Problem with Bald-faced hornets

[kubota4me]

This is the 12th Year we have lived on our 16 acre piece of land, a prairie remnant in NW Iowa. We have only had paper wasps, bumblebees, native bees and honeybees if a farmer was raising them nearby. But this year is different - we started seeing this unknown wasp/hornet in our garden and then on our surrounding prairie. It started showing up on adjacent neighbors properties as well. My wife and I identified it as the Bald-face hornet. That sent shivers down our spines when we read about their aggressive nature. We have looked on our property for a nest so that we could have a professional exterminator get rid of them, but have failed to identify a nest. I feel like it is a little bit like trying to piss in the ocean to raise the water level.

We have about a 6-inch layer of mulch in our garden to repel weeds in the garden and it has worked beautifully. We rarely have to pull a weed anymore because it works so effectively. Everything I have read about the Bald-faced Hornet indicates it lives in a large football-sized or basketbal-sized paper nest either in a tree or bush about 8 feet off the ground with them using one hole for both entry and exit. We have looked in trees and bushes and can’t locate one. We are wondering if it is possible they could be under the mulch. Lately, we don’t see any hornets until about 9:00 am and then all of a sudden it seems like they magically appear. They seem very intimidating and thus far we haven’t been stung but if they are able to defy what the experts say and nest under the mulch, when we walk on the walking paths between vegetable rows, that would worry me that we could be disturbing them. Have any of you guys had a similar experience and if so, how did you handle it? This has really made gardening un-fun and living in the country we depend on our garden and it is fairly large along with our 10 fruit trees and 72 Aronia bushes. I have turned to this forum a lot with my Kubota tractor questions and I greatly respect your collective knowledge on a lot of different subject matter. Thanks for your advice and feedback.

 

[jay3534]

Bald-Faced Hornet - Information, Photos, & Hornet Stings

Bald-faced hornets are aggressive pests known for their large size, painful stings and unique black and white patterns. Learn more about hornet stings.

www.pestworld.org

 

[Streetcar]

There are ground hornets

 

[BnRidge]

I usually just leave them alone. Had one under the eave by the kitchen door, but I usually see them in trees. A racoon kept reaching up and batting at this one and would take the bottom off. They just kept rebuilding. A hard freeze will kill them off, all but the queen.

 

[JasperFrank]

Buy a bee suit. Do what ever you want. These are less then 40 dollars.

It is odd that once I bought a bee suit to deal with the ground wasps, that they all left the areas this year. There were no new nests this year,... zero ... unexpected. Do they tell each other there are predators about?
I don't know... I do know that after going after ground wasps in protective gear, and just digging them up, while they are attempted to sting, was funny. The bugs had no advantage any more.

 

[Hay Dude]

We just hit a nest of Bald Face Hornets on Saturday. It was built into the ground in a hayfield. Our hay rake hit it and ripped it out of the ground. Hundreds of them were swarming around it.
Luckily, I buy cab tractors and we avoided be stung-probably to the point of hospitalization.

I was stung while weed wacking on Friday along a building. Got nailed about 10 times by yellow jackets. Very painful.

Yellow Jackets are Miserable, awful creatures that need to be eradicated.

 

[MossRoad]

Are they being aggressive towards you? Or just making you nervous?

I’ve never seen bald faced hornets nest underground. They’ve always made a paper nest up in a tree. We have them around here. They usually become noticeable in the fall when they love to eat over-ripe fruit. I think they get drunk on it.

In all my 60+ years on this planet, I’ve never been stung by one. They are only aggressive if you mess with their nest. That would entail throwing a rock at it, beating it with a stick, or whacking the tree trunk with a club to intentionally get them riled up.

 

[MossRoad]

We just hit a nest of Bald Face Hornets on Saturday. It was built into the ground in a hayfield. Our hay rake hit it and ripped it out of the ground. Hundreds of them were swarming around it.
Luckily, I buy cab tractors and we avoided be stung-probably to the point of hospitalization.

I was stung while weed wacking on Friday along a building. Got nailed about 10 times by yellow jackets. Very painful.

Yellow Jackets are Miserable, awful creatures that need to be eradicated.

I found out that ground nesting yellow jackets can fly much faster than my open station machine can drive!

I had to turn it off, jump and run!

 

[Hay Dude]

I found out that ground nesting yellow jackets can fly much faster than my open station machine can drive!

I had to turn it off, jump and run!

I was surprised how fast I can still run while slapping myself

 

[RandyT]

I have seen bald face hornet nest anywhere from 6 inches on the ground in a bush to 40 feet up in a tree. About walked face first into one while talking on the phone under the eave of my house three years ago. Had a nest in a fruit tree years ago and the wind would swing the door open and bump the limb with the nest on it and they never even tried to sting us. Had another in a tree that was about 10 foot off the ground and they would nail you if you walked under the nest. One on the house got the raid treatment. the one in the tree met the flaming rag on a stick treatment.

 

[kenmbz]

We had them here, small baseball sized nests in bushes and under eaves, 5 total.
They are aggressive and do leave guards out at night.
Found one with a hedge trimmer and luckily they went after the hedge trimmer and not me.

Found 2 queens hibernating (became permanent) in my wood pile, and have not seen them this year yet...
Easy to get at night with the long distance wasp spray, do not use a flashlight.

I had one chase me while I was working IN my garage. that was not fun...

 

[RjCorazza]

Bald face hornets are closely related to yellow jackets, but I have never seen them nesting in the ground. Always a paper football shaped nest, sometimes very large.
I have been stung by the bald face hornets twice, once after bumping a tree trunk with the mower, and the other while eradicating a large nest. Single stings each time while running like a track star. Both species will pursue you for further than you'd think.
I use a dry powder insecticide with diatomaceous earth (Drione?) in a powder puffer thingy. For the most part I can walk up to the nest, puff a few shots of the powder right in the entrance, and walk away. Initially they don't react to it as a threat... In maybe 15 seconds they come pouring out on the ground with some able to fly. Best to be gone by then!
I HATE both the bald faced and yellow jackets. I got stung up last week while mowing a customer's lawn, and I was not able to locate the nest.

 

[kubota4me]

Will dynamite get rid of them

 

[MossRoad]

Will dynamite get rid of them

Maybe. Be sure to record a video of it, if you try, though. We’d all like to see that.

With my luck, the blast would go off and a chunk of the nest would land at my feet!

 

[MossRoad]

We have a hard pear tree that has abundant crops of pears that are too hard to eat. They rot form the inside out. Once they get a small rot hole in them, the bald faced hornets love to get in there and eat the rotting pear flesh. It’s something to grab a pear off of the ground, feel it buzzing in your hand, turn it over, and see three hornets in there chowing down. They don’t seem to care. So set the pear back down and walk away.

I think I read somewhere that the pear juice may be fermented at that point and contain a bit of alcohol and the hornets are a bit buzzed, so to speak.

 

[oosik]

It started six years ago. I know - made a note of it in my journal. Mowing the lawn and this flying "thing" hit me on the side of my head. I had gotten too close to the nest they were building. I was able to identify them because they come to the hummingbird feeder along with the yellow jackets.

I've never been stung but keep a close eye out for any nests. I find it's best, in my case, just avoid close encounters. They can be very aggressive but if left alone - don't present that much of a problem.

The only nests I've ever found are in the low hanging branches of my pine trees. About twice the size of a softball.

 

[Tinhack]

Apparently, they don't like the hotter climates. I haven't seen any of those, but I have seen a large bumblebee type wasp. It was mostly all white. The head looked all white. It attacked my tractor muffler and pipe. I guess from the sound. It was tenacious to the point of killing itself from the heat. I'm glad it didn't notice me sitting in the seat.

Besides Yellowjackets and killer bees, we have HUGE orange wasps down here. They make the Yellowjackets look like fruit flies. I exterminate all wasp nests I find and even go looking for them near the house, sheds and barn. They are nasty critters. There's plenty of room out here so they don't need to share my space.

 

[ponytug]

...

Besides Yellowjackets and killer bees, we have HUGE orange wasps down here. They make the Yellowjackets look like fruit flies. I exterminate all wasp nests I find and even go looking for them near the house, sheds and barn. They are nasty critters. There's plenty of room out here so they don't need to share my space.

Do you have any photos?

All the best,

Peter

 

[CloverKnollFarms]

I just used Raid hornet spray. Killed them quick. Ripped down the nest.

 

[Carl_NH]

I suspect they are after your fruit - the arconia fruit or the fruit in the trees. Usually when they are feeding they don't bother people unless you happen to grab one.

If they show up after 9 AM likely the nest is shaded location - sun doesn't hit it until later in the morning. The nests can be hard to spot up in trees - it's easiest to follow them back to their nest if you have the patience and time.

I have eliminated many of these years ago with a long handle apple picker (wire cage on a pole) with a gas soaked rag late at night. More recently a pole saw with rag, or hornet spray can get 10' or so.

The ground bees (yellow jackets) are the nastiest IMO as you can't see them when mowing or weed trimming fence rows or scrub areas - so I have taken to doing this early in the day when it's cooler, and wearing coveralls.