Nice shot……. :+1:
Ha you can see the progress these girls have been busy 
Do you notice less nuisance insects now?
And if you have fruit trees get the ripe fruit off as soon as possible or they have eaten it
They are still very active. But, I was able to observe from 5 to 6 feet away. They did brush me on the way by, I guess a warning but none stung me. I would not have gotten that close last weekend.
In the Mhanlen thread about hornets it became clear that bees and such recognize people so they start to get to know you.
(It is amazing but almost all animals get to know people.
For example we have ducks that were extremely frightened the first year we lived here.
But two females and a male now know us and use our mill creek
These are clever birds since other ducks don’t know us they seek shelter close to us or fly to us and others following them are scared off lol.
Also a robin and other birds now sit at 1 meter from me, except when the cat is around
)
Yep. Last time I had a nest like that nearby, I noticed the patrolling guard wasps that would hover in front of me — the first few days they actually dived at and bounced off me, I think, an intimidation-warning, maybe leaving a pheromone tag. For days after that when I went by I’d notice a few of them come out and hover a few feet in front of me. Definitely recognition going on there — both directions.
That fall, the guy next door freaked out when his kid stepped on a bee in the grass in his own yard — left me an irate phone message blaming me for hurting his little boy — and a few days later, while I was away for the weekend, someone who was never identified came into our yard and busted the nest up. It was empty by that time (sigh).
I hope he learned something. But I’ve still got neighbors who are afraid of flowers because some times during the year they might have bees in them.
Instead we have yards choked with ivy, massive stands of that, and rats nest in the ivy.
I sometimes wonder….
hahahaha just wait till the ivy gets mature.
They provide the last flowers of the season.
All insects and especially bees and hornets will come there.
Oh, but they’re not outdoors much by the time the ivy blossoms — an “all about me” situation.
Well, damn small on the list of things that people are afraid of and freak out.
Wasp Farm is on my list for checking in used bookstores, it’s time I started giving copies away as gifts again.
So True! For years, we have fed the birds daily. They know exactly what time one of us is to appear with the food and are far from bashful. After the drought, we have tons of rabbits so I started feeding them of an evening under a mesquite out back. About 6 to 10 gather every evening now and as I walk out to pour the feed, they come toward me….and sit up on their hind legs like a dog. So cool to watch!! They will literally bump into me as I walk like saying ” Hurry!!!” TL
Cool images Dale! TL
I have a deep respect for these hornets… as long as they don’t settle near people. Then all bets are off.
Not all hornets and wasps get this thinking from me, tho. At the university where I work, black wasps (no idea what species, sorry) were building their nest on a pillar/ceiling corner in the middle of the central corridor near the Biology departments (it has no walls and lots of plants). They got very agitated in the heat we were having (a true buzz of activity, if you will 
), but they never got defensive and in fact never flew close to people who passed by. Surprisingly tame, they were.
Since I passed by it every day for evening classes and also during daytime to get to my bank, I watched them construct the nest, and let me tell ya, it’s amazing how fast the buggers work! Until one day when all I found was a bit of ash and the residues of where the nest attached to the pillar, and I was a bit sad. Someone must’ve called the fire dept. to remove it.
In the past I’ve seen biology departments and interested neighbors put explanatory signs up near scary-looking things, to deter that sort of frightened behavior.
It doesn’t always work, but it’s worth mentioning.
Cutting one of those open at the end of the season is awesome!
It will be a wall hanger, will not cut it up.
Matt, thanks for starting this thread! I rarely read off-topic threads, but have found this one to be very educational, and entertaining. Great forum we have here!
Thanks… it is just not something you see everyday in Illinois and I had to share!
got my eye on one here.
our tree guy says he still sees activity.
but once we get a good cold snap its mine.
going to hang it on the wall at the shop.
i suspect all the new queens are mated and gone but not messing with it just yet.
at least the brats didnt spot it.
last 2 had to be exterminated as they were attacking anything that moved.
Snakebite, the nest we have is only 5 feet off the ground. They have been letting the kids and I approach slowly and look in… nobody has been stung. I have had a couple buzz me and 1 grabbed a spider off my shoulder! That was soooo cool!
wow that is awesome!
Holy nuggets, I so wish you’d recorded that 
Be careful, I had that idea once, I’ll just go out and grab the nest while hunting on a very cold morning.
Well apparently it was cold enought for the Hornets to be still enough for birds to tear the nest apart and eat it.
I went to grab it with a bag, and all I found were pieces of nest. Had to be birds.