posted 6 hours ago
I was out watering my hugel yesterday. I dumped the first 5 gallon pail around the sides from the top, then set down the second pail and opened the spout to drip irrigate. I then walked down from the top and started my loop to check on the growing things and was about to pull some spotted knotweed out when I noticed a bunch of buzzing activity near it. Looked like a nest of ground hornets?
I don't really know anything about hives except for cultivated honey bees and the good ol paper wasps. Earlier in the day I had walked into a storage shelter and spent about 5 seconds trying to rearrange my stack of birch bark when what had seemed like a few black flies suddenly seemed like a dozen loud ones. I looked up to see a perfectly round paper wasp nest about 2 feet in front of me.
My reaction to bolt was immediate an instinctual, but I got nailed on my temple and my hip. Surprisingly they weren't that much more painful than a horsefly bite, but definitely not a battle I was going to dive back into. That night the temps dropped down near fifty, and an 8' 2x4 came out of the dark to knock the hive off the wall and across the shelter. The next night, the hive was poked with a long stick and carried out into the nearby field.
Back to what I'm completely guessing are ground hornets because I've heard the name and buzzy little insects are swarming out of the same spot in the side of the Hugel. It is just over the edge from the top, I'm surprised none of them came after me while I was up there walking around with the buckets. Right after I knocked the wasp nest like a pool ball, I went over to the hugel and used the 2x4 to mash up the spot where I recalled seeing the buggers swarm out from.
The next day (today) I went back to water and paused on top to look down at the spot. After a while, I spotted a few buzzers poking around the same area. They were in constant motion so I didn't get a good look at them, but they didn't seem to be streaming in and out, but definitely were hanging around.
Is this enough description for anyone to tell me who this is and what they have going on there?
Should I try to flood them out, bury them in more dirt, invite them to a picnic with some honey scones and tea, ...?
