Update on Hornet's Nest
 

The terminix guy was here this morning! I knew the minute he started removing the nest he had no clue how bad these bald-faced hornets were but it's not my job...it's his.

I am watching this guy out the window. He's spraying this huge nest. The hornets are swarming out of the nest and he's dodging and ducking. He has on no protective gear! :eek:

He keeps spraying. Ok.

Next step. He get's this very long metal pole and scopes it out, it's about 30 feet long and starts poking at the nest to dislodge it from the tree. Not good. The hornets are now zooming out of the nest. He runs for his truck, jumps in and shuts the doors. He sits there for about 15 minutes. Maybe he's not as dumb as he looks!

He gets out and sprays some more. Gets the stick and starts poking at tit some more and a large part of it falls to the ground. He is obviously a little gun shy now cuz he's dodging and ducking flying things at him. He keeps spraying the remnants of the nest.

He doesn't get stung. I am amazed. Now there is just a little part of the nest hanging from the limb and he soaks it good with more spray.

Lots of dead hornets. He checks around the rest of the house, finds a smaller nest near the dog kennel in the back yard. Poor Holly. Good thing she is fishing this week!

I just went out to check on the nest. It's pretty cool looking. When the sun angle is better I will take some pictures.

How in world did he do that and not get stung?

I guess he is not scared of the darn things or has good insurance!

Either he really knew what he was doing (I think not!) or he has more holes in his head thean we do.....Holy Hornets nest! :icon_eek:

Be gone oh winged invadors..... Hey Cheryl??? What's that buzzing behind you???? Made ya look!!! :Thats-Funneh:

I can't hear anything! :confused:

So, I go out there to take a look so I can get some pictures of the remnants of the nest. My neighbor has stopped by to pick up some lawn chairs and a table for her son's birthday party tonight.

And guess what? Those little buggers have returned and are rebuilding their home. THEY'RE NOT DEAD!

They're putting the bottom back onto their home.

Guess I need to call Terminix back and tell Reggie to get his bee-hind back here and finish the job. Oh he's not going to be happy!

Bee careful! The little bug- gers might come back with vengeance.:eek:

Terminix just called. They will be out on Saturday --- SATURDAY???? :eek:

Guess I will take more pictures....this is getting ridiculous!

Saturday? The whole nest will be rebuilt by then. Could Holly stay in the house for awhile?

We are all staying in the house for a while. :(

OMG!!! How come he didn't cut it down, after he sprayed? The Idiot, now he has to do it all over again. I hope one stings him in the butt, this time.

You mean to tell me that you have two hornet's nests? Yikes..Move to the city, they don't like it there.

Keep your husband and other animals inside.:D

In my study of bugs, and my father cared for a 226 acer farm which I grew up on, we had to deal with these bee's on a daily base's. I hope this will help you out. By understand their behavior is always the best line of deferences.

If there is a way you could wait till colder weather when the bee's become non active, you have a better chance of getting rid of them for good. In order for them not to rebuild the nest, the nest needs to be removed all the way, till thats done they will keep building it back. Still even with that they may need to spare the area to discourage them from doing so. Once that nest is down they will seek out another area to build in. Got to keep those eyes open for new ones. If you see any, the sooner it's removed the better, within time they do get the hint. Hornets are nothing to play with. They sting till the stinger falls out or it's ripped out. Unlike many common bee's. Even then people need to be careful around them, these bee's have been know to cause a reaction in people that are non allergic, and once to many stings encored it can be fatal.
There are stories where these hornets are known to file out of their nest by squadrons in hot pursuit of those who dare approach too closely. Bald-faced hornet nests had best be left alone. This nest houses a queen along with 200 to 500 members of the brood depending on the nest size at times even more. Simple sounds of a mower, or a walk by can send them into a full attack mood.
These bee's function of aggressions are set off by vibrations. In one study I have seen, they attack a speaker that was place under a nest covered in latex wrapping to count the stings that would be inflicted. It WASN'T A PRETTY PICTURE.:eek: They stung it over 300 times before backing off of the speaker. This test was done with a nest only a little over a foot long. Further testing was done on the venom, showed to be highly toxic and equal to the bit of a King Cora snake bite. If enough stings are inflicted it is lethal even to large humans.The study also proved that these bees are able to live following inflicting multipliable stings, as long as the stinger remained in-tacked they can regenerate the venom. Your best line of defense's is to remain away from the the nest till cold weather, and temperatures are below frost levels. They become sluggish in movement doing this time. But at 32 degrease they lay into hibernation state for the winter months till temperature rise above 32 degrease. Doing the later month before the temperatures drop, they become even more active collect food for the colonies.
Here's photo of the type of bee your dealing with.http://img502.imageshack.us/img502/3766/214imagepm1.jpg

Let the pro's handle it, if it can't wait. :hug:

Holy Toledo!

Holly dog better watch out when she goes outside to do her duty!

Maybe this time the nest needs to be bag and removed from the property!

Thank you for that information BlackRoze! Unfortunately for both my husband and I, we are very familiar with these deadly hornets. We both carry epi-pens because of them. Actually 2 epi-pens because one is not enough to get either of us to the hospital in time!

You are correct when you say they are very agressive. When my husband was stung last summer, the sentries actually chased him for about 1000 yards and he was stung 3 times! These guys mean business!

We did leave the destruction of the nest to the profressionals! Or so I thought!

Upon further inspection this morning, it looks as though the activity last night was just some of the brood looking for their home. They have disappeared. So tonight, we will get the pole pruners out and cut off the limb and burn the remaining nest.

This nest was bigger than a soccer ball but smaller than a basketball and that was just in the course of 4 days!

This has been quite an experience. I will post pictures shortly!

Here's the collage of the spraying yesterday.

It's a sausage tree! (you have seen those)

Freak 'n bees! Glad no one got stung! Especially Holly!

I glad no one got hurt, not a bad size nest. Hope they stay away for you all. :hug:

Only you would come up with a name like that for my beautiful cherry tree!

LMAO! You are hysterical Taffy! :ROTFLMAO:

Gota Love THIS CROWED...:hug: