Asian Hornet in my garden? Identification please

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Natureboy44

New Bee
Joined
Sep 5, 2019
Messages
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Location
England
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These insects keep coming daily to strip the fences right near my beehive presumably to take back material to build a nest. I have not seen these before in the garden and I wanted to make sure they weren't the dreaded Asian Hornet as they are very different to the European Hornets and wasps, they are bigger than a wasp probably double the width and much chunkier with very different wings but they look a lot smaller than the European Hornets and with no orange but look hornet in appearance.

Can somebody please identify.

Video link below excuse the jittery footage

https://youtu.be/-HlV1rtn36k



 
Last edited:
Queen wasp. You can find the asian hornet identification tips online.

Thank you, I didn't even consider a queen wasp would be out gathering material still now for a nest are they not usually up and running by now and getting workers to do this?
 
Dolichovespula media queen. Might not be a bad idea to treat the timber with solvent based wood preserver e.g. cuprinol, otherwise in three weeks time you'll have a lot of damage. Also she is a mid level nester typically eye level in shrubs and hedges so wise to be careful when pruning later in the year. Occasionally get heavily stung victims having unsuspectingly ploughed through a nest with a hedge trimmer!
 
I regularly have many queen wasps on my cotoneaster. I think today I counted 9 on one bush. So the likelihood is that I will have a fair few nests around. The wasps are fond of the potting shed door. The whole shed is still there and showing no signs of falling down so far.
 
:Iagree: with our little ray of sunshine here.
Last year we lost a whole cricket pavillion to a queen wasp and she started devouring the giant redwood we had growing in the town park
 
Crikey! That's a first - sure you're feeling ok JBM?
I have a good haul of queen wasps in my AH traps - but no AHs fortunately.
 

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