# What in the heck is this?



## Blackhawk (Jul 31, 2013)

Was on the mower clearing some brush looked up and saw this, scared the heck out of me cause I hear sometimes they swarm with certain noises. They are black with some white in them.  Saw them in the garden a few days later and they seem to be very gentle.  Another thing is all the blooming plants we have on the property are not doing so well except by this hive. Any thoughts?

lanham


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## Dave Smith (Jul 31, 2013)

It is a paper wasp nest--they will leave you alone as long as you leave their nest alone!!! :whistle:


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## eightball (Jul 31, 2013)

paper wasp they are, we call em bald face hornets here in the south, they are fierce little buggers when provoked and the entire hive will attack at once. Id stay away til after a hard frost


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## Bill Gruby (Jul 31, 2013)

We call them White Faced Wasps. They are very aggressive here in Connecticut. As said, provoke one, face them all. That video is NOT the recommended way to get rid of them.

 "Billy G"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tvFxN2eQj6M


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## schor (Jul 31, 2013)

Those guys in the video are nuts. There are much more effective ways of dealing with wasps/hornets. Usually you wait till they have gone in for the night then you shoot a can of wasp nest killer into the hole at the bottom.


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## Ray C (Jul 31, 2013)

Fodder for Darwin...

Good thing some little kid wasn't sitting on one of those back porches.


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## GK1918 (Aug 1, 2013)

White face! I got nailed on a dozer 30 yrs ago and still got the marks to prove it. On a dozer there's no where to run. Funny first time this year I got 
nailed in the shop by a yellow jacket.  SOB stung my cat > cat went straight up in the air like a firecracker had to laugh.  Cat thought it was a play toy
oh yeah


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## Tom Griffin (Aug 1, 2013)

That's a bald faced hornets nest. They are extremely aggressive and their sting is like getting hit with a baseball bat (don't ask how I know). The best way to get rid of the nest, and you definitely should, is to wait until dark and then soak the nest with a couple cans of wasp and hornet killer. Don't use a flashlight because they will go after it in the dark. Then stay away for a few days because the survivors will be super ****** and looking for payback. 

That is a really big nest, so I would stay well away in the day time. You got lucky once.

Good luck.

Tom


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## llarson (Aug 8, 2013)

Friends of my folks; he a farmer, she a teacher in Portland ,OR. George spotted a big hornets nest in the brush along the road below their house, so they figured how to bag and gas it [at night] so Mary could take it to school for the kids to see. Everything went well, they got the live ones, but a few hatched out and interrupted the classroom. Mary brought it home on a Friday w/o telling the kids. They re-gassed it with some more effective stuff, and she had it back up in the classroom before the kids came in on Monday, with a cork in the bee access hole. whenever the kids acted up, she would threaten to take the cork out; kept the class quite calm.


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## Rick Berk (Aug 8, 2013)

Hello Blackhawk, you have a great find, I usually find 1 or 2 a year on my place, in Indiana we call them paper hornets. Just leave them alone until the weather turns cool and they will head to the ground for the winter. If you can reach the limb, cut it off with a pair of loppers leaving a good 12 inches if the branch, tie a string around the  branch and hang in in you shed or barn until a good hard freeze. I then spray the whole nest with a clear coat to harden the paper. Around here you can sell them for $60-80 for the city folks. I have shot the branches off with a 22 rifle when they are high in the tree and have the wife and kids catch it in a bed sheet when it falls. There is an old wise tale that the higher the nest is off the ground the higher the snow fall will be that year, and I have confirmed it to be a very accurate way to predict snow fall. One year I cut one at waist height and we had no accumulation and only fluries that year, another year I shot one 50 feet off the ground in a maple tree and we had a single snow fall one night of 28 inches. You need to watch the nest close as the leaves start to turn and remove it before the Blue Jays destroy it for the unhatched larva. Have fun.


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## sniggler (Aug 8, 2013)

The paper layers are used a natural wadding in muzzle loading shot guns and as over powder wads for both black powder cartridge and muzzle loading rifles. There are probably a lot of other old time uses, but the school teacher with cork in the hole is the best i ever heard.:roflmao:

Bob


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## llarson (Aug 8, 2013)

I have heard, and read, the bees don't see red light. A red lens or red cellophane over a flashlight is "supposed" to help allow recovery of a live nest at night. I think that's how Geo. and Mary got the one she took to school, but that was 1958-60. Been a few days ago. The nests are well worth recovering, if possible. I have one my grandmother got and gave to me; she passed away in '57.


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## Blackhawk (Aug 9, 2013)

Thanks for all the advice.

i never really worried about them because I only seen them in the garden up the hill, then when I wanted to clear some land they became a problem.  Went late in the evening with a can of wasp killer and sprayed it in the opening, they came out mad and I ran for the house.  Guess they must have been out for payback because there were 8 or 10 in the front yard next morning.  Went up and hit them again next evening with another can.  Since then only seen one yesterday when I was laying foundation for pizza oven. It circled me three times and headed south, hopefully that was a truce and he will take his lossy with him.

thanks for the idea of preserving it, that would be for the wife to keep the 7 year old in line ( I know, I'm 48 and his name is woops) 

lanham


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## GK1918 (Aug 9, 2013)

Then I can remember my father at night would climb up there with a brown shopping bag, that worked.  Here its been a bad year for those blasted
yellow jackets.


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## Blackhawk (Aug 9, 2013)

My wife suggested I do the same thing, not this hillbillyanic:

if yellow jackets are the same thing as sweat bees that live in the ground we are getting tore up on my property. I've only found two nests, one I accidentally stepped on and paid the price and the other I found in time to avoid and destroy.

lanham


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