Bees, Hornet, id required please

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European hornet. These are not the bad guys (asian hornets) but the good guys that belong here. They're pollinators but also hang around flowers eating tiny insects. Just don't get stung by them - it's supposed to be extremely painful, not something you want to put to the test.......... Leave well alone and they should leave you alone.
 
You can download Asian Hornet watch on to your smartphone which has lots of info and photos which helps identity this one, which as rightly said before is an European hornet
 
You can download Asian Hornet watch on to your smartphone which has lots of info and photos which helps identity this one, which as rightly said before is an European hornet

Yes have read that, and now know what they look like as well. I hope this nest is left to its own devices, trouble is it’s about 3metres away from a mobile home on a holiday park, right alongside a footpath. I will liaise with the land owner, who is very nature aware.
 
It was amazing how when I moved my camera closer to the nest, I’m talking less than a metre, they stopped using the entrance to the nest and started hovering around, and flying at the camera, as if attacking it, they obviously thought it was a threat.
 
It was amazing how when I moved my camera closer to the nest, I’m talking less than a metre, they stopped using the entrance to the nest and started hovering around, and flying at the camera, as if attacking it, they obviously thought it was a threat.
A quick tip, speaking as someone who has dealt with 1000's & 1000's of wasps nests an a 100 or so hornets nests over the years,
Take a few steps back, watch where they fly from, and fly to, they are all creatures of habit, as long as you don't stand directly in the flight path, cast a shadow over the nest entrance or try and touch the nest in any way, you can stand within a foot or so and get all the images you like.
Be brave, if they fly close to you what ever you do, don't try and swat them or generally wave your arms about.
At that point you become a predator, and they will defend the nest by any means possible. And that sharp end really is sharp!
 
I hope this nest is left to its own devices, trouble is it’s about 3metres away from a mobile home on a holiday park, right alongside a footpath. I will liaise with the land owner, who is very nature aware.


IIRC, the nests are used for just the one year so it will be abandoned fairly soon anyway. Once cold weather sets in, it could be removed just in case but not really that necessary.
 
A quick tip, speaking as someone who has dealt with 1000's & 1000's of wasps nests an a 100 or so hornets nests over the years,
Take a few steps back, watch where they fly from, and fly to, they are all creatures of habit, as long as you don't stand directly in the flight path, cast a shadow over the nest entrance or try and touch the nest in any way, you can stand within a foot or so and get all the images you like.
Be brave, if they fly close to you what ever you do, don't try and swat them or generally wave your arms about.
At that point you become a predator, and they will defend the nest by any means possible. And that sharp end really is sharp!

If VERY beave lol. Although a different stingy flying thing, I was attacked by ONE African bee AKA Killer bee and even after stinging me in the forehead it chased and kamikaze into my face for a very long distance.

Since then I would not recommend messing with stingy flying things
 
IIRC, the nests are used for just the one year so it will be abandoned fairly soon anyway. Once cold weather sets in,
Its been my experiance that unless its a truly harsh winter the queen will hibernate / over winter in the nest.
And start all over again in the spring. Of course they don't always survive, if its an especilly wet spring, for example they'll drown foraging for food and wood.
Each queen builds a nest reaching about football size through the year, but obviously the "huge" nests you hear about take more than one season to construct.
TBH In my 30 years as a pestie I've only come across a handful of truly large nests.
A couple that stand out in my memory, Wasp, I couldn't find the damned nest, although I knew it had to be in the loft of this particular house.
It eventually dawned on me, the nest was about 6 inches or so thick but covering the the whole of the gable end!

Hornets, There was a nest in a small property, ( one of these BT type out stations converted into a bed sit type thing) they were going under the roof tiles so the nest had to be in the loft, I lifted the hatch, to get a better look, and tore through the center of the nest.

I was attacked by ONE African bee AKA Killer bee and even after stinging me in the forehead it chased and kamikaze into my face for a very long distance.
I've been chased too, You just need to move away from the nest fairly quickly :D
They usually give up after a 100 yards or so.
 
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