bald faced hornet

Yikes!

/ Re-Farmer / 4 Comments

This morning I went to get a meter reading to submit to the electric company.

Being rather short, I tend to see more glare on the cover than the numbers themselves. My solution has been to hold my phone up and take several pictures. The display cycles, with a short blank period in between, but after taking 3 or 4 shots, I can be pretty sure at least one of them has the reading in it.

What this means is that I’m fiddling with my phone to open the camera as I walk up to the power pole.

I really should pay more attention.

After I took the pictures, I looked down and found myself staring at this, maybe a foot and a half away from my face.

There were no wasps flying around, so I took pictures.

Because I’m like that. :-D

But why were no wasps flying around?

I think this is part of my answer. These are not the aggressive yellow and black wasps. I couldn’t see much, but they look a lot like the docile bald faced hornets in the Chinese elm trees.

From what I could see, they wasps were not so much “docile” as “sluggish”. It was a bit cooler this morning, so maybe they just weren’t warmed up yet.

We are actually going to leave this nest. We go to the post once a month to get a reading, and since I’m using a camera to see the numbers anyhow, we don’t disturb them in the process. In the winter, after they die off, we can carefully remove the nest. Who knows. We might Ebay it or something. There is apparently quite the demand for the nests!

I just wish I’d noticed it before I took the meter reading. It would have been much easier on my heart! :-D

The Re-Farmer

Bonus Critter: watch out!

/ Re-Farmer / 2 Comments

My daughter removed this from the sun room.

This is a Bald Faced Hornet.

Which isn’t actually a hornet, but a type of Yellow Jacket Wasp.

Our Chinese Elm are just buzzing with these guys. Typically, they are high up and, if we leave them alone, they’ll leave us alone.

One got into the sun room and was busily giving itself a concussion on one of the windows when my daughter first saw it, as the girls were putting the kittens into the sun room for the night.

Unfortunately, the kittens immediately started going for it.

Since she didn’t want a stung kitten, she got it out using a glass and a piece of paper. After very carefully putting the glass on the step near one of the Chinese Elm and removing the paper, she figured it would leave.

Apparently, it was thoroughly stunned from bashing itself against the window for so long, and took its time exploring the inside and outside of the glass. Which allowed me to get this photo.

Thankfully, it soon disappeared.

They seem to be attracted only to the Chinese Elm, not the other types of elm that are around.

Another reason to eventually take those trees down. Along with everything else he has to deal with, my husband is allergic to stings.

The Re-Farmer