On Sun, 29 Aug 2010, David in Normandy wrote:

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!

Sarcasm is not helpful when you feel you might be aggressed. I'm
certainly not going to hang around in the presence of a hornet to see if
your words are true!

I must admit, the guy put my back up from the first sentence.

Patronising sarcasm is the best way of putting anyone's back up - but I
expect that's what he was trying to do.

Not the best way to promote his cause; especially since I'm very much
an animal and nature lover... I often catch bumblebees that have found
themselves indoors and escort them outside, similarly with spiders or
other strange beetles that somehow get in occasionally.

Well, me too. The wasp that stung me an hour or so ago was still alive
on the bedroom floor, though rather dozy. I don't expect it will last
long but nevertheless I scooped it up on a piece of card and put it
outside on the bank.

However, with the reputation hornets have I was taking no chances.
However, having done a little research on the internet since then, it
seems the variety is the common European Hornet and they are supposedly
less aggressive than wasps; and less aggressive than generally feared.

Well, the sound they make is reminiscent of a Lancaster bomber and
that's enough to put the frighteners on me! I must say that those I've
encountered may well have been less aggressive than a wasp but when I
got too close they certainly warned me off with buzzing tactics.

The are quite fascinating. I watched one land on the bay tree next to
their nest the other day. It was carrying a housefly. It tore its wings
off quite savagely then flew into the nest with it. I gather they eat
lots of houseflies.

In that case I need to encourage them. From having no houseflies at all
for the first couple of weeks of our stay we've now got a plague of them
and there are always a couple on the keyboard of this computer! Why the
keyboard??

Where *are* the hornets when you need them? All I've got are wasps
eating my grapes!

David

--
David Rance
writing from Le Mesnil Villement, Calvados, France