Bald Faced Hornets

[jaycee]

We have a very large bird feeder,18 inches in dia. and 10 inches deep, clear plastic with a bowl shaped cover over it hanging in a Birch Tree , we fill it with sunflower seed.
I was letting it get empty so I could wash it out.

I hadn't looked at it for a few days till my wife noticed a couple of days ago that she couldn't see through it. Upon closer examination we found it to be completely filled with Bald Faced Hornets, [the most aggressive and largest of the lot ] building a very large nest, almost filling the entire feeder.

The other night well after dark, I got the largest garbage bag we had, sprayed the inside with " WASP and Hornet Killer " and bagged the whole outfit and placed it in the sun in my utility trailer all taped up tightly so they can't escape.
It is amazing how quickly these hornets can invade and build their nests .

I will let it sit for another day or so then take it out and clean up the whole mess.

Googling Bald Faced Hornets, there are pictures of some nests that are absolutely huge.

[Snowwalker]

Hey, at least they are not the ones from Japan that have venom that can melt your skin. I was stung "REALLY" good as a kid, and the venom of the wasp and hornets in Canada has little effect on me. No pain or swelling from the stings, and if they bite me my fluids poison them(They tell me I have Antibodies to their vemon, and a very high tolerance to the venom). I still don't hang out around the nest.

[jaycee]

According to "Google " there are none here as they are in Asian countries.
Cutaneous hemorrhage or necrosis findings after Vespa mandarinia (wasp) stings may predict the occurrence of multiple organ injury: a case report and review of literature.
Yanagawa Y1, Morita K, Sugiura T, Okada Y.
Author information
Abstract
DATA SOURCES:
We report one case and analyzed 15 Japanese cases concerning multiple organ failure induced by wasp stings.

DATA EXTRACTION:
Thirteen of 15 cases were associated with skin hemorrhage or necrosis after wasp stings. The mean number of stings (+/- standard error) in the patients who died (59 +/- 12) was significantly greater than that in those who survived (28 +/- 4, p=0.01).

CONCLUSION:
The occurrence of skin hemorrhage or necrosis after wasp stings is extremely rare and multiple organ injury after wasp stings is also a rare complication. Thus, cutaneous hemorrhaging or necrosis findings after wasp stings may suggest the development of multiple organ injury. In addition, the number of stings may play an important role in predicting outcome.

Myself, Wasp Stings don't affect me much more than a mosquito, except when a wasp stung me on the knuckle of my forefinger, earlier this summer, it was quite itchy for a day.

Years ago , our daughter was riding her pony at her grandmothers farm when the pony stepped onto a ground wasp nest, our daughter who was about 6 years old at the time was stung 57 times her grandmother quickly put her into the bath tub filled with cold water as I advised [I was at work at the time ] she then rubbed her with calamine lotion and I took her to the hospital shortly after where they said due to the quick action , she had no ill after affects.
The pony in the meantime was severely stung along with her dog who also went after the pony as she thought [ I guess] that the pony was the cause of the problem.
They all survived and now our daughter can laugh at the episode.

[js4fn]

Always found those ground hornets to be the meanest. Always called bald face a purple wasp

[Snowwalker]

According to "Google " there are none here as they are in Asian countries.

Yes I am glad of that..

But I saw somewhere the crazy ones that like to put insects in bamboo cages keep them as pets.

That would all we need over here is a couple of those "pets" over here.

My nine rounds with the mud dappers at seven was enough.