Speaking of hornets, can they see at night?

There's been a few posts here about hornets lately and today I happened to look up at one of the tool sheds, and holy cow that nest was about as big as a bowling ball hanging down. They must put them things up quick. I never noticed it before and am sure I've looked up recently and all and it wasn't there until I looked up today. It was active too. I drug out a hose and left it coiled up around the corner and after the dogs were out for the last time around 11:00 or so when it was dark, I turned off the night lights on the poles and barns, stood around the corner and sprayed up at it tearing it up I know, but didn't drop it from what I could see in the pitch black of night. Used a spot light from the house a couple hundred feet away and could see was pretty tore up. Got up to use the bathroom about 3:00, put on shorts and boots and went out and gave it some more and could see in the dark a big wad fall down, but still could see some of the nest still up there. Won't know until daylight if the wad was the comb, a wad of hornets, or both. But didn't play around. Shut the hose off, and back up to the house. Anyone know? Hornets can see at night or not?

Mark

I think we humans are the only creatures on earth that can't see so well at night.

Allan

I had some 5x6 rolls of hay stored in a barn on pallets. Noticed Bumble Bees frequently coming and going. One night I decided to whack 'em. Got the sprayer and the flashlight and headed for the spot. I didn't get more than a few pumps out before I got ambushed from the rear by 2 guards. My first experience and my suspicions as to do BB stings hurt were confirmed. So yes bees (generic notation) do/can operate at night.

I think it would be pretty darn dark inside that nest day or night. Honey bee hive boxes would be dark inside when you think about it. So I think they can see in the dark.

A lot insects home in on the co2 that you exhale. Stop breathing and run.

Don't know if it true or not, but have been told if you build a small fire after dark, they will see it and fly straight into the fire.
Richard

I've taken some newspaper, rolled it up and lit it and held it close to a nest and have seen them fly into the fire.

White faced hornets will fly at night. There is at least one sentry outside the nest that will alert the nest of any threat. With that in mind, act accordingly. What you do not want is to get tagged with their pheromone. I've had another type of wasp, the kind that lives underground, mark my gloves with pheromone, the next day, wearing those same gloves some of the lingering wasps immediately landed on back side of my hands to sting or attack. I have a photo of it somewhere. Thankfully the nest was destroyed, after getting nailed a few dozen times. Note to self: check the base of all trees before cutting ! White face hornets can and will do this, meaning all will attack what is marked with pheromone. There are videos on youtube and lots of other information on the web.

The good thing about them is that they are otherwise non-aggressive, so if a nest has enough of a buffer zone around human activity, it won't be a problem. However, even if there is a remote chance of that, its not to say that wind can't break a branch or gravity causes one to fall somehow, unexpectedly. A person needs to make a judgement call as to whether its a real threat or not, including the consideration of anyone being allergic.
Hornets

I like to put a stop to any thing like that just about dusk. They are in for the night, and it has worked good for me. On Bumble Bees I use diesel fuel. Will drop them where they are hit. Wasps I just use whatever I get in town. Yellow Jackets I pour some fuel or gas on the hole in the ground and light it. If in some other place just douse them good with any wasp/bee spray. Douse them good though. I suppose they can see at night. Never got stung doing it this way.

That was my fear. I THINK that I'm sneaking up on them, and they're sharpening their stingers and laughing to each other, "Here comes that rotten, no good son of a gun again".

Mark

Well, I guess that I got lucky hitting them with a hose for a few seconds, shutting it off and running for the house.

Mark

That was my fear. Them getting knocked for a loop, coming to their senses and coming after the bad guy that crushed their whole kingdom and world, me.

Mark

I may have stopped breathing when I ran all the way to the house at 11:00 and again at 3:00.

Mark

I thought about doing that, but then envisioned seeing my tool shed going up in flames. We've gotten good rains the past couple of days, but up until then high 80's, low 90's and very dry. Light up the nest, well maybe not.

Mark

I did burgers and stuffed mushrooms on the webers for dinner yesterday and thought that maybe I could pull the big weber out there and under it, climb up on a ladder and gently knock it down where they could be barbequed, but then I envisioned them coming out and stinging and knocking me off of the ladder into the weber, and barbequed me. To the emergency room stung and burnt up and maybe a broken arm or two too? Would have made for a miserable ride to the ER.

Mark

"Got up to use the bathroom about 3:00, put on shorts and boots and went out" You don't have indoor plumbing? Know what say about outhouses; in the summer they are too close to the house, in the winter not close enough. Just for grins.

A few years ago my then mostly bling brother came over to cut some firewood that I had piled, not cut. I had some railroad ties (fence posts) stacked too. One of my sisters was over acting as the better part of his eyes, and they went back and he began cutting. Underground yellow jackets nest and one that completely hollowed out a railroad tie came to life and they both got pretty stung up. From them I learned that smearing a meat tenderizer paste on the sting takes out most of the sting right away, and it does. Not all, but most. I didn't know about the nest in the railroad tie at first, but saw them coming and going into two different holes in the ground and 4' apart. I did douse and fill them with gasoline, let them, left them to burn. I figured worse case, the fire would draw the oxygen out of the nest and smother them, then I drove back and forth over it with a truck, smashing it. End of them, but saw some going in and out under a tie, so figured a nest under it, not in it. I chained the end of the tie to the back of a tractor, and pulled it out, scrambling a good hundred feet or so, then stopped. I had to roll the tie to unhook it and when I did, there was a huge nest in the hollowed out tie, and were they ever mad at me and the noisy tractor. I got stung quite a few times, and was told about the meat tenderizer paste, and it worked. After they calmed down a little, I doused the nest with two cans of wasp spray that shot about 25' and killed it. That thing was a good 2' long, hollowed out the square of the tie. Was huge. Amazing to me is what they did to that tie to achieve that. Holy cow.

Mark

Amazing. Simply amazing. You seem to have a lot of experience and knowledge with and about hornets, and I sincerely appreciate it. Seems that mother nature has a way of dealing with...me, and I aint always the winner. Thanks Billy. Good stuff to know.

Mark

No, no, no. That's how I noticed them yesterday. I was sitting on the hollowed stump doing my thing, reading the paper and looked up and thought, not good situation to get stung, so grabbed some leaves from the pile and cleaned myself up, and plotted how to get them away from my out, out, outhouse. And yes, I washed my hands when I finished. Have a hand pump next to the hollowed out doody stump.

Mark

Now, that's funny!

I have not seen a single hornet all summer. Odd because they love to build a nest under the seat of my SC Case.

If your choice is day or night, it's a no brainer. Pick the battle that you have a chance to win, ha.

Plan out every detail of your attack. Buy the good 25' wasp/hornet spray, and don't set the ladder right under the nest where they'll drop on you when they fall out. Scope out the nest with binoculars - some hornet nests have two openings. Tearing down the nest and leaving a bunch of live angry hornets is not a good option. You're better off to kill them when they're concentrated right in the nest.

At night.

About bumblebees - all of the wasp/hornet sprays that I've tried on bumblebees failed to kill them. There might be a brand that works, but I've not found it yet. I use gasoline on bumblebees.

Can't claim to be any kind of expert, but from experience over the years,(certainly have had my share) and some research, I'd like to think I have an understanding of these particular insects. I enjoy sharing what I have learned because some just hate on these without knowing a little more. You see the same thing with non poisonous snakes, snapping turtles or similar.

White faced hornets are not common around here, sure you'll find nests every season, but they are not abundant, per say like other types. They have their problems developing too, sometimes the nest does not make it, I find small abandoned ones every year. The brown paper wasp (not even sure what species, just that they are brown), yellow or gold paper wasp and the yellow jackets/ground hornets/wasps are much more common in these parts and if you have land, barns, outbuildings or similar, you'll learn about most of these over time. Even with ones home, you'll find a nest eventually. Our one barn is just loaded with the yellow paper wasps, I try to get the ones that are near gates and entrances, the rest are too numerous, too aggressive and linger after a removal if you can't get them all. One picks and chooses battles with these. I have been stung for no apparent reason at times, walking across the yard in the open. I have seen paper wasp nests literally right out in the open, which is amazing given the weather we can have, rain especially from intense thunderstorms. Wipe out a nest and angry wasps will linger for days, but eventually will be gone. So take a nest during the peak activity of the day, you make a mess because the ones you did not get will be around awhile and super aggressive vs having just left them alone until fall.

The ground nests are amazing, I get nailed every year lately it seems, but these are small, the sting is almost tolerable, but they do itch for days. They tolerate your presence until you disturb them. Thankfully, even if you step on a nest, you'll get nailed, but from my experience, you won't get instantly covered if you can get some distance from the nest, they bumble all around the area until they settle down. Of course some will be clung to you on your clothing and you will have to find/remove every one to stop getting stung.

Every white faced hornets nest I have encountered, you could carefully get near and walk away without incident, they are beneficial too, as they prey on insects. You can eventually see their flyway, they use a straight line, which I imagine changes at times. Sure as heck they always leave a guard out, that is always a factor to contend with. Unless they are a danger or hazard, I just leave them alone.

That's the thing with the ground hornets, the opening and the nest location can be deceiving. Their nests are quite large sometimes, well offset from the opening and often times unless you dig it up, your efforts to kill them will not work. Its a bunker of sorts and you have to destroy the bunker, otherwise its just mild harassment to them. If you find an undisturbed nest, place something over the nest opening, carefully of course, then observe. They'll overcome that obstacle by tunneling, and act like nothing has changed, just going about their business. They like dead furrow walls, any sidewall or side cut of the earth, natural or man made, though sometimes its an old rodent hole straight down, I have seen many on the side cut or slope with some easier digging.

Many years ago when we first went organic, our orchard had many nests of hornets and wasps. We can't use spray on them so used a long pole with a rag dipped in diesel to burn them out. We had a light off to the side of where we stood. The dying hornets would fly out and hit the light. Now we tape a tiger torch to a ladder quietly during the day and light it at night. We do this just prior to picking so we get maximum bug control from them. If they are not near the trees, we leave them alone and just tell the works to stay clear. They only attack when you are close to the nest.

At what point do you find out about the nest? Before or after you see it?

Mark

I went out today and the whole outside of the nest was gone, but there were 5 combs hanging. The biggest at the top, a smaller one hanging from it, and so on down to the smallest, the fifth hanging closest to the entry hole. I've never been in a hornets nest before. They're pretty industrialized to build something like that. I didn't see any movement so hit it with the hose again to knock that down, and the second that I did about a million of them set out looking for the source. I shut off the hose and skadattled out of there. Went and got a can of hot shot from the store, let them have that. It killed them off.

Mark

The combs were fixed real good. After killing the next off with hot shot, I tried to spray the combs down using a hose, but no go on that. I slid a couple of 10' PVC conduits together and knocked them down. Five combs in that nest. No wonder it was as big as a bowling ball. They build layers of combs hanging from combs. I was able to use the hose to get off what little was left of the nest.

Mark

Yes. I was pasture mowing as a favor one day on property that hadn't been mowed for a spell. I have heard about BB nests in the ground but this was my first experience. I don't know why I looked around just as I ran over it, but I did and out they came....Glad I had an easy shifting Ford with a get-away gear.

A fellow I used to know cleaned the trees and brush off oil well drilling sites with his bulldozer. One day after he finished a site he had a call from nature. So he proceeded to the back side of a brushpile and proceeded to take care of business. Turned out that the spot he selected was dead center of a yellowjacket nest. They were already boiling mad about the dozer skinning the top off their house. He said that a fellow could run pretty fast with his pants around his ankles!
Elmo

I'm waiting for someone to report how he started up his weed whacker and went after a bowling ball size nest with it.

I've been thinking that the next time I see one of those large live nests, taking a safe position about 30 years away and doing target practice with a BB gun and putting lot of holes in the nest. From that distance, do you think they'd figure out it was me making the holes?

A couple years ago I was trimming brush with a string trimmer and steel blade on it when I realized I was standing on a nest. Found out the hard way and they ate me up good! I dropped the trimmer as I was swatting em off right on top of the nest. Yes, it was still running. I went out after dark, picked it up no problem and walked away without any sign of them. Yes, the trimmer ran out of gas.

Amazing how little guys like that can be so mean and hard to get along with.

Mark

I've seen hornets nests, only ever encountered one and I was about 7 year-old at the time. My buddy, Rusty knew what hornets were and we were by an abandoned house where a big nest was hanging. I didn't know what it was. It looked like pile of grease hanging from the soffet. He picked up a 2x4 that was lying, whacked it, ran like heck leaving me standing there as he screamed "RUN!!!". After getting stung like you know what, I ran. I never saw inside of the nest though.

Mark

I did something similar while stationed at Ft. Hood with a soft nest of fire ants. I was standing there on maneuvers, listening to the commander as he spoke to my unit, then started get bit all over my arms. When i looked down, they were all over my uniform climbing up from my boots. Holy cow, I dove a few feet away hitting the deck rolling around trying to get them off of me. Some nearby fellow soldiers saw what was going on and did there best to brush them off of me. Angry little guys fire ants and hornets are.

Mark

nearly caught my garage on fire burning a nest. After that, decided it was cheaper to buy the spray cans. That was too close!