The assassin

[jriepe]

Robolepa, you didn't invite them in for breakfast? That's all they wanted.:greenpbl: That must have been quite a sight. A couple days after I took this picture the nest had been totally destroyed by I'm guessing some intoxicated picnic goers. Hopefully the hornets made them pay for their vandalism. I heard a story (don't know how true it is) about the owner of a country store who found one of these nests on a bitter cold day and decided it would look neat hanging up in his store. As the nest started warming the hornets started coming out. I find this hard to believe because I don't know if they stay in the nest all winter long.

Jerry

 

[Overread]

I'm not sure about how hornets survive through the winter - but certainly if the hive itself was cold and they were still present inside the warmth of the building would indeed warm them up. Hornets (like bees and other bigger bugs) can be totally unable to function in the cold - a cold morning and many can be found stranded unable to respond or do much at all (esp if something like a nightlight lures them in). So you could easily collect a hive whilst the occupants were too sluggish to respond.

 

[robolepa]

Jerry, it was quite a site to say the least, and what was so startling about it was that it completely defied the normal bee/hornet/wasp behavior that overread mentioned. I'm not sure what the temperature was, but the time was about 4am - well before dawn. That's why, when they first started hitting the window I thought it was the beginning of a heavy downpour, and didn't even look up at first. And when I did finally look up, like I said in my prior post, there were hundreds of them covering the dining room window. And as you can see from the photo, their bodies are black, so all I could really see were the white stripes on their heads and bodies. *shudder*. I had spotted the nest a few weeks prior, but it was high enough in the tree that I just left it alone. But when that happened, peaceful coexistence quickly turned into Operation Shock and Awe.