Please identify.

[kazmcc]

All my friends have been following my beekeeping adventures, waiting for me to run screaming from the bee hive mostly, but supportive underneath the micky taking. Thing is, they all come to me now when they come across any black and yellow insects. Which is why I am always asking you guys to identify things lol.

This one is clearly not a bee. It returns every day and takes strips out of the wood on the shed. Can anyone identify it please. Is it a hornet?

 

[kazmcc]

A close up.

 

[MuswellMetro]

it is a common queen wasp, kill it

 

[onriver]

its a queen, happily stripping wood fibres to start her nest - wasps very useful at the start of the season, needing protein so eating aphids / greenfly / anything they can get hold of... but then they need sugar and start being a problem. If you can, hold off the swatting impulse until June

 

[kazmcc]

it is a common queen wasp, kill it

Ugh. Yuck. Yikes. All those words. I shall get him to kill it immediately. That thing is terrifying. Shudder.

 

[MuswellMetro]

Ugh. Yuck. Yikes. All those words. I shall get him to kill it immediately. That thing is terrifying. Shudder.

you should worry i had one these, a queen europeon hornet in the super stack

ps not my photo , not brave enough d

 

[kazmcc]

They are so ugly compared to pretty bees, aren't they. Yucky yuck. I would have a heart attack i'm sure!

 

[Lois]

you should worry i had one these, a queen europeon hornet in the super stack

ps not my photo , not brave enough d

You need a wide angle lens to photography that beauty!
She is beautiful but I don't feel the need to have one thanks.
Watching wasps strip wood is fascinating and if it's quiet you can also hear them!

 

[YorkshireBees]

Nice photos Kazmcc!

As a keen gardener as well as a beekeeper I appreciate the wasps catching / eating aphids / greenflies at this time of year and will only start trapping wasps later in the year when / if they start to pose a problem to my hives.

 

[Nijal]

Agree with YorkshireBees - wasps are beneficial and if they are going to be a pest to your colonies, it will be later in the year. I'm not convinced however that this is a wasp - it looks more like a hornet to me (with darker wings and longer orange legs rather than the wasp's yellow legs):

 

[richy]

Agree with YorkshireBees - wasps are beneficial and if they are going to be a pest to your colonies, it will be later in the year. I'm not convinced however that this is a wasp - it looks more like a hornet to me (with darker wings and longer orange legs rather than the wasp's yellow legs):

I think that it's a hornet too I heard they weren't aggressive anyone else confirm this