Topic: Buzzy scary huge 'aaaggghhhh' bug!

[portway farm]

Do not going camping near Kiddie there are tonnes there my husband almost sat on one and totally freaked out when it rose out of the grass like a harrier jump jet and buzzed so loudy that you could see it vibrating. Thankfully never seen one since.

[supernan]

 :) Thanks guys. Have only been in the house since 28th Feb!! But they could have been here years, I don't speak Hornet otherwise I'd ask.

I also have a bee colony nearby, there's been hundreds of them on my philadelphus. My hanging basket storeage and potting bench is right under the bush, they don't even give me a glance. All I can hear is buzzzzzzzzzzzz. I'm hoping they will go up the lottie when the beans are in flower.

[Robert_Brenchley]

Where's the colony? If your philadelphus is producing a lot of nectar, and it sounds as though it is, they could be coming from a considerable distance, as they have an amazing ability to ferret out the best sources and guide more and more foragers to them.

[andrew_l]

Hi. Hear a buzzing this morning in my bedroom - which I thought at first was a motor scooter going past my house (I'm near a road). Then I looked up - and saw what appeared to be a very large queen wasp. Which I sprayed / swatted. And then photographed. And I would post the picture - if I could only work out how to do it!!

Andrew

[kenkew]

Murderer. You just ridded the world of millions of pollon collectors. On your knees...25 'Hail mother queen bee of the world'.

[Robert_Brenchley]

It wouldn't have been a queen bee though, you don't find those alone unless they're on a mating flight, and those are too high to be swatted. It's too late for a single queen of any of the 'normal' social wasps, but it could have been a Cuckoo Wasp, which lays its eggs in the nest of the Red Wasp.

[Mrs Ava]

Saw another one on the plot today!  For goodness sakes!  Approaching half a dozen sightings by me so far this year, and that is a whole 6 tooooooooooo many!

[supernan]

 :) Another one yesterday, trapped in the greenhouse, between the netting and glass, netting is outside. Managed to release him, her it?

Not too much bother they don't seem to get too angry!! Neighbour commented that she had killed one in the bedroom and where were they coming from. Have seen them going in to the roof void again, but only one at a time and only one or two a day so it may be a new colony.

I have another philadelphus in the front garden, that has just started flowering and has even more perfume. Good job I'm not scared of bees etc.

[ellkebe]

Or maybe a Maybug? See link bellow.

http://www.homepages.mcb.net/wormwell/May%20Bug.jpg

Thanks for this link.  My back garden suddenly has lots of these and I've never seen one before.  They make the most amazing noise - we have to go indoors to continue our conversation  ;D

[oobydoo]

Two Inch long massive ORANGE queen wasp

Mike

Oobydoo.net

[Robert_Brenchley]

Looks like a hornet. The British ones are nothing like as bad as they're painted. Some of the overseas ones will wipe out a beehive (with maybe 50 000 bees) in no time at all, but none of them are any threat to humans.

[Icyberjunkie]

One good thing though is that apparently European hornets are fairly docile and more so than than the large European wasps.  Thats a nice specimen and quite impressive......

[plot 102]

Saw one today "dead" in my waterbutt, I think you saw a Giant Wood Wasp "Uroceras gigas" not a wasp but a Sawfly & completely harmless. Took it home to photograph it to ID it and it came alive (before I found it was harmless). Found out more about it at http://www2002.stoke.gov.uk/museums/pmag/Nof_website1/species/creepy_crawlies/other/pages/gwwasp.htm
Regards
Plot 102

[daveandtara]

OOOHH!! found one on my plot yesterday!!!!
it was huge!!! :o
i am far to new to deal with big scarey monsters like this one.
what is a european hornet thingy doing here anyway??
( i refuse to consider myself european) and do they live alone or is there a nest of 'em somewhere nearby?....shudder.. :P...
Tara xx

[Mrs Ava]

hehehe.  They sound like small aircarft coming into land when they are flying around!  I believe they are soppy really and will only sting you if you are bothering them......not much chance of that as I can normally be seen running as fast as humanly possible in the opposite direction...not that I am scared, no of course not, I would just hate to antagonise the poor beast!   






yeah....righto Emma, you big brave girl you!  :o

[Stung Sue]

Hi all.  I'm new to this and found you when I was looking up giant wasps on the net!!!  I've just been attacked in the woods by a whole bunch of them and one of our dogs got stung and I got stung on the arm and it really hurts.    We were just walking past and they came flying at us out or nowhere.  I ended up with about 5 of them clinging to me and like I said, one of them stung me.  They were quite hard to get off as well.  My neighbour had to hit it 2 or 3 times to get it off.  A truly scary experience!!!  We ran off and they actually came after us as well!

Sue

[Robert_Brenchley]

You obviously managed to disturb their nest, or maybe something else did, and you were in the wrong place at the wrong time. What were you and the dog doing at the time, and what did they look like?

[City Gardener...]

HI,

I don't know if anyone's touched down on this point or not ( I'm not in the mood for 3 pages... ;)) but this wasp/hornet you've found might need to be reported to the RSPCA because it is known that their is a large foreign wasp that is appearing here in Britain that is attacking and feeding upon our smaller native honey bees!!!

I'd email them the piccy if I were you EJ, best to be safe on this one...

Cheers,
Jeff