"David in Normandy" wrote in message
. fr...
Over the last three days I've found three hornets, once in the bathroom,
then in the living room then one upstairs. Besides the mystery of how they
got into the house I'm puzzled by why all three hornet just walked very
slowly along the floor and seemed almost in a daze. I flattened each under
foot without them even attempting to fly away. Anyone else had any dozy
hornets? Why are they behaving like that? The ones I've encountered
occasionally outside seem anything but docile.

Well. bully for you, do you kill everything that you don't understand!
Hornets are much more docile than wasps and will only become aggressive if
you get too close to the nests. Only the females have a sting and the ones
that you killed were probably evicted males at this time of year and were
quite harmless. When I was head gardener at Ashton Wold (near Oundle) my
house was on the edge of ancient oak woodland and hornets were around us
throughout the summer. They never bothered us and we never bothered them.
They would come into the house at this time of year (usually on the floor)
and we would scoop them up on a piece of paper and put them outside. Hornets
are becoming rare in Western Europe and becoming endangered in the UK,
indeed, many in the UK have never seen a hornet.

Phil