Big Ass Hornets

If you go back a few weeks on this blog, you will see a couple of entries about some big ass hornets that I've had buzzing around.  We had a few weeks of cool nights and I didn't see any more, then we had a couple of very warm nights late last week.  Sure enough, I came home one night to find two of them buzzing the light on my back porch.  I got past them and into the house and grabbed my handy can of Raid Wasp and Hornet killer and cut down on them.  Usually, when I hit 'em, they fly off somewhere to croak. Well, these two dropped like rocks onto the porch.  One of 'em was big enough that I thought it might be a queen.   Have a look:

Not the best picture, but I only had a cell phone camera available.  I figure that when all the bajillion leaves I have here drop I will be able to finally find the hive and kill it, although supposedly the queen dies each winter and the next round of queens find a new place to nest.

OK, Maybe a Different bugger...

My local entomologist told me it was the Japanese Hornet, but now have it on good authority that I am dealing with the European Hornet, Vespa Crabro (do you think that is where Vespa scooters got the name? Bet it is.):

Not as big, not as dangerous but still a pretty good sized, nasty bugger, but not potentially life-threatening like the dude down below there. Man, I gotta move into the city!

Been Away for a Few Days...

...been dealing with these:

Meet Vespa mandarinia, the Asian Giant Hornet or the Japanese Hornet. According to Wikipedia, getting stung by one of these monsters is like having a "a hot nail driven into your leg". Wikipedia also fails to mention, though, that they are now found not just in Asia, but right here in the southern US, specifically here in central North Carolina. I have probably killed upwards of a hundred of them in the last two months, half a dozen in the last week. The really bad part, for me, is that the ones that I have killed this week were killed while they buzzed the motion-sensor light on my back porch. Six feet from where I go in and out of the house. How do you spot a flying insect at night, before the light goes on? Answer: You don't.

My local extension agent gave some ideas on how to get rid of them, the best one being to call an exterminator. I would do that if I had any idea at all where the nest is. So, I have set a trap for them and hope that I get all of them before they get me. So far, I haven't been stung yet, but if I do, you will know about it.