Hornets Nest_Hornets enemy

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A few weeks ago I noticed a small hornet's nest being built on the edge of garage near my back deck. I could actually watch the hornet as he was making it (quite interesting). I also noticed an old nest - that had a hole in it and figured it was probably from last year and we never noticed it.

Well I went out and got some hornet's nest killing stuff to spray on it. It is too close to the deck and worried about potential stings. So when I got ready to finally use it, I noticed the nest was torn open.

I did only notice one hornet and it was not a very big nest. Out of curiosity - do they just make temporary nests? Would something attack this ? Do these hornets have an enemy - maybe a bird or something? Or do I have gremlins that are just watching out for us?

Also should I do something to prevent them from coming back?

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From the title, I really thought this was going to be a thread about Basketball.

Sorry, I don't know anything valuable about the insects.

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@maxdancona,

maxdancona wrote:

From the title, I really thought this was going to be a thread about Basketball.

Sorry, I don't know anything valuable about the insects.

Ha ha - good one.

Funny my older daughter is going to play basketball for the hornets this year! That is her school mascot. She even has a sign on her bedroom door saying Warning Hornet's Nest.

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@Linkat,

i don't think you can prevent the critters from coming back.

be careful around the nests.

i got stung multiple times by an angry gang of wasps once after accidentally disturbing a nest...

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@Region Philbis,

Region Philbis wrote:

i don't think you can prevent the critters from coming back.

be careful around the nests.

i got stung multiple times by an angry gang of wasps once after accidentally disturbing a nest...

Yeah this was a tiny nest - we had a huge one in a tree one year over our driveway -- this kind of crazy girl in the neighborhood tried to knock it down with softballs while my daughter was trying to get the results filmed. This is what I drove up to one day.

But yeah this was significantly smaller than the one in the tree. I was going to zap it with hornet killer spray you do from a distance at dusk but when I went to do so - it was already torn open with no hornets around. So know I have two hanging up near each other - both opened up and obvious no hornets have been in there recently.

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@Linkat,

Oh and I have these ground hornets that come once a year - keep forgetting about trying to find something that stops them. I have found out they are not aggressive - they come for a couple of weeks - nest and then go off.

They just make a mess in our brick walkway. They like to nest in the soft sand that is between the bricks. Just makes a mess with these piles of sand that look like ant hills.

Some guy came by one year and tried to convince me they were dangerous so I should hire him to get rid of them. Thought better of it and looked it up and found they were not at all aggressive - which is good because before I knew they were actual hornets doing this - I was stepping on the hills to even them off - why I doubted him when he said they were aggressive.

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When they are in for the night, when it is totally dark, you can spray them all at once. Then immediately go inside and clean up the following morning. That's the way I did the red wasps when I had them.

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@Linkat,

I don’t know a great deal, but hornets, despite their size, are quite docile, which is probably why you’ve not noticed them before.

There are solitary bees, they can be quite big and some look like hornets.

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Raccoons will rip hornet's nests apart to get at the larvae. I watched one digging up a nest of yellow jackets one time — you could see him react to the multiple stings but that wasn't enough to get him to change his mind.

I was working in the woods one year and noticed a big old spruce stump housing a huge nest of yellow jackets. One day I was walking by and saw that the stump had been dug up and pulled right out of the ground by a bear. Those wasp larvae must be delectable!

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@Linkat,

Linkat wrote:

I did only notice one hornet and it was not a very big nest. Out of curiosity - do they just make temporary nests? Would something attack this ? Do these hornets have an enemy - maybe a bird or something? Or do I have gremlins that are just watching out for us?

I suspect birds because you claim damage to the nest.

Quote:

Birds who regularly consume bugs will eat wasps. Some will even purposely hunt down wasps, such as starlings, blackbirds and magpies. Other birds that make wasps an occasional snack include sparrows, wrens, orioles, bluebirds, woodpeckers, warblers and common nighthawks. These birds are wise enough to limit their hunt to solitary wasps, and avoid disturbing them near the wasp nest.

Source

Also from the same article:

Quote:

Mice and rats, skunks, raccoons, weasels, badgers and wolverines are all brave enough to occasionally attack a wasp nest in order to eat the larvae inside. Humans have even been known to eat wasp larvae in certain parts of the world.

So maybe raccoons giving Linkat's suburban location.

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@izzythepush,

izzythepush wrote:

I don’t know a great deal, but hornets, despite their size, are quite docile, which is probably why you’ve not noticed them before.

There are solitary bees, they can be quite big and some look like hornets.

Maybe that is what it is - the nest was so small - and he did look like a hornet though

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@tsarstepan,

To be honest I haven't seen raccoons around here. I used to when I lived closer to the city - here I see more foxes, mice, skunks, opossums and even a fisher cat.

With so many birds - that is what I suspected and at its location. Not that these critters cannot climb - but it doesn't seem to be in a location that one of these would go to as it would not be easy and with all the other creatures around - I would think it much easier to catch those for dinner.

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