Читать книгу Beekeeping For Dummies - Howland Blackiston - Страница 75

Bald-faced hornets are not loveable creatures (see Figure 2-20). Nor are they true hornets. Typically found in the eastern United States, they are in fact aerial-nesting yellow jackets, building their nests above ground (in trees or bushes). They are highly defensive, have a painful sting, and are ruthless hunters and meat eaters. They do, however, build fantastically impressive and beautiful paper nests from their saliva and wood fiber they harvest from dead trees (see Figure 2-21). These nests can grow large during the summer and eventually reach the size of a basketball. Such nests can contain several thousand large, hot-tempered hornets — keep your distance! The end of the summer marks the end of the hornet city. When the cool weather approaches, the nest is abandoned, and only a newly raised queen survives. She finds a warm retreat underground and emerges in the spring, raising young and building a new nest.

Courtesy of Dr. Edward Ross, California Academy of Sciences

FIGURE 2-20: The bald-faced hornet makes impressive paper nests in trees.

Courtesy of Howland Blackiston

FIGURE 2-21: A large paper nest made by a colony of bald-faced hornets.