Liz & Andy writes


We're in Herts - I saw a hornet elsewhere in our village a couple of years
ago, so they obviously nest regularly.

According to a google trawl, hornets are a largely southern phenomenon, the
colonies are far smaller than ordinary wasp's nests (400 individuals or so)
they are hunters (hence the huge eyes), they fly at night as well as day and
occasionally blunder into lit rooms in late summer. They are reputed to
have stings like red-hot needles but, as other posters have noted, be less
interested in people than wasps.

So now I know. Still feel twitchy though. It was at least twice the size
of a regular queen wasp - close on two inches.

We are in Herts too, and had a hornets nest in the gable end last year.
They were, as you say, quite 'noticeable', I first heard and saw them
stopping off at the pond to drink, then lumbering off to the roof. Then
I noticed our greengages were being excavated, and therefore must have
been ripe (though they were still 'green' of course, but being our first
real crop I'd not realised). They also were happily excavating chunks of
dead wood from one of the gateposts, presumably to make their nest.

Sadly once they began to fall down the chimney and crash around the
living rooms and bedrooms we had to have the nest killed off. The man
sub-contracted to the council came with a long tube on the end of his
powder puffer and puffed into the eaves, and that was that.
--
David