Southern Marsh Orchids

Southern Marsh Orchids

Saturday 5 September 2015

Hornet & wasps

Bit of a shock emptying the moth box this morning when I found a Hornet in one of the egg boxes. Never seen one before but it is unmistakable ....



... and huge compared to the regular Common and German Wasps that visit the garden. On Thursday, I split an apple and threw it on the garden for the blackbirds, but they didn't get a look-in. I don't know where they came from but within minutes both halves of the apple were covered in wasps. Within 24 hours the apple had been reduced to a thin, almost transparent, peel layer.


7 comments:

  1. I've never seen Hornet near Cardiff (or anywhere in Glamorgan for that matter). It is quite frequent in the old Monmouthshire woods (Wye Valley etc) and occurs in Carms at Dinefwr.

    It certainly seems to be the best/worst (depending on your opinion) wasp year for a while. They've been hammering our apples too...

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  2. I'd love to have Hornets up here. The wasp numbers seem to have built up suddenly, after what appeared to be a quiet season for them,

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  3. The Hornet is still around - watched it hunting and eating Honey Bees on Sedum this afternoon. Not so good for the Honey Bees though.

    I agree about the wasps. Not so long ago I was commenting on their absence from the garden - now the garden is full of them!

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  4. worth recording the Hornet here - http://www.bwars.com/index.php?q=content/submit-sighting-vespa-crabro-hornet
    Like them a lot - very docile and placid compared to wasps

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  5. Jake & I had a number of Hornets at Coed Craig Ruperra a few years back whilst moth-trapping. Flew towards our head torches!!!!

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  6. They`re at other NE Carms sites, in addition to Dinefwr, but not in SE Carms.

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