Hornets on Science Channel

[jinman]

Last night we watched a very interesting story on Hornets on the Science Channel. It's on a 2010 Series named "What on Earth?" The program name is Violent Hornets. It already ran again at 1:00 AM this morning, but will run the third time tomorrow morning at 5:00 AM EST if someone wants to TIVO or record it with their DVR. There was a lot of good photography and descriptions of how the hornets reproduce and produce queens in the fall. We don't have hornets where we live, but for some of you, this could a helpful show. They didn't spend much time talking about how to eradicate them, only why they are so aggressive and how they build their colonies/nests.

 

[mjarrels]

Dang Jim... I thought you were talking about F/A-18's.

mark USN Retired

 

[jinman]

Dang Jim... I thought you were talking about F/A-18's.

mark USN Retired

Boy! I'm glad I didn't say "falcons eating hornets" or you might have wet yourself.

 

[Cami]

@jinman: No hornets in Texas? I thought baldfaced hornets were everywhere...

On eating wasps and hornets:

I recently saw a show about Japanese hornets that showed people collecting and eating larvae and if you search youtube you can see it being done throughout Asia. On another occasion I saw a cooking show where wasps in Mexico were harvested and cooked for supper. The buildings around my shop are teeming with aerial yellow jackets and I remember thinking how I could have had a good beer fund last summer if I could sell my wasps for a penny each!

I don't mind wasps that are out and about; they seem to busy with their own business to be bothered with people. What I really don't like is working around their nests. I think this year I managed to get all the overwintering queens and new nests around my shop before any workers matured. They can have the woods but the buildings are mine!

 

[jinman]

@jinman: No hornets in Texas? I thought baldfaced hornets were everywhere...

We have lots of paper wasps that build nests mostly about 4" in diameter, but some get a foot in diameter where they are undisturbed. Bumblebees make nests in the ground and Africanized honeybees are a problem in South and Central Texas. The yellow jacket hornets talked about here on TBN, I've never seen. If they are here, I haven't stumbled onto them. Perhaps they are in other areas of Texas, but not in this area.