Japanese hornets

[wm21m9]

 Anybody have any trouble with japanese hornets? There are quite aa few in my neck of the woods & I'm wondering if I should be hunting them down before getting started...Jeff

[Scadsobees]

As far as I know, the Japanese hornets aren't in the Americas, I'm pretty sure there would be a large "buzz" on these forums if they had, since they can wreak such horrific damage on a beehive.

More likely you may have European hornets http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vespa_crabro , not to be confused with european paperwasps http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_paper_wasp .

You will have a hard time finding and exterminating them.  Best watch the hives and be prepared to defend them if you see any attacks.  Robber screens, reduced entrances, not leaving honey around, etc.  You can also build/buy traps that will trap wasps/hornets.

Rick

[wm21m9]

 Geese now I'm not sure! Everybody 'round here calls em japanese hornets, as I understood it they were brought into large beef & pork operations because they catch flies "on the fly", it didn't work out so good and they flew off into the great blue yonder..and into the woods around my house! All I know is they're HUGE & aggressive as heck! I'll have to get ahold of one and do a little further investigation...Jeff

[Cindi]

Jeff, do you have a digital camera?  If you do, catch one of the hornets and take a picture of it so we can see.  That would be nasty if it was a Japanese hornet, surely, I have read nasty things about them. Check it out and let us know, we are a curious and interested crew.  Have a wonderful and adventuresome day, Cindi

[Jerrymac]

Japanese Hornet

[Scadsobees]

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2005/10/1012_051012_hornet_video.html

We'd know if we had these in the good ol' US of A!!

[wm21m9]

 THAT'S why I was askin about em! Jeff

[wm21m9]

 I'll tell I've been looking online at euros & japanese, and I don't remember them having any red/rust color on them like the euros, that & they're aggressive as all getout! When one gets in the house it'll pin the whole family in a corner room and attack if you poke your head out, they're huge & built like tanks!
 I'll have to get ahold of one, take pix & find out for sure...Jeff

[Scadsobees]

I think most of the Vespa's are non aggressive except when you threaten their hives.

Do you have good old bald-faced hornets? (white and black)  I don't know of too many wasps that are aggressive unless you threaten their nests.

Whatever you have, I'd bet that while they can hurt a hive and eventually destroy it, they don't have the sheer destructive power of the Japanese Hornets.

You'll find stories here about how wasps, hornets, and yellowjackets can wipe a hive out.  Not usually in 3 hours with 30 hornets, though.

[dhood]

I've had European Hornets attacking my hives for the past couple of months, here is a couple of photo's of them. Maybe this will help you identify your hornet.

http://i317.photobucket.com/albums/mm371/wdhood/hornet013.jpg

http://i317.photobucket.com/albums/mm371/wdhood/hornet012.jpg

[Cindi]

I don't know, that hornet that you show a picture of looks pretty similar to what we call here Yellowjackets, and yep, yep, they can reak havoc in a bee colony.  I do my best to eradicate these nasties around my property.  They can be considered beneficials, but I think they do more damage in late summer than doing good.  I don't bother them until I see that they are bothering my bees, then I am on a hunt.  Beautiful and most wonderful day, Cindi

The bee and yellowjacket were sipping sugar syrup, side by side.

[poka-bee]

dhood, now that's how I like to see hornets!  There was a huge one sniffing around one of my hives the other day, it even landed on the entrance but my bees chased it away.  It wouldn't hold still & my bees wouldn't get away from it long enough to smush it   Now I check em several times a day & keep bino's by the window so can intervene if needed.  Cindi, I know how aggressive they get in the fall, you can't eat or drink outside w/o them making a nuisence of themselves.  I'm not scared but do get REALLY annoyed when they are buzzing my dinner or mojito!!!.. Jody

[millermann1972]

we call them bell hornets... they ring your bell when you get stung...lol  look up a picture of a (vespa crabro germana)...they are some bad dudes. i catch them swooping down snatching bees up all the time but its hard to find a nest. hope this helps...millermann1972

[greg spike]

We have cicada hornets around here, cigar shaped, appear to have two sets of wings and get 5-6" long. They scoop up bees sometimes. They look and sound scary, but i don't think they do too much damage.

[trumpet01]

I agree with Millermann.I live near Danville,Va. and we too call them Bell Hornets. There's no way to confuse them with a yellow jacket.They are huge!The cicada killers are different and are not around all summer. We found a nest in a friends metal shed. It looks just like a bald face hornets nest. They are some bad dudes, but seem to be less agressive than a bald face hornet. Yes, European hornet.
                            Jim <><

[SgtMaj]

It only takes a few japanese hornets to kill a person... I'm sure what you have is just large ordinary hornets like we have here.  Despite appearances they are actaully quite dossile, though "curious".  They will investigate you, but not sting unless really threatened.

[Card]

It's really common for people in the southeastern US to refer to European Hornets as Japanese Hornets. Sure, it'd be great if everyone used the correct nomenclature for everything, but since we don't have any actual Japanese Hornets here to get confused with, and since everyone knows what you're talking about, it's really not that big of a deal.

But yeah, I've been having a problem with them hawking my girls lately too. Bugs the crap out of me, but until I can find their nest (no luck so far - but I've been looking) it doesn't seem like there's much that can be done to stop them.

[SgtMaj]

It's really common for people in the southeastern US to refer to European Hornets as Japanese Hornets. Sure, it'd be great if everyone used the correct nomenclature for everything, but since we don't have any actual Japanese Hornets here to get confused with, and since everyone knows what you're talking about, it's really not that big of a deal.

But yeah, I've been having a problem with them hawking my girls lately too. Bugs the crap out of me, but until I can find their nest (no luck so far - but I've been looking) it doesn't seem like there's much that can be done to stop them.

One word... chickens.  Those wasps used to make nests under my deck, until I got the chickens... no more, now the chooks just eat em up.  They love anything that moves that small enough they think they can swallow it... including toes not in socks.

[Scadsobees]

And that is not to confuse European Paperwasps with European hornets!

European PPW = http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paper_wasp (pictures are, at least!)

European Hornet = http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_hornet

Japanese or Asian Hornet = http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asian_giant_hornet

[SgtMaj]

Ok, this is absolutely amazing, this is from wikipedia on that asian hornet...

"When a hornet scout locates and approaches a Japanese honey bee hive it will emit specific pheromonal hunting signals. When the honey bees detect these pheromones, a hundred or so will gather near the entrance of the nest and keep it open, apparently to draw the hornet further into the hive or allow it to enter on its own. As the hornet enters the nest, a large mob of about five hundred honey bees surrounds it, completely covering it and preventing it from moving, and begin quickly vibrating their flight muscles. This has the effect of raising the temperature of the honey bee mass to 47 °C (117 °F). The honey bees can just about tolerate this temperature, but the hornet cannot survive more than 45 °C (113 °F), so it dies. Often several bees perish along with the intruder, but the death of the hornet scout prevents it from summoning reinforcements which would wipe out the colony."

[eri]

Better than reading about it, Sarge, are some videos on youtube. Search for japanese honeybees.

[dhood]

That's a trait that the Asian Honeybees have adapted for survival, but our honeybees will not do this. Would be nice though.

[tillie]

I've been seeing European hornets this year and haven't in the past.  The first two years, I saw lots of Bald-faced hornets.  This year the European one is around every day.  They are cannibals and take the live bees to feed their babies like the Bald-faced hornets do.  I posted a picture today of the hornet I've been seeing.  The link says that in the US people tend to mis-identify them as Japanese hornets which are not in the USA.

Here's the picture:



The Penn State entomology department says that the European hornet is technically the only true hornet in the US.

Linda T in Atlanta

[TwT]

I killed one last year, it came buzzing around me and I thought it was a humming bird, must have been a queen because it was huge (they say they get 1 1/4 long but I figured this one to be about 1 3/4 long and thick as my little finger), I did a search and read about them making there way down into Ga. now and I here they like to make their next in between forks of tree's.

[dpence]

We have cicada hornets around here, cigar shaped, appear to have two sets of wings and get 5-6" long. They scoop up bees sometimes. They look and sound scary, but i don't think they do too much damage.

We have cicada killers here too, very large solitary wasp that borrows in the ground.

David