Adults will also drink flower nectar.” What the heck? That sounds like a banquet for dark elves! Wikipedia says “They have been observed consuming meat, spiders, fruit and insects. They aren’t just chaotic hunters: they are also weirdly omnivorous. They smash into the hives of other hymenoptera (like lovable honey big-hearted bees) and gobble up all of the bees, larvae, and honey. Like the terrifying giant hornet, bald-faced hornets are predatory carnivores.
Dolichovespula maculate is not a true hornet, but rather a sort of yellowjacket wasp-predatory wasps of the genus genera Vespula. Adult wasps are 19 millimetres (0.75 in) in length and the queens are even larger. They have matte black legs and smoke-colored wings. They are beautiful, in a sort of nightmarish alien shocksoldier way, with cream-colored mouths and ivory abdominal markings contrasting against a midnight black body with purple iridescence. “Bald-faced” means shameless and undisguised (it is a very good phrase for 2016). They live across North America from Alaska to Texas, from Nova Scotia to California. These monochromatic monsters were bald-faced hornets (Dolichovespula maculate). She enjoys taking photos of our urban wild things.When I was growing up I used to sometimes see these huge black and white hornets which were bigger than my thumb (although I guess my adult thumb is bigger). Jeanine Farley is an educational writer who has lived in the Boston area for more than 30 years. Include the photographer’s name and the general location where the photo was taken. Have you taken photos of our urban wild things? Send your images to Cambridge Day, and we may use them as part of a future feature. The following year, the nest will be abandoned and hornets will nest somewhere else. Unless a hornet nest is near people, the nest can probably be ignored. When they search for nectar, they also pollinate flowers. During summer days, these wasps hunt many garden pests, including flies, other yellow jackets, spiders, caterpillars and bees. And even though they look fearsome, bald-faced hornets can be beneficial. If you get one in your house, open a window and turn off the lights so it can find its way outdoors. As the farmer philosopher Henry Schriver once said, “A fly is a fly, and a flower is a flower, but a hornet is an organization.” An individual cannot survive alone: It takes the efforts of the entire colony – the queen, the workers, the males and the new queens – to create the next generation of hornets. (Photo: Jeanine Farley)Īs you can tell, life is tenuous for bald-faced hornets. An area that begins on Day One as damp and covered with hornets is, on the third day, dry and attended by only three hornets. Unlike honeybees that die after stinging – and so sting only once – angry hornets sting multiple times! If you wander within 3 feet of a nest, you might be considered a threat.īald-faced hornets feast on sap at the base of an oak tree. When threatened, hornets en masse charge out of the bottom of the nest and pursue whatever has threatened them. The bottom of the nest contains the entrance/exit hole. You might encounter a nest hanging from a tree branch or even a porch roof. Hornet nests can be built anywhere from 3 to 60 feet off the ground. The males fly away to mate with new queens from other colonies and die with the arrival of cold weather. The new queens fly away, mate, fatten up for winter and look for a safe place to overwinter. She begins to lay fertilized eggs that become new queens and unfertilized eggs that become males. Later in the summer, she changes her survival strategy. The queen hornet is a bit larger than the other hornets, and spends the spring and early summer laying fertilized eggs that hatch into female workers. The face of this hornet is black and ivory with reddish eyes. From now on the queen lays eggs only she retires as a worker. Social insects such as these are willing to sacrifice individual members to protect the nest solitary insects, such as most bees – except honeybees – sting only as a last resort because fighting can lead to the end of their reproductive line. These worker adults start laboring: They add more brood cells to the nest, collect insects to feed new larvae, feed on sap and nectar and defend the nest. Over the course of 10 days, the pupae metamorphose into adult female workers. These first larvae grow rapidly and shed their exoskeleton several times for eight days. When larvae (grubs) hatch after six days, the queen hunts for, stings and paralyzes, then chews up insects to feed them. She uses this “paper” to build a nest with a few brood cells into which she lays eggs – one in each cell. (Photo: Ellin Beltz via Wikimedia Commons) The interior of a hornet’s nest contains brood cells.
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