Sunday, September 24, 2006
I stand corrected! ~ About the bees commonly known as Japanese hornets re the post below. I just read every page in the website which I linked to in the post below and it seems (I had no idea!!) that these are actually 'good' bugs! It is even illegal to kill them in Germany. It seems these bees have a very bad reputation because of their size and the extremely scary look of them. They are peaceful and non-aggresive unless their nest is messed with, and beneficial because they kill massive amounts of flies and bad bugs. They do have a painful sting (I could image that as I watched it violently stinging my kitchen curtains today) but no more toxic than a regular bee. I wondered why there seemed to be so many less pesky flies and bugs this summer and now I have my answer. These large bees have been hunting them on a huge scale and taking them to their nest which must be somewhere nearby, probably out at the back of the yard where we have 2 old apple trees. I don't want to kill one now but OMG please don't let another one get inside my house LOL! :D My husband got back tonight so I'll let him herd the next one outside without harming it.
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6 comments:
We ran into cicada killers for the first time. Talk about a scary looking bug! It was huge -- a big wasp with and even bigger stinger. It seemed like all of a sudden we saw numerous holes dug at the edges of our brick sidewalk and had no idea what they were.
The pest control guy had been scheduled to come and before he knocked on the door, took care of them. Said they werent agressive, but you dont want to get stung by one. They were flying all over the front yard, so I dont know how you could avoid that happening eventually. All I knew, is that I definitely didnt want one in the house!
yeeek Jan I had never heard of a cicada killer but I saw it mentioned in the same website. Now I'm going to go back and read and see what the heck those things are.
Now that we're getting down close to freezing at night, we're seeing less and less of the bees/wasps and all related bugs. This summer, we were plagued by ground bees which necessitate shoes at all times. It's a problem because I love going barefoot in the summer. We also had a nest of wasps building inside the dryer vent. Whenever I passed by, they would get angry. I was never stung, but my husband was 2-3 times over the summer.
I love beneficial bugs...but not if they sting!
I agree with you there Cyn. I am so scared of those ugly wasps too. I avoid them and take off running if one gets near me. OMG those cicada killers look just as huge and scary as the hornets! :O eeeek creepy bugs!
My husband has been stung by one of them. His whole back swelled up, and he's been stung by regular old yellowjackets quite a bit.
Hubby also raises honeybees. These hornets are harmful to the honeybee population in the USA. Two of them can kill an entire hive in a couple of hours. PBS did a show about them.
Hello Lisa and thanks for your comment, you shed a different light on those huge bees! OMG I can imagine how bad it hurt when your husband got stung by one of those. I got stung by a very small yellowjacket one time and it felt like a lit cigarette held to my leg for several seconds. I was surprised how painful it was! And now that you mention it I don't remember seeing any honey bees in our yard this summer! I don't know where their nest was but I hope they don't come back next summer, I may call the county extension agent to report them. Thanks again!
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