Bald Faced Hornets

[thewhiterhino]

Do they call that flaming hornets? :lau:

[capt44]

The way I get Hornets Nest is I wait until the temperature is in the mid 30's and take a pair of pruners and clip the limbs holding the nest about a foot long.
Usually the Nest will be fairly close to a water source and built on 2 or 3 small limbs.
I then place the nest in a large plastic bag and set off a insect bomb in the bag.
Be sure to close the bag!
You're rid of the hornets and have a Hornets Nest that you can sell for around $200.00 or so dollars.
I've collected several Hornets Nest this way.

[BeeMaster2]

$200.00, Nice to know. Only problem, I have never seen one here in N FL.
Jim

[BlueBee]

I've seen yellow jackets flying in some pretty cool weather.  Are we sure hornets can't fly when it's in the mid 30s?  Apparently that hasn't been your experience capt44, but I'm still a little scared of messing with a big nest; even on a cold day.

I was under the impression that people sell hornet nests to somebody (?) for medical purposes?  Anti venom?  Who else would actually pay money for these menaces?

[GSF]

Blue, he's referring to the "vacant" nest. We used to hang one in my daddy's living room. It's quite an ornament. Alabama is rich in rivers/lakes. We would wait until most of the leaves fell off of the trees and head up the river.

It's actually a lake, Lake Jordan. When I was a child growing up most of the older folks were here before they built Jordan and/or Walter Bouldon Dams. Most of their early lives it was a river. So most folks were brought up calling it a river.

[BlueBee]

OK, I learned something new. 

I've been in homes with the walls covered in dead animals (a bit tacky for my taste...but to each is their own) but I've never seen anybody with a hornet nest on the wall.  Maybe I should try to start a trend up here.  Wonder if I put one of the front porch if it will keep people away. :)   

[derekm]

A few years ago, my dogs found a football sized nest in a bush. Luckily it was drizzling and most of the hornets where home. I emptied an entire can of raid on them. I completely soaked the nest.
I checked the next morning and there was no signs of life.
I know some people will blast the nest with a hose while dripping dish soap into the stream of water.

Nasty, nasty insects.

They have their place in the eco system as a predator keeping down the numbers of other insects.
Tigers of the insect world?

[greenbtree]

We have a lot of paper wasps here, the ones that build under overhangs, with the nest open on the bottom.  I have a old shed that I go into maybe 3 times a year, I walked in there this summer and about 6 nests worth of wasp heads snapped around to look at me when I opened the door. "Keep calm ladies, just want this pick axe..."  I moved slow, tracked the whole way by compound eyes.  Left them there, I watch them plucking flies off the walls of my barn.  The ones that build nests above the doors to my house?  They have to go.  I usually use soapy water at night, and knock down the nest.  They are easy though because their nest is partially exposed.

JC