So… I shoot a lot of video about flashlights. And since the days are longer now, that means I have to stay up later to get night shots. Last night I went out, did some beamshots and found they were trash because the lens fogged up. The humidity is terrible right now.
Anyway, when getting up for work at 4am I decided to attempt to do them again. Cool… I’m about 3/4 the way through them at about 415 now and I hear what I think is a June bug. It’s flying at my light in my hand and a camera, and I get a good look at this thing and realize it’s a big freaking hornet.
Googling this morning I found it looks like this I think. I’ll have to get a positive ID on the carcass when I get home. Also thanks Europe for these monsters!
So it buzzes me a few times and I keep trying to run away but it’s literally attacking me. At this point I realize that I have a light in my hand, and it’s able to find me so easy because of the light. Idiot. But I realize this as it hits my ear. I then drop the light and run up my outdoor basement stairs. I didn’t feel the sting at first, but realize he got me after about 15 seconds. So I grab my sandal and run back at him and finally end the confrontation.
Now since I’m allergic to fire ants and bees, I thought I was going to have issues. But now, it’s 2 hours later and I’m fine. My ear is still throbbing but I’m fine. Anyway, now I’m terrified to do anything at night now at the new house. Is there a nest nearby? Why is this guy out at night?
Anyway… share your problems. Ever get hurt playing with lights?
EDIT: Found the lair… it’s about 60 feet away in a tree… about 5 feet in the air. I was bumping up against this tree on monday evening with the lawn mower. Oops. I saw them flying into the nest as I was BBQing tonight.
Maybe he bit you instead of stinging. Either way, bad deal. But, glad to know you are okay with no allergy issues coming up! The European variety aren’t as bad as the Japanese. Not only are they smaller, they aren’t generally aggressive, unless you’re near their nest. You need to find that nest and get it outta there before you get into a world of hurt! Since you’re allergic, you should probably call a pest control company to do the dirty work.
We’ve moved recently… but I’ve been outside at night before with no problem. I am definitely going to look for that nest. And yeah, those things are no joke- I’ll let the professionals handle it. I have problems with getting bit by 4 or 6 fire ants.
European hornets are pretty friendly normally
Asian ones (smaller darker with orange socks) are much more aggressive.
There must be a nest with direct line of sight to where you where working.
The colony is now big almost peaking so the work is divided with drones doing the hunting to feed the larvae and scouts
The one your had trouble with must have been a scout.
First year here lots of bees.
The latest flowers of the season only bees. An occasional EU hornet.
Second year much more hornets.
2 nests line of sight to our first floor terras at the back
Meaning light on within 20 seconds the first and upped to up to 10 of which several fighting each other.
We used an other terras or I shielded the light so they did not see it.
Last flowers of the season only hornets also Asian.
We conducted an experiment with 25 traps placed at the tree in the yard where a nest was
All sorts of bait.
Lenonade based kefir worked best.
I placed kefir traps between the last season flowers and 10 2L bottles full of hornets.
This spring we made those traps with kefir and placed 25 around our grounds
Caught so much queens (only queens live through the winter and are hungry when coming out of hibernation)
Had 1 hornet inside this year and that is all.
The lavender is in full blossom now and we have enough to make it attractive for bees and the bees are back.
A downside is that hornets and wasps hunt insects and now there are a lot more insects flying around.
I wanted to start beekeeping this year but postponed to see how battling hornets would go. (Otherwise I’d be making hornets buffet instead of wax/propolis/pollen/honey factory for us
That one that we saw means we have to make much more traps next spring and make it with lots more people. Lucky us a neighbor is breeding bees to sell queens and our new neighbors are beekeepers so sure they will want to participate (new neighbors make kefir too so making the gallons of grains needed for hundreds of traps is not an issue)
Oh be advised when in trouble hornets use pheromone to warn others.
Smacking them can be bad if this pheromone reaches others.
The nest was either downwind or not that close to where you were working.
Oh fo you have an epipen?
The nests are either high in tree canopy or inside a dead tree usually (exposed and easy to reach is very rare)
When attacking the nest wrong almost the entire colony will attack you.
Getting close for an attack is dangerous
Asian hornets go wild within 5 meters and European can stand 2
(Our campfire place was right below their nest in the dead tree at 3 meters high and these did not mind a campfire. Tobtge tree is gone now )
So one needs a protecting suit similar to beekeepers suit but thicker (or several layers of clothing under a beekeepers suit.)
Tubes to reach the entrance of the nest and ladders to get close enough to get the tubes there.
In dusk some powdery toxic needs to be administered to the entrance and the hornets will bring it inside and die.
In rural France going to the authorities means an attack on nests during office hours when a lot of the hornets are out.
Some stupid communities use hunters to shoot the nest down.
This is both really dumb since hornets are different from bees
There is 1 queen with bees, queen dies and with royal jelly the workers can have a new one hatch, she needs fertilization so it takes a long time to recover from queen loss for bees.
In any hornets nest there is 1 active queen but several born to be able to get fertilised only kept in check by the active queens pheromones.
So destroy a nest wrong and several hornets escape and start new so it actually makes the problem bigger.
Yep I have an epipen. I finally got one a year or two ago after visiting the doctor as an adult. My first visit in 20 years or more? The fire ants are what prompted me to do it. I found out one year in Florida after walking into some in the yard. My heart began racing and my hand siezed up. I waited it out, but it was scary. I get stung occasionally, and sometimes my heart races a bit and sometimes it doesn’t. Now I probably wouldn’t stand a chance if I got caught in a nest.
I was right next to the house, and as far as I know I’ve not seen any flying around or a nest. I’ll have to go home and see if I can find the nest. It may have been a fluke- I don’t know how far they tend to travel from their nest at night.
They can forage to well over a mile (well 3 actually)
This is peak for them, lots of larvae to feed and lots of energy to flap those wings to get air flowing through the nest and maintain the proper temperature. You said 04AM before work… If your house if the only with light at that time regularly they sure have found it to be a good hunting ground during this time.
Next time do not wear heavy smelling deodorant and do nit strike at one just let it be, they are so big they feel and act like king of the hill, not easily threatened or aggressive.
Smile knowing less pesky insects are there to ruin your night shots
Found the nest? Just leave it and shine the other way and they are kind of allies!
We have been thought to deal with this things during sunset, when the beasts are asleep. Otherwise they will attack you during the day… or the night if it is a specially bright night (you shine them, they wake up).
The wasps are more angry than bees and will stung you multiple time without dyiing.
Yeah I didn’t realize until after I had done them that it was fogged up. I made sure to check it this time. Yeah I know… sometimes I don’t have a lot of time, heck I shot with this camera in single digits before without fogging.
Mhanlen it is logical you killed it and we catch them too if we have the chance (and under a glass in the sun it takes a few minutes for them to die.
But no wasps and hornets are very useful insects
They hunt other insects keeping their numbers down.
(So only beekeepers have good reason to hate the hornets)
Later when there are less larvae they need sugar (wasps feed insects to larvae and eat the sugary secretion of the larvae) and thus eat left over fruit from trees and around trees (and by doing so
1 protect trees from all sorts of harvest threatening fungus and such
2 eat food rats and mice love
)
So without them much more flies, mosquitos, plant threatening insects, spiders, rats, mice and plant diseases.
So they can be very nice to have around.
Just protect your terras with one or a combination of this;
1 fake wasp nests
2 traps down wind with lemonade so when they catch the smell of sugar they go to trap before reaching terras.
3 etheric oils they hate ( like patchouli, tea tree )
4 plants they hate with a lemony smell.
BTW plants are awesome here
We have a big old walnut tree in the middle of the backyard. It produces a scent we do not smell but repels flies.
I just replanted a small Catalpa these repel a lot of insects too
Hoping more will grow in the millstream where on the other side an old Catalpa produces much seed every year, for a protective circle
We have a 2m line tree in a pot near the front door, a small kumquat at the back door.
Some lemony scent producing plants on the tables we can sit on and wherever a elderberries tree tries to grow we let it (not only for the blossom yummie anf berries but a branch with leaves that are squeezed a bit repels also insects.
So this is a fun battle that can give us a lot of advantages
That’s the military-issue ShadowHoax 700, only good for driving away drone aircraft and helicopter gunships.
Take it out at night on the battlefield and wave it around if you think they’re closing in on you.
Results guaranteed or your money cheerfully ….
Pretty sure it wasn’t. I’ll verify tonight… This one would have kept stinging me if I hadn’t killed it. I was standing hear the house shining lights at the trees one hundred feet away. I normally don’t kill bees, spiders or anything. But this hornet was on a mission.
We have those cicada-killer wasps in VA they just fly by and ignore you. I used to deal with Hornets in VA when I was a Park Ranger. Very mean and nasty sting.
yep, anything with that on it, & a lighter, & go to town on them!! 
