One of our maple trees has been bored into by some insect, and there are a variety of other insects investigating the sap situation. In the bottom of the photo is an ordinary house fly (Musca domestica), but really what I’m interested in are the very large bee type things at the top of the photo.

They’re big. Bigger than they look in the photo. An inch or longer. And they’re not bees, as I hoped, but hornets. European Hornets (Vespa crabro).

They make paper nests, but I haven’t seen it anywhere, so I’m a little worried it’s inside the tree itself. I guess better there than in our house somewhere. Also, while they’re absolutely gigantic, there have been no stings – and a lot of kids play in our yard every day. They are not exactly peace-loving, but they will only attack if they feel threatened. Mostly.

Also, they’re carnivorous! They will hunt insects and steal prey from spiders. So that’s just incredibly reassuring. They can bite, sting, and inject a toxic venom. So all very normal indeed. They also will prey on honey bees, so that’s right out, in terms of ok behavior. Very rude.

Also, interestingly, they control their own population by “worker policing,” which means the worker hornets will chuck out any eggs laid by anyone other than the queen. They either destroy those eggs or “discriminate against” any hornets that lay eggs (who aren’t the queen). What kind of discrimination can a worker hornet engage in? Probably more than I really want to know.

So. Those are our new, dangerous, and scary neighbors.