Huge Hornet

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rixstix

rixstix

Member
Joined
Jan 10, 2007
Messages
728
Location
Canistota, SD USA
Since moving to South Dakota, we've been learning new bugs. This is the latest experience.

Largest hornet I've ever seen and has a very long stinger. I've seen Yellow Jacket nests with ground entrances but this Ground Hornet dwarfs any yellow jacket.
Found out later that they are solitary and seldom aggressive. Boy, it was a prolific digger. AKA: Cicada Killer. It would be a sight to see this thing flying around with a cicada hanging from its feet.


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We had a bunch of them a couple of years ago. They look huge and scary, but none ever bothered any of us. My biggest problem is my neighbor's honey bees. For some reason they love me. Lately every time I walk over to visit I wind up with a sting. The last two were on my forehead and on my nose. Fortunately, I don't have any kind of allergic reactions to stings. - Dave
 
Had ground hornets years ago. A couple near a compost pile. Didn't think much about it, docile, picked one up to show the kids and wife. Fast forward a few months and went to turn the compost pile which a turning fork. I got stung by 9 of them and couldn't hardly get back to the house. Poison center nurses recommended 14 Benadryl. Woke up 14 hours later with 9 knots on head, neck, chest and arms.

Individually they are docile. **** them off and they can hurt you.
 
egnald said:
We had a bunch of them a couple of years ago. They look huge and scary, but none ever bothered any of us. My biggest problem is my neighbor's honey bees. For some reason they love me. Lately every time I walk over to visit I wind up with a sting. The last two were on my forehead and on my nose. Fortunately, I don't have any kind of allergic reactions to stings. - Dave
Click to expand...
Must be because you are so sweet Dave. :p
 
MRDucks2 said:
Had ground hornets years ago. A couple near a compost pile. Didn't think much about it, docile, picked one up to show the kids and wife. Fast forward a few months and went to turn the compost pile which a turning fork. I got stung by 9 of them and couldn't hardly get back to the house. Poison center nurses recommended 14 Benadryl. Woke up 14 hours later with 9 knots on head, neck, chest and arms.

Individually they are docile. **** them off and they can hurt you.
Click to expand...

Stings are nasty. Dr told me to remember the 2 Zs for stings... Zyrtec and Zantac that was quite a few years ago since you can no longer get the original formulation Zantac.
 
Looks like a subject for a B-movie. I never was allergic to bee stings until 22 years ago. Took my grandson trout fishing. A black critter landed on my wrist by my watch. As I prepared to flick him off, I got stung- five times and all were coordinated. I looked up and a nest was about two feet above my head. Tests show that I'm allergic to whiteface hornets which I had never seen. And wasps but, as a kid, never had any trouble. I now keep an Epi-Pen and Benadryl tablet during the warm months. I'm also allergic to work.
 
We had a nest of them under a step by our back door outside Philadelphia back in the late '50s, early '60's. My father sprayed then dug up the nest. Nasty looking but pretty harmless ... unless you are a cicada.
 
Years ago I was leading a group of summer camp kids (ages 7-12) on a hike in a local national park and we walked over a ground nest. We made a dash for the van, but I had 19 incident reports to fill out. Fortunately no allergies.
 
Not sure it was the same species, but I stepped on one barefoot when I was about 5. It stung me and it hurt, but I wasn't crying until I sat down and there was a wiggling stinger sticking out of my foot. I freaked out, hysterical, my mother came running out of the house scared I was dying or something. She pulled the stinger out with tweezers and put some bleach on it. I was back out playing in about 15 minutes. This was around 1956 and I still remember it.

Mike
 
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