most of the time our hornets are not aggressive - I think possibly at a certain stage of their breeding cycle they get mean and will make spectacular stinger-first dives at the heads of the unsuspecting humans below, making an audible whack as they hit.
I've killed 4 redback spiders in the last two years. One I came face to face with in a swimming pool (yes those bastards can swim). Funnel webs make an appearance occasionally but I run away from them.
I second this, I too am from the uk
Yeah, we don't get funnel webs down south. Good thing from the sounds of it.
We used to have the odd red back in our shed at our old place.
The funniest thing just happened! I am typing this on a train on the way to work and a wasp just flew up beside me, circled a few times and took off! Bizarre!!
European hornet is already here as @federica mentions
Latest news (I was unaware of) is the big boys have arrived ...
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/05/18/deadly-asian-hornets-that-devour-bees-and-can-kill-humans-arrive/
I wonder what a good name for a befriended hornet is? 'Horny' maybee
Apparently giant hornets are food...
http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/food-and-drink/eat-insects-cheese-larvae-giant-hornets-global-food-crisis-japan-noma-nordic-food-lab-a7753781.html
OK, this thread is getting seriously gross, now.
You need to get with the programme, @Dakini. Insects are already widely available commercially, for human consumption. I aim to try some soon....
While currently expensive, there is no doubt in my mind that as they become more widely acceptable, their costs will fall...
Don't worry, we will have a hornet-free future when BREXIT goes through.
Ha! Then we can tell them all to buzz off home.
To date hornets (including giant hornets) are not establish in NZ, however around 20 years ago the boss of the company I worked for brought a very large dead wasp into work that he found on a beach, (I think north of Auckland) it "was" a giant hornet...but there's been no reports of people being attacked by them in NZ....
However in Japan....
Yep hornets are pretty bad news for bee's. I read that 300 hornets would have no problem wiping out 10'000 bee's. The bee's although quite puny in comparison to the hornets do have one crazy defense up there sleeve which I watched on a documentary. Once the hornets enter the hive all the bees can vibrate together causing a heat which will literally fry them to death.
@Mingle : No apostrophe in 'bees'. Ans apostrophe denotes the possessive.
The bee's hive - ie, the hive that belongs to the bee.
The bee's buzz... ie, the buzz heard from a bee.
The pedantic grammar-Mod has spoken.
Since the topic is bees and their relatives, I just thought I'd add a bit of local color from where I live, in the high desert of northern New Mexico. I observed on a property I lived on earlier here, quite a few miniature bumble bees, they looked like. IDK, maybe they're honeybees, but they're not at all the larger European honeybees that agriculture elsewhere depends on. These are little native bees--very cute! I wonder if they're hardier than the European bees in the US that are experiencing colony collapse. Maybe our busy little native bees might save the day for agriculture around the Southwest, I don't know. But it's interesting to note that there are local species of bee; there's more bee diversity than one would think.
Just an interesting aside.
Here in Aotearoa (NZ) we also have native bees (around 18 species), they are gregarious, you find clusters of them making tiny nesting holes in the soil, but they are solitary in nature...One of the most common native bee found here is black and quite tiny must smaller than the European honey bee....
Another interesting thing about "Hymenoptera" ants bees and wasps...(whilst we are on the subject), is, it's only the females that can sting, they use their sharpened ovipositors (egg laying tube) as stinger, male ants bees and wasps can't sting, but have been known to bite, using their sharp mandibles...In most species the workers are made up of females, however in some species both the male and female are workers....
Now back to the attack of the giant hornet
It's easy to become fascinated with bees when they're very small, cute, and somewhat exotic. To be faced with the Godzilla of bees or wasps, like the OP, though, is an entirely different matter.
How are you doing, OP, with your uninvited guest? Resolved the problem yet?
We'll probably then realise we need them back, because our bees are a bit lazy.
Yeah a bunch of slackers if you ask me. This new generation of Bees is so unmotivated. Personally I blame the hives and also the drugs. They don't care about work anymore just always concerned about their next buzz.
OMG, I'M SHOCKED!
I always thought very high cocoa chocolate was the healthier option but looking at the stats on the packet I might as well munch a bar of Cadbury.
and this is relevant to hornets.... how, exactly, @FairyFeller ...?
In Germany I lived in Bergen Hohne, just two miles from Bergen Belsen, infamous for the concentration camp.
It was an old Germany army WW2 barrack block converted into married quarters. One of these rooms was our utility room and we permanently left a window open so our cat come come and go as she pleased.
Anyway, one evening I heard a strange 'banging' coming from this room so I opened the door and there were a bunch of hornets which had been clattering about, banging off the window. They were massive. I shut the door. But could still hear them.
In the end I got dressed in my full NBC suit (Nuclear, Biological and Chemical warfare), plus Mk 6 Respirator (I didn't want my face stung) and went back into the room with a tin of fly spray.
The hornets had started a nest in partially opened locker that I stored bulky military kit (like my rucksacks) in.
Apologies; but they had to go.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bee_learning_and_communication
Sadly I only speak the metta dialect of bees and other insects. These incredible dance languages ... How wonderful. We like to keep our spiders as natural fly catchers. I speak fly but spiders have to make a living too ...
Those of us wearing natural flower fragrances or flowers may attract butterflies (lobster top tip)
He/she is referring to the chocolate packet in my pic.
If you want to here screaming, try mowing with an old farm tractor and brush hog. Run over a nest of bumble bees and hope you notice with enough time to dive on the ground.
Ooooh! I see, thank you!