Thursday 20 May 2010

Invader


For a few days every year we come into the sitting room in the morning to find a hornet buzzing at the window. What's the problem, you ask? Just keep the window shut. Well, we do keep the window shut. The problem is that said hornet is on the inside. We found the first of the year a couple of weeks ago making quite a racket inside the woodburner. Since then we've ejected three or four through the window. It's difficult to judge the size from the photo, but I can tell you that it was 1.5 to 2 inches long. Ordinary wasps are much smaller and more aggressive. These hornets seem much more docile, and their buzz is lower pitched and louder than a wasp's. I still didn't fancy holding a ruler (if I could have found one) alongside while taking the photo, though!

But where do they come from? Yes, I know, eggs, but where are the eggs being laid? We've seen them flying up from under the woodburner straight to the window, so I think they must be hatching in the air duct under the woodburner. I suppose we could close this now we're not likely (I hope) to be using the stove for a few months.

Interesting fact: Vespa motor scooters are so-called because they sound/sounded like wasps or hornets. Vespa is Italian (and Latin) for "wasp". Vespa is the genus name of hornets.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hello Halfie,
We have terrible problems with wasps and hornets every year making nests in the most amazingly tight places. I highly recommend Planet Natural's Poison Free Flying Insect Killer. The State of Hawaii uses it to wipe out wasp and hornet nests since they are not indigenous to the islands and they strip the shrubs bare of other bugs which are food for Hawaian bird species. Some of those nests weigh more than 40 pounds and this spray takes them out. It is the mint oil what does the trick.
www.planetnatural.com
Jaqueline Almdale USA

Vallypee said...

We also have trouble with wasps, but not hornets, thankfully. Mind you wasps are really nasty and we had to eliminate a wasps nest last year from behind some wooden planking. I have a vespa scooter, and yes, it does sound like an angry wasp!