David Rance wrote:
On Fri, 27 Aug 2010, Phil Gurr 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!

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.

In France they are considered dangerous enough for the Fire Brigade to
come out free of charge in order to deal with a colony - which happened
to me a few years ago.

Is this the first instance of the French over-reacting you've ever come
across?

Hornets
are becoming rare in Western Europe and becoming endangered in the UK,
indeed, many in the UK have never seen a hornet.

That is certainly not my experience so I wonder if your observations
about their docility is as accurate!

Yes, it is accurate.

Forgive me being rather more "waspish" than I usually am but I was stung
by a wasp just a few minutes ago - the first time for years - and I
don't react well to them! It was your sarcasm at the beginning that
irritated me. There was no call for it.

I didn't find it misplaced.

Sorry.

--
Rusty

David in Normandy wrote:
On 29/08/2010 17:18, David Rance wrote:
On Fri, 27 Aug 2010, Phil Gurr 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!

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.

In France they are considered dangerous enough for the Fire Brigade to
come out free of charge in order to deal with a colony - which happened
to me a few years ago.

Hornets
are becoming rare in Western Europe and becoming endangered in the UK,
indeed, many in the UK have never seen a hornet.

That is certainly not my experience so I wonder if your observations
about their docility is as accurate!

Forgive me being rather more "waspish" than I usually am but I was stung
by a wasp just a few minutes ago - the first time for years - and I
don't react well to them! It was your sarcasm at the beginning that
irritated me. There was no call for it.

David


I've since discovered that there is a hornets nest around 6 feet away
from the entrance to the upper part of the property. I'm giving them the
benefit of the doubt at the moment. They haven't attacked anyone or the
dogs yet. The most interest they've shown is a solitary hornet flying
side to side in front of me - sizing me up presumably.

If they keep a truce so will I. Otherwise I'll get the fire brigade in
to exterminate the nest.

Good! If their modus operandi is similar to that of wasps, at this time
of year the last of the grubs will be pupating. In the case of wasps,
the workers bring caterpillars and the like to feed the grubs with, and
the grubs exude a sugary substance on which the workers feed.

Sugary stuff being in short supply and work scarce, the workers find
themselves at liberty to go scrumping. When I remember, I leave out
sweet stuff for them, not too near my figs, apples, etc.

--
Rusty

David Rance wrote:
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.

And that, of course, isn't patronising?

He was probably reaacting to to the vision of a rather interesting and
fairly rare creature being snuffed-out only because of its reputation.

OK, I don't expect that would have been my comment if I'd come on the
thread earlier, but you'll have to admit that the hornet has had a good
press here as a result...

/snip/

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.

I was on the roof this spring and a queen flew past my ear, then came
back to see if I'd make a good place to build a nest.

Fortunately...

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??

You've not washed your hands before typing?

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

See earlier post - and my grapes haven't even turned colour yet.

--
Rusty

David in Normandy wrote:
On 29/08/2010 19:02, Emery Davis wrote:

Anyway I suspect most gardeners are apt to put the beastie back rather
than swatting. I've spent the afternoon on the tractor swerving around
field mice; which doesn't stop me from congratulating the cat when she
brings them to the door.


I'm the same with the self-propelled lawn mower. Frequent emergency
stops as a frog or toad suddenly makes it presence known directly in
front of the mower! I scoop them up in my hands and put them into the
vegetable garden. They don't even hop away after relocating them, they
just sit there looking at me indignantly for daring to move them!

They must be related to my frogs.

Lately, we've had a lot of rain, and any container is part-filled with
water. I've had to rescue half a dozen frogs which have gone for a swim
without looking to see whether there's a ladder.

--
Rusty

David in Normandy wrote:
On 29/08/2010 18:42, David Rance wrote:

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.

I wonder if that is what that hornet was doing that flew side to side in
front of me? Like it was trying to herd me! I wonder what the best
strategy is in such an encounter? Possibly just to walk slowly away from
the hornet - which is what I did.

I was attacked by a swarm of wasps when I was a small child and since
then have a dread of them. These hornet males look damned intimidating
due to their size - like gigantic wasps. Is their sting worse than a wasp?

Dunno. The only time I've been stung by one was when it got entangled in
my hair (when I had a bit more)
[Coo! Red Arrows just flew by my window!]
while I was cyclng.

Fortunately, a nearby householder had an onion. Sliced across and rubbed
on a wasp (or hornet) sting, and it very soon goes away.


--
Rusty

"Rusty Hinge" wrote in message
...
David Rance wrote:
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.

And that, of course, isn't patronising?

He was probably reaacting to to the vision of a rather interesting and
fairly rare creature being snuffed-out only because of its reputation.

OK, I don't expect that would have been my comment if I'd come on the
thread earlier, but you'll have to admit that the hornet has had a good
press here as a result...

The original poster was in France where I doubt hornets are a protected
species.
There are very few here in UK, I have never seen one.
When I visited my friend in Germany, hornets were all over the place. They
prey on honey bees, she has bees, they were always hovering in front of her
hives eyeballing them as described here, back and forth. Looking.
Our honey bees have enough problems atm without encouraging hornets to eat
them too.
Tina





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.

I was on the roof this spring and a queen flew past my ear, then came back
to see if I'd make a good place to build a nest.

Fortunately...

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??

You've not washed your hands before typing?

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

See earlier post - and my grapes haven't even turned colour yet.

--
Rusty

A couple of years ago, I found a hornet queen starting a nest in my shed. I evicted her and destroyed the beginnings of her creation, which was in a spare bicycle tyre. Next day she was back. I evicted her again. Next day she was back. I killed her this time. I really didn't want to, and was quite sad about it, but no way was I having a hornets' nest in my spare bicycle parts in my shed. Later I read that they have some special aroma chemicals such that even after destroying the beginnings of her nest she would be attracted back to the location. Probably I should have put her in a jar, gone a couple of miles down the road and let her out. I did that with a mouse once. Though I then read that was probably a death sentence for the mouse.

Hello!

This may seem inappropriate but I'm looking for Phil Gurr, geologist?
My name is Jessica Franklin and i was mapping on Kerrera during the summer and was advised by Duncan the ferryman that Phil Gurr (pip) was an expert on Kerrera geology but when he went to give me his email he realised he had misplaced it...

Apologies if this is not the same man but if it is would love to get in touch as my department knows nothing about Kerrera geology and would love some insight.

Thanks Jess

Email on its way, you have the right person

Pip