European hornets are large sap eaters that build nests
A group of retired and active field workers and I host a Saturday morning radio call-in show called the Wallace and Son Lawn and Garden Show. We answer questions about your lawn and garden.
We “experts” always hope to get through the whole show without getting embarrassed by a question we don’t know the answer to. And boy, was I ecstatic the other day when a guy called me because something was attacking the bark of his dogwood tree.
Usually woodpeckers are the easy scapegoats for problems like this, but this time the description wasn’t aimed at Woody and his friends. I asked the caller to email me a picture, and not only was the radio useless, the photo was nowhere to be found. After sending the picture to one of our UGA entomologists, our identification specialist concluded that it was a European hornet and that it was unbelievable what these flying stinging machines had done to that dogwood.
The European hornet or giant hornet is an introduced species first reported in the United States in New York in 1840. Currently, its range extends from the northeast to the Dakotas and south to Louisiana and Florida.
This hornet is a large, 1.5-inch-long, brown-orange insect with dark wings. They build gray, papery nests that are usually located in cavities such as hollow trees or wall cavities. Unlike their relatives, the Bald-faced Hornets, European Hornet nests rarely appear free-hanging like the football-shaped nests we sometimes see in the trees. The entrances to European Hornet nests are often 6 feet or more above the ground and occasionally the nest protrudes above the cavity or cavity.
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What my poor caller saw were the hornets gathering material for nest building and obtaining nutrients by chewing branches and twigs to collect bark for nest building and feeding on plant sap.
Outside of their home, these hornets are not very aggressive, but will sting if they feel threatened. The hornets work together to defend their nest against anyone who comes too close. The pain is about as great as any wasp sting, but hornets can sting repeatedly.
The life cycle of the European hornet is similar to that of paper wasps and yellowjackets. Each spring, the queens emerge from their hiding places and look for nesting sites. This usually happens in mid-spring. The queen begins building the paper nest out of chewed wood and saliva. She lays eggs in the first few cells of the nest. The larvae mature, pupate in their cells and then emerge as sterile workers. These workers take on the tasks of foraging for food for the young larvae, collecting cellulose to expand the nest and protecting the nest from external threats.
Typical food for the young includes crickets, grasshoppers, large flies, caterpillars and the workers of other wasp species. Around mid-July, a few males and fertile females are born. At this time, the nest usually houses 200-400 residents. Mated females overwinter and resume the cycle the following spring. The nest will not survive the winter, so if the hornet’s home poses no threat, it is best to leave it alone and allow it to die out naturally.
Unlike most stinging insects, European hornets fly at night and are attracted to light, so you may find them knocking on your windows late in the evening.
