Larger than average hornets.

[darren64]

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Are these pictures taken in cumbria?I'm in west yorkshire and I have never seen anything like them!.

 

[Erichalfbee]

No, thank heavens. Bushy Park in Teddington. I saw them flying in and out of a tree so just raised the camera into the entrance above my head. Looking at those three they look like guards so I was lucky to have got away with it.

 

[tedandagnes]

oh nasty looking beasts....i got a shock recently with a wood wasp flying about near the hive but they are even more mean looking.

 

[MMJ100]

Chris Luck,
Thanks for you post and pics.
I have about 2/4 around my 5 hives most of the time they seem to have about 50/50 success rate, and sometimes get attacked but about 10 bees.
But they are definatly European hornets.

I have killed a few to make sure they do not have yellow ended legs and therefore might be Asian ones.
Do you have Asian ones in Vienne?
Michael

 

[MuswellMetro]

my girls are under attack from them this afternoon saw three bees snatched in five minutes

they have attacked the swarm hive with thymol still on and left the others , it is a strong hive, hope it survives, what can you do to stop them

 

[Storm™]

Christ if they were my hives I would so be stood there with my electric tennis racket. And the European Hornet is also a night time hunter as well. Stood there flapping like a pair of tits in a sprint at one point last night as it tried to mate with my face. All I could hear was the low humming of its wings getting closer. Smoking at night looking up at the stars has lost its appeal now that we have these things. Smoking and holding the electric tennis racket I have to think carefully what I am doing. Swiping franticly at the darkness with a cigarette and then zapping my lips with a couple of hundred volts. Gotta get them the right way round.

 

[MJBee]

I had a shower quite late the other day when finished opened the window to let the steam out and was joined by a dozen hornets

SWMBO wondered what I was doing in the passage in the nude holding the bathroom door firmly shut

 

[Chris Luck]

Do you have Asian ones in Vienne?

Yes Michael, we do and I have them round my hives, but mercifully only the odd one here and there so their nest must be quite distant. It's one good reason for having my hives on my own property and not dotted around the countryside which is what most people in this part of France do. As a bee watcher I like to be able to see my bees any time throughout the day I fancy without having to get in my van and drive from place to place.

Chris