What is this?

[ZuniBee]

My wife found this bug sitting next to one of the hives. It is MUCH bigger than a bee. By the time I got there she had killed it so I could see what it was. Does anyone have a clue as to what this is?

http://www.zunibee.com/files/photos/33e75ff09dd601bL.jpg

It would take about four or five bees to make the same length and about 2 1/2 bees for height.....

[BeeHopper]

My wife found this bug sitting next to one of the hives. It is MUCH bigger than a bee. By the time I got there she had killed it so I could see what it was. Does anyone have a clue as to what this is?

http://www.zunibee.com/files/photos/33e75ff09dd601bL.jpg

It would take about four or five bees to make the same length and about 2 1/2 bees for height.....

Z,

Looks like an European Hornet .

[BeeLady]

That's a hornet and I just watched a video linked on this site of a bunch of these hornets wiping out a beekeeper's colony.  Good job on killing it - he is not your bees' friend.

[ZuniBee]

Wow, I googled it and sure enough, exactly what you say. I sure hope there are not many around here.

That's a hornet and I just watched a video linked on this site of a bunch of these hornets wiping out a beekeeper's colony.  Good job on killing it - he is not your bees' friend.

I believe that is the Japanese Hornet that wipes out colonies. Does the European Giant hornet do the same thing? How do you get rid of them besides whacking them when you are at the hive?

[BeeLady]

Geeze - I don't know - guess it is only the Japanese kind.

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

Then again maybe not.

http://ohioline.osu.edu/hyg-fact/2000/2128.html

[ZuniBee]

From reading various sites on the web these hornets do raid honey bee hives.... However, maybe this was the queen -

New queens prepare nest sites in the spring, usually during April and May. The new queen builds a paper comb, lays a small number of eggs, and rears the first generation of offspring herself. This first generation develops into non-reproductive females (workers) that are responsible for defending and enlarging the nest and feeding and grooming the developing offspring.

Since it is only April I can only hope that this was a queen looking for a good nesting site or looking for food for her eggs. Anyway, I'm glad she killed it..... I'm going to have to become like Cindi and star a war on hornets!

[Mici]

wasp traps work just aswell on this buggers.
but i don't know, i think they don't present a major threat to a normal hive, it's like you said, it's the japanese hornet we should be afraid of.