Hornets

I have had hornets around my place every year. I dont bother them and they have never bothered me. This year however, I am overrun with them in and around the garden and greenhouse. I have not been stung yet but it is clear they dont want me coming around. They are flying at me like they have never done before. I think I may have a nest of them some where very close to the garden. Anyway my question is should I try to trap them. I mean they are beneficial right?

What can you do to encourage their natural predators? Bird houses and feeders seem like a good place to start. Some piles of rocks for snakes might help.

I would assume that their nest is somewhere very close to where you walk and they are feeling defensive. Maybe you could alter your route.

Before thinking of eliminating them, you really need to consider if the rest of the insect life in your garden will be enough to do the job of the hornets.

Depends if you keep bees weather you think they are benificial .
If you dont just leave them they will go else where in the autumn

David

I recall doing some trail work in upstate South Carolina in 2001. They had just had a quite warm winter, and there was a rabies outbreak ravaging the skunk population. Cold winters and skunk predation were the two major controls on the hornet population, so without those controls, that year was MISERABLE for hornets. I was stung time after time, and it seemed that we hit another nest about every 20 feet as we blazed new trail.

This is not to suggest importing skunks. But maybe there is other biological control that can help you- a parasitic wasp or mite?

Paul has a recent Youtube video about beneficial effects of wasps/ not sure if that would tie in to your hornet situation.

I have read that they are beneficial insects to have. However, we get anywhere between 5-20 hornets nests built on our house and barn each year and the kids end up getting stung. What is good about hornets? Is there a way to get them to build there nests in desirable areas? Is there an imbalance on my property that is leading to such a large amount of hornets?

I suppose you will need to figure out what species you have... what that species eats... figure out where Your local hornet population is getting it's food... and then make the decision of what to do. They may be benefitting you by eating larvae that are eating your crops. Keeping populations in check.

If you wipe out the hornets... is your crop going to get eaten alive?

I had a very small wasp nest show up next to my garden last year. The broccoli in my garden was getting eaten alive by white cabbage butterfly larvae at the time. I was happy to watch the wasp hovering around my plants on the hunt. I just kept my kids away unless I was standing there with them. A baseball cap has more than one use. However, if they just got to close I usually just blew on the flying bugs really hard and they would get the hint and fly away.

Hornets hunt and kill caterpillars, in particular.

Generally people and hornets should be able to coexist, although I know it is harder for kids to avoid the flapping and slapping that tends to bring on stings. You can wipe out a ground nest by covering the exit with a clear plastic or glass bowl. If they can see the sun, they never try burrowing out another way, they just keep bumping up against the barrier. Put some dirt all around the outside edge, so they can't crawl out.

Getting a good identification of which kind of hornet it is will make a difference. There are many kinds and they eat different things and have varying levels of aggressiveness.

I love the cycles of predator-prey like the wasps that lay eggs in the tomato hornworms. However, the bee-wasp-hornets that make nests on my house and barn and shed and camper and tractor and everything else upon which the sun shines...well I wish they would go away. I didn't used to mind them, a sting every so often is no big deal, but now my husband and I have both been dying often enough that we are allergic. I had two close calls in recent times when I was alone caring for small children and got stung and started to swell up in important places like my throat!. It was scary and dangerous.

The traps I have tried have not helped at all, I think they were meant for other members of the bee family. Keeping things out of the sun helps keep them from nesting. But I can't get the house or the barn etc out of the sun! I have heard that if other members of the api family move in they will move out, but have not figured out how to make this happen. Perhaps mason bees are an answer? I wish I had better answers for you, and I'm hoping someone else does! I am all for diversity of course but I'm still wishing for less aggressive bees.

Nice. lol