For Two Seconds I Lost My Tan

Barkes Knife Shop

Barkes Knife Shop

Joined
Jan 2, 2006
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I been cutting the grass all summer long, and look what' been looking down on me all that time. As I looked up and saw it hanging there, I started to think about it. For about two seconds I lost my tan I got all summer long. I went and got a big stick and touched the side of the nest and it sounded like the crunching of leaves that you would hear beneath your feet if you was walking in the woods. I jumped back, if I had been a cat I would had lost 6 lifes. This is the first-time I have had a Hornet nest in my tree's. The nest is about 12 to 14 feet in the tree. And the tree is a tulip tree. There is no activity in or around the nest that I can see. A friend that I see in the coffee shop told me that some folks use polyurethane spray to slightly hardened the outer surface of the nest and give them as gifts. But I am just going to remove it and let the birds eat the stinky paper. :yawn:

AHornetnest.jpg



Hornet nests are elaborate and fascinating structures constructed with the sticky paper produced by the insects’ chewing of bits of bark and rotting wood. The saliva emitted while chewing, with the wood by-products, produce a glue-like substance which the hornets use to seal the paper together to form a complicated warren of tiny openings and tunnels. Hope you like this photo of my day of surprise. God bless and have nice day out in your yard and shop. :D

AHornetnest2.jpg



Terry
 
For as long as I can remember, the old folks (older than me, if that is possible) have said that if hornets build their nests lower to the ground than usual, we are in for a super cold winter.

I have seen about 3 so far this year that were no more than 8-10 feet from the ground.

Brrrrrrrrr.......... Robert
 
I have a nice one on the overhang of the shed. I watched them start building in early july, and by late august it was about 6 inches round. These busy guys are quite the engineers in paper design.
 
Yeah, it's going to be a cold winter, alright. The wool is unbelievably thick this year on those woolly caterpillars. Another indicator is that the Ex-wife's blood is especially cryogenic for this time of year.:)
 
Well, I finally got brave enough to actually tried to remove the nest. So, went and got a broom out of the shop and went to work on it. I must tell you I was starting to get a little worried. I hit on the nest for 5 minutes or so, and still the nest would not come down. So, I went and got my leaf blower and use that and the bottom of the nest came apart.

Hornet3.jpg



I could see the interior making comb. When I started hitting the nest I was thinking what I would do if 4000 hornets came out and started to hitting me as if I was there target. I believe I would had fainted from fear. But here is what one looks like from within.

Hornet4.jpg


Terry
 
I hate them things , I hate them . I've been attacked by them before . Kill them all . They even attacked my basset hound , kill them all .
 
One year they built a nest on my garage window ! It was a nice opportunity as I could then see the inside and see the wasps working.
 
Wasps are one thing, and I don't like them. But hornets? I'm so glad we don't have 'em much around here. Gives me the willies!

--nathan
 
Around my place you have to contend with mud daubbers and yellow jackets. I have some cinder blocks along the back fence to keep the dogs in but I never filled the holes with anything. I almost got stung once again this fall. I was straightening out the blocks, carefully peering into each cavity in the large ones checking for nests. All clear - whew. Forgot to look in the last short block and that's where the nest was. Fortunately it was cool enough they weren't too active so I escaped with fingers intact.

Now where's my diesel?
 
Here is a little money saving hint that will drop wasp like a bad habit.

You can go to "Wally-World" or "Not-so-Lowe's, or some other box store and buy "Wasp and Hornet Spray", and pay about 3 arms and a leg, or you can go to your local automotive parts house and buy a can of "Brake Cleaner" for about half the price. Be sure to get one with the plastic tube (like on WD40).

When you spray a wasp nest with brake cleaner, they hit the ground so hard they die from brain damage.

I love watchin' those suckers go "SPLAT".

Robert, the Wasp Killer
 
When I lived outside the city limits and they were too high for sticks or extended
paint poles, I've blown them out of trees with a shotgun-Worked great.
Ken
 
I finally finish getting the top part of the nest down out of the tree this morning. as you can see in this photo. It is laying on the ground and will rest in piece. This is one thing I will not regret doing. :yawn:

Hornet5.jpg


Here is the tree in which it was in. Like I said before its a tulip tree. All cleaned up and ready for the winter months. I also seeded the yard why I was out. I will be re-seeding the yard in the spring just before God sends the rains. This is a good time of year to do it. I hope you have enjoyed this encounter of mine. I just thank God he has protected me all through the summer. I still get the Willy's from thinking about it. :thumbup:

Hornet7.jpg



Terry
 
Cool! Wow does that ever bring back memories. When we were kids we would go on long hunts in the woods looking for those things. Once we found one we would visit it over and over throughout the summer and do battle with it. I swear, it's a miracle I made it to adulthood. :o Once we got a little older, we'd leave them in peace until heavy into the frosty fall or winter and then collect them if we could. Sometime they were pretty darn high up in the trees though.
 
We had one come get built on our garage. Made a woodland themed wreath type sculpture for the inside of the house using pine bows and cones and such, and decided to stick a section of the comb on the wreath. This was just early winter, cold enough that all the wasps were not in the nest anymore. Well, it being inside the house, after a couple weeks these baby wasps started hatching out of the comb, and falling out from the warmth inside the house/!
 
I was going to suggest you wait until the coldest winter temp you can, but I'm a little late for that suggestion....
 
kc custom said:
When I lived outside the city limits and they were too high for sticks or extended
paint poles, I've blown them out of trees with a shotgun-Worked great.
Ken
Click to expand...

lmao....this does not surprise me one bit.....I can just see you pouring liquid nitrogen on them afterward too
 
We had a exceptionally large nest next to our house one year. What i found interesting is we hit our first high 30's -low 40's day and all of a sudden we had a bird turf war going on around that nest. Chickadees were fighting each other in the air to get at the thing - a cloud of small birds simply tore the bottom out of the thing and ate the larvae. they apparently knew it was cold enough that the defenders could be dealt with easily and some good eatin was inside.
Might be the reason that really large nests are sorta rare - they get taken out by the birds above a certain size?
 
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