Big Bald Faced Hornet Nest

Qball

Qball

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This is one was leftover from last year. They don’t re-inhabit their nests. We would have torn it down but a family of birds decided to take refuge in it this past winter.

There’s always a big nest every year somewhere on our property. This is the first one we’ve seen on the house.

I was telling @MacEntyre about it yesterday.

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Yowza. I found one like that by the bbq shack a few years ago.

Stood back with 5 bottles of spray and just lit up the entrance.
 
I have one at work at my desk. I’ll try to remember to get a pic tomorrow and post it.
 
I was aggressively cutting back a humungous 30 year old azalea in my yard some years ago, lopping of big branches, and all at once I was face to face with a soccer ball sized hornets nest.

Happily uninhabited.
 
fieldgrade said:
I was aggressively cutting back a humungous 30 year old azalea in my yard some years ago, lopping of big branches, and all at once I was face to face with a soccer ball sized hornets nest.

Happily uninhabited.
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Betcha it made the old ticker skip a beat or two till you realized that tho!
 
I have what's left of a nest like that in my shop... was in a tree about 50 feet off the ground. Shot it full of lead .22 bullets, an' it started smoking! I thought, geez! those boolits didn't go through, but stopped and started it burning! I woulda thought they all would go right through. Got it down with a 20 ga...
 
fieldgrade said:
I was face to face with a soccer ball sized hornets nest.
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Did something similar on a remodel back in the early 90's. Customer had a sagging ceiling from a rooftop deck leak; to get the sheetrock down, I climbed a step ladder, shoved my arm in between the top of the sheetrock & the bottom of the joists almost all the way up to my shoulder & heaved!

Rock came crashing down & there my nose was, 6" from a nest bigger'n my head. Fortunately, it was unoccupied or not yet active... I was all alone at a mountain house w/no cell phone.

@Qball , that looks like something from a Mummy's Tomb!!
 
This post taught me something new. We had one of those appear right on our wood line two years ago and I didn’t have a clue what it was. Luckily it was empty when I found it. A week or two after I found it something tore it to shreds.
 
You want to see a bunch of grown out of shape men scatter extremely fast and screaming like little girls, cut down a tree with a nest in the top of it that no one saw before it hit the ground. They were not happy campers
 
If you get those big nests every year, you have a good food source for them nearby. They love flies and will nest near dumpsters or other fly attractants. They also love heat and will build their nests where they get radiant heat from the sun or even around exhaust vents for gas water heaters, etc. They are handy insects to have around, as they are great at controlling nuisance insects, including caterpillars that eat your garden. Their presence can come at a price, though.
 
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Like non-poisonous snakes, their benefits far outweigh their occasional sightings.

Having spent around 15 years of my life cruising timber, I’ve been on the business end of most insects and reptiles. Not fun!
 
catpop said:
Like non-poisonous snakes, their benefits far outweigh their occasional sightings.

Having spent around 15 years of my life cruising timber, I’ve been on the business end of most insects and reptiles. Not fun!
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Non-venomous

🤓 😝
 
cubrock said:
If you get those big nests every year, you have a good food source for them nearby. They love flies and will nest near dumpsters or other fly attractants. They also love heat and will build their nests where they get radiant heat from the sun or even around exhaust vents for gas water heaters, etc. They are handy insects to have around, as they are great at controlling nuisance insects, including caterpillars that eat your garden. Their presence can come at a price, though.
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Yep. We have these hornets, robber flies, dragon flies, bats, snakes, and just about everything else. We pretty much live and let live.
 
Spartan01 said:
Wow, ok. I learned something new. No idea they had a benefit, just assumed they were the physical manifestation of evil.
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You’re thinking of Yellow Jackets or Ground Hornets! Both like to nest in “burrows” in the ground cause it’s closer to hell!
 
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johnnyb said:
You’re thinking of Yellow Jackets or Ground Hornets! Both like to nest in “burrows” in the ground cause it’s closer to hell!
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They eat a lot of bugs, too.
 
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