Hornet nest

bladegrinder

bladegrinder

Well-Known Member
So here's something completely different....last month while hunting I spotted this hornet nest. even though it was cold out, there was some still buzzing around. so I wisely backed away...
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So, I was back there last weekend again and checked it out...Hmm, don't see nothing buzzing around,
so I grabbed a stick and tapped the small tree a few times...27 stings later.....I got my prize !!!

Just kidding, there had been some really cold weather since the first trip and they were all dead and it was abandoned, so I cut it from the tree. I'm going to hang it in my office at work.
although I did have a momentary thought of....hornet nest paper based micarta !
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Nice find Steve there are so many things that were common place years ago that are just slipping away from us. Like flying squirrels or whippoorwills. I ain't seen a flying squirrel in years and can't remember hearing the whippoorwills calling!! We have built on a bulldozed away all their natural habitat!! It is a shame!!

Steve, the first time I ever saw one of those. Me and a buddy decided to try out a small lake formed off a spring fed river. The lake was at the head of the river and the water was deep and cold, even in the summer. So I talked to my wife's cousin and he said it was full of fish but, you had to get there early in the morning cause it was spring fed and clear, and once the sun got up they did not bite well. I asked him if a canoe would work, cause I had tried to fish the bank and you can't get out past the cattails. Sure he says!

So the next Saturday morning we hit the small lake. It was foggy and at times as the fog was beginning to break you couldn't see the water well out ahead of you. So I am fishing the front of the canoe and my buddy is in the back so I am fishing one side and him the other. He got caught up on the little trees in the water about every three casts. (not the best fisherman, but always good for getting us in too some kind of trouble). You know a buddy!!!

Directly I heard him swear and he is hung up again almost due in front of the canoe. So I am working a hit that I missed and throw another cast, to no avail. So I had told him paddle us over to the tree and I will unhang you. So I got his line in one hand and reached in my tackle box to grab my knife just in case I had to cut a limb or two, to retrieve his hung up spinner rig!!

As we are approaching the tree I am getting my rod out the way and when I look up, as the fog parts here is one of those paper nests hanging in the very tree he was hung up in. It hung just about my head high above the water and it buzzing with hundreds of God's little Devil creatures. I started telling him , stop, back paddle the canoe, and I reached and cut off his line.

He sees me cut the line and goes "Hey, I thought you were gonna get my spinner rig". He still hasn't seen the nest, I layed backwards in the canoe and told him if you hit that dang tree the canoe is yours. We came right up the tree and barely touched it before his back paddling had any effect! He asked me later would you have really left the canoe if they came off the nest. Why h#!! yes I would have and, I would went under and swam as far away as I could before I came back up.

A light breeze comes up and we start noticing practically every small tree in the water had a paper nest hanging in it! Holy cow if it hadn't been foggy when we got there that morning,..........................they would have eat me up, when he lightly bumped the bush!! Being foggy it was damp and they weren't really wanting to leave the nest!!

So I see my wife's cousin and start telling him this story and, he busts out laughing! I look at him and tell him, he is South end of North bound mule, cause he had been stung there several years ago!! He claimed it just slipped his mind!! Sure it did!!
 
That's funny Cliff, last year I was in a tree stand and when the sun came up wasps kept flying around me. I'm thinking, what's with all these wasps around here?
I looked down and there was a paper nest about 10' away and below me, they never bothered me and I went back later to get it but it got blown apart by a storm.
I've got whippoorwills at my place, it's cool hearing them at night. I have a lot flying squirrels too, but my place is really in the woods so I have pretty much all the critters Florida has to offer, including black bears.
I know there was some folks that do a tv show on bigfoot hunting and have been around here for their show a few times......
but I haven't seen any Sasquatches yet...Ha ha.
 
Please be careful (I almost said "BEE" careful, but these are wasps so the pun would just be silly), there are probably wasps in there. There should be hibernating adults, as well as larva in there. When you bring it inside it simulates spring time and the adults wake up and the larva begin to develop. That's what happened to me. They don't really abandon the hive, they're just waiting for you to bring it inside. It's a dirty trick but that's how they are, deceitful. Put the nest in a garbage bag and spray it full of Raid, tie it up tight. Put the bag and all in a warm garage and let them wake up. Give it a few months to give all the larva a chance to develop. Then it should be safe.

Up here the birds tear apart the nests as soon as it gets cold and eat the wasps and grubs, we rarely get to find one that isn't torn up. I do have a couple I am going to make handle material out of though.
 
Ah, cmon Steve, you don't believe in Sasquatch, he is for real. Shot his finger off last year carrying a loaded muzzle loader with cap on. The hammer caught on a limb and ka-boom, and as they say the rest is history!!!

Mark, I had not thought about you were saying. That might be a real surprise in the office Steve, open up the door and the whole hive is awake and looking for a snack!!!!!
 
Well, too late now. there she is hanging in the office, I may take some cotton balls and stuff them in the entrance hole.
This thing got awful cold before I got it and I shook out two dried up dead ones. be for I put it in my truck. I think I'll be ok.
It does look cool hanging up there, if you look at the ceiling I have the other kind of paper nest. when I shot that one with spray some stuck to it so later a little super glue made them permanent. and that one I got stung once, it was on my camper and I didn't see it till they were all over the place...but I got them in the end!
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Yea, I got to thinking about it and thought he was probably more around 5'. Those who make to six plus get to be about half again that width, or more!! When we lived out on the farm, they clear cut all the acreage behind the farm. In all about 175 acres. The rattlers started moving out of the woods up around the houses were we lived. My father in law said in 28 yrs they had lived they had never seen a rattler up around the houses. After they clear cut all those woods we had a snake to deal with about every 3 months for the first almost 2 yrs. I killed one that after I skint him out was 6'3" minus his head and rattles. His dang head was as big a one of my fists and half of another. He's the type if he struck at you, you would die just from the fright!

Still haven't heard nothing buzzing up in the warmth of the day, huh!!! :D
 
Haven't heard any buzzing ha ha. I stuffed a piece of paper towel in the entrance hole though. I'm pretty confidant there's nothing incubating in there but we'll see.
I haven't seen to many rattle snakes at my place but I did used to do a lot of hog hunting at a place called Otter Creek. there were rattle snakes and moccasins everywhere there, that's where I killed my two biggest at 6 ft. each.
I'll never forget the one time I was up in a tree stand in the swamp hog hunting and I heard something moving towards me, I looked down and it was an alligator on all fours just walking thru the woods, moving to another pond I guess. that was the wildest place I ever hunted, and it was good hunting...lots of hogs.
 
Caddis-fly-larva.jpg
These turn into,..................these,upload_2018-1-5_8-53-19.jpeg Buzzzz, Buzzzz, Buzzzz! Don't be sad,
images
you will have a bunch of new

friends to play with soon!! Buzzzz, Buzzzz, Buzzzz. There just warming up to the idea!!!
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Sorry I just have this image in my head and I don't no whether to laugh or cry!! I will quit picking now, Steve!!!
 
Nah...I'm not worried about it. I don't think any will come stumbling out.
If they do, I'll just say they must have come in when someone opened the door,
nope...couldn't have come from that giant hornet nest. ;)
 
C Craft said:
Caddis-fly-larva.jpg
These turn into,..................these,View attachment 62524 Buzzzz, Buzzzz, Buzzzz! Don't be sad,
images
you will have a bunch of new

friends to play with soon!! Buzzzz, Buzzzz, Buzzzz. There just warming up to the idea!!!
images
Sorry I just have this image in my head and I don't no whether to laugh or cry!! I will quit picking now, Steve!!!
Click to expand...

Um, Cliff the top picture is of a caddis fly larva, not really a wasp larva. I know everyone hates a "know-it-all" and your joke is great, but still, I just couldn't help myself. There actually should be some hibernating queens in Steve's nest, maybe he shook them out. After the queens wake up they start to lay more queen eggs, then the new queens develop and disperse to start new nests. Have fun, Steve, keep us posted.
 
Ha ha, this is getting funny now. I'm sticking to my guns though, it's hanging tough in the office.
I'll keep everyone posted as to whether it produces any baby's.

Who knows, this could turn into a " Raising killer hornets for fun and profit"
 
Damn, Mark I googled paper hornet nests and that pic came up so I thought I'd use it. They always say if it's on the net it must be true!!!!!! upload_2018-1-5_19-14-35.jpeg LOL!!!

I just can't get the image out of my head. Steve sitting at his desk working away and something catches his attention. He reaches over and turns down the radio, intently listening he hears the faint Buzzzz, Buzzzz, Buzzzz,.
Oh, the dang Cliff has got me gun shy and as he sits back into his chair, the cattle prod of death catches him in buttocks, he jumps back to his feet and turns to see hornets all over the window, the walls are covered with them, can he, will he, make it to the door,.............. stay tuned for the next issue of, As the Nest Warms!!!

Steve, this for future reference, when going for the gold,.......................
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If you have ever been hit by them you know what it is all about. There is something about a hornets sting that hurts ten times worse than any sting you have ever had! I don't care if you are allergic or not you are gonna swell-up in the area you got stung!!!

I had a hole in the middle of my side yard. Not sure but I think it may have been a stump I cut off under the ground to left it rot out. Any way it is the first mowing of the year and I had put it off a while and the grass was about 6" high. I came across the hole the first time with the riding mower. I had no idea it was there. This area is kind of tight and I had to swing back around to cover the area.

So the second time I rode over the hole, I made them ground hornets really mad. The next time I never went directly over the hole but I was close enough, and they had, had enough. They hit me on the back of my ear, the back of the neck, two got inside of my shirt and they are still steady popping me.

I bailed off of the riding mower (should tell you I had done away with the safety switch on the seat, so I didn't have to shut it down to pick up a limb or something else in the yard, so if you don't take it out of gear it would just keep on truckin)!! By the time I had got them off of me and looked up the lawn mower was half way across the yard and headed towards the neighbors flower bed. Lucky I a ran it down and got it stopped just before it mowed thru her flower bed the, one she is always working on!!! I sure would have hated that!!

I waited till dark and all of them had returned to the nest and poured about 2 gallons of gas down the hole, I could here them down there buzzing, and lit it off! Standing there chanting, burn baby burn. Revenge is sweet when served with a little gas!!!
 
Back around June of last year I Hired a guy with a backhoe to dig up about 60 pine tree stumps for a home site and one had one of those underground nests, it was those big black furry ones, bumble bees or something I don't know but hundreds of them came out. Once they cleared out we waited about 20 min. and I sprayed a can of wasp spray down in that area, no one got stung but man there was a lot of them.
 
Wow, never saw anything like that. that guy had courage, I don't care how long he's been in the business.
It would be interesting to know what he charged to take that on.
It seems to me though there had to be a better way to eradicate them than just tearing the nest apart.
I think maybe going in there in the middle of the night one cold morning and hosing it down with wasp spray...like ten gallons!
 
Cliff, since were talking of things that can ruin your day, every once in a while I see cow killer ants on my place, also known as red velvet ants. the locals tell me they'll send you to the hospital if you get stung by one. I don't know anyone that's got stung by one but I know there tough to kill.

I sprayed one with wasp spray and it just shook it off like a wet dog and went on his way, I then smashed it into the ground with my boot, it got up again, shook it's self off and kept going. at that point I pulled out my knife and cut it in half, that finally did it in.
 
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