Today I present you a new phenomenon that I didn't know it was a thing. Recently there has been a lot more hornets here in the area than any other year I have seen before.
I don't know if this is because the weather has been different this year where it has been a lot more dry this summer compared to last year, or that this is just a random year,
Regardless, the battle with the hornets is real for sure here and I am trying a way that makes sense.
For people who are not living in a place where hornets are. These guys are like a sort of XL wasps, and I mean really the XL version on them. They are often like 4 centimeters big and you hear them seriously humming when they are passing by.
European vs Asian
There are two types of hornets over here. The European one that is the biggest. You can recognize them on their yellow butts and their red breasts.
Now these guys are pretty harmless as they don't want to come for your food like regular wasps do, but they hunt little insects so they are good for the ecosystems.
But..... when you come in between them and their nests, they can get aggressive and sting you. And since they are so big, the stingers are also bigger and they hurt a lot more.
These European ones have their nests in old trees which are often hollow from the inside so I except there is a nest here in the woods.
Later on the day they often come flying in and they sound like flying bombs flying around. And that means I am between them and their nests then and that doesn't feel so chill.
In the morning those same hornets are often weak and nearly dead, so I am not sure what is going on there.
The Asian bee killer
Now the Asian hornets is really something else. Those ones are not so big as the European hornets but they do something else. They hunt bee hives and kill all of the bees inside the hive, which is of course not so good for any ecosystem.
So these are the nest we all want to get rid off, for the sake of our the agriculture. It is even so when you see a nest, you can call the municipality to take care of them as they don't want the population to go up.
Now this was the first time I had spotted a nest over here. These nests are not in hollow trees but they come to hang in the trees as gigantic balls.
Apparently this specific ball can be built in a matter of a week, which kind of surprised me that this goes so fast. So the hornets use wood pulp to build these from, and that is found everywhere.
Hopefully this one will be gone soon, as there are also a lot of beehives in there area which I guess are being hunted at the moment.
Well, everything here is new to me on these hornets. But uhhh....I am not really finding it an enhancement in my life. You can leave now again guys!! ;)