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Welcome again to the Faith Pest Control podcast. Hi, I’m Mike Stewart, your host and we’re here today with pest expert Fred Talley of Faith Pest Control, Faith Pest Control services all the fine folks in Jasper, Georgia, Blue Ridge, Georgia Ellijay, Georgia and pretty much anywhere in the North Georgia mountains. If you have a pest problem, Fred Talley is the man to take care of those problems. And now here’s Fred Talley.
So bald faced Hornets. Bald faced Hornets are not actually Hornets. The only true Hornet in the United States is the European Hornet. Bald faced Hornets are actually really wasps. We call them Hornets primarily because they have a large black body color and a mostly white pattern like face their large size and and because of their aggressive nature. They’re also known to produce a pretty painful, Hornet like stain. If you see what appears to be a black and white Wasp, you may be looking at a bald faced Hornet they resemble their relatives the yellow jacket. However, they don’t have, you know, they have no yellow coloring on them. They are pretty much solid black with a white pattern face. They they are similar in appearance just not color to yellow jackets and paper wasps the surface of their upper midsection if you’re kind of viewing it from the side almost as like a triangular shape.
The queen as in most other species of insects is larger in size when compared to the other adult members of the nest. Their nests are almost always a light grayish color. And they look just like a very coarse paper. They’re nasty or enclosed. unlike that of other Hornets, and Yellowjackets, which haven’t I guess you would refer to them as an openness and are commonly have a designated entrance exit hole. I have seen some with more than one entry exit hole but in my experience, it’s not Ultra common.
You will most likely realize that you have a bald faced Hornet problem simply by the presence of their nest, which is almost always suspended above the ground. You might also see the workers flying around the nest and nearby areas.
Recognizing the NASA the insects and avoiding contact with them is generally a good idea to to prevent them from stinging you because they can become aggressive that they think their nest is being threatened. In the fall after the leaves have fallen off the trees you can look up into the trees and sometimes see all nests. Their nests can be fairly large. Think like basketball size. Probably the more common size would be a soccer ball size. You know it down smaller to even softball size, if you will. And they’re kind of roundish there’ll be kind of pointed at the bottom. And if you stand if you just stand still and watch the Nast you’ll see the workers entering and exiting from that pool. There’s normally a hole in that point and that’s where they’re entering and exiting. I guess a little bit of folklore about bald faced Hornets in the north Georgia mountains that the if a nest is observed to be high up in a tree, the locals will identify this as an indication of a bad winter the following winter season and the higher up in the tree the nest may be the worst winter is anticipated to be bald faced Hornets like I said normally build their nests and trees and shrubs but they can bail them you know on the under hanging of your house inside your attic. That’s not very uncommon. If they can gain access and inside or under your carport or outbuildings very common is on a beneath the flooring of your deck wood deck or porch. You might be getting stung and really not even know why or where the nests may be. There their nests unlike the paper wasps, the Hornets are bald faced Hornets they’re nasty. They don’t necessarily need total protection from the from the elements. It’s just very it’s very common to see them bill on the limb in the tree. They will build their nest out of wood pulp just like the paper wasps they’ll chew up shreds of wood and mix it with their saliva the in the starches in their saliva and they can they construct their nest pro Be sure that you’re familiar with what a paper wasps nest looks like. It’s kind of a, a honeycomb appearance, but that honeycomb is facing down you know on a horizontal plane normally
will the inside of a bald faced Hornets nests looks like a paper wasp mess only larger, the sales are larger. The Nest itself is larger, and they have multiple tiers. And so just try to imagine several paper wasps nest attached together and stacked one on top of the other. Each nest is begun in the spring by single overwintered Queen a late summer NASS can contain several 100 workers, as well as males and new queens frequently, a bald faced hornets nest are so high off the ground, they pose little really if any problem to humans and adult bald faced Hornet workers normally
about a half maybe up to five eighths of an inch long and the queen will be normally about three quarters of an inch long. The adults normally nectar gathered from the flowers. However, for the larvae they will collect insects, and they will chew that up and feed that to their to the larva. Unlike their solitary cousins, the social wasps are more likely to defend their nest if they sense that it is endangered. And that defense mechanism is typically staying well you know whatever intruder may be there. For this one reason alone, if for when they build their nest close to people, they may become a nuisance to us. To some people can be allergic to their staying, and their health could be endangered if stung when their nest rebuilt away from buildings and sidewalks so Hornets are actually present very little danger to humans. So in the early spring, the overwintering queen, she’s the only one that survives actually the winter will start building a new nest and will lay our first eggs she will herself go out and kill insects and harvest the food to feed the larvae which will become infertile female workers.
The worker cast have the nest are what are most commonly encountered by people, then most females will readily understand this all of the worker bees if you will the worker Hornets in the nest are female. The worker casts of the nest or what are our
people will mostly encounter as they do most of the work outside of this while the Queen because she’s female, but she specializes in egg laying and she stays in Inside the nest. As winter approaches the queen will begin to lay eggs that and some of them can become new queens, as well as, excuse me male drones. Once the new queens and male drones mature. They will they will mate then after the mating season if you will, temperatures begin to draw and all of the nest inhabitants drones female workers, everybody with the exception of the newly fertilized Queens will die. And bald faced Hornets are classified as eusocial which means highly social wasps are highly social insects. Each colony is a family all descended from a single coin. The impregnated queen will hibernate over winter in a protected place. She will emerge in the spring, she will begin to build a nest and lay eggs for the entire colony. Scientists call these colonies of huge social insects super organisms. Due to the division of labor inside their colonies is very highly specialized. individual members of a bald faced Hornet colony cannot survive on their own. It takes effort of the entire colony collectively in order to reproduce itself. As I said earlier, aggressive nests defense makes these Wasp stinging threat. The foragers themselves do not collect sweets or food scraps and are not particularly aggressive when away from the nest. Like all other wolves bald faced Hornets do much that provide benefits to human and should not be indiscriminately destroyed. Another bit of folklore here back in the mid 1900s. Especially in the in the mountain areas of our country in North Georgia. It was common to Find the empty hornet’s nest hung up to the loft, you know of old timey mountain cabins. And the purpose of this was to bring good luck to everyone in the household, especially with regard to childbirth and reproduction.
So it’s predators these last they spend their days, hunting many types of insects and spiders to feed the larva and they’ll harvest nectar to feed themselves and the other adults. As Nick nectar eaters, they do play a role in pollinating plants. So
despite their you know, formidable defense capabilities, then they can become a food source for numerous numerous, larger predators. When spending time in a bald faced Hornet territory, it would be advisable to avoid wearing strong smelling fragrances to you should wear shoes that cover and protect your feet from Rogue Hornets hovering close to the ground. Bald faced hornet stings can carry venom that makes the sting hurt, itch and swell for about 24 hours. Humans are at about the same risk of allergic reactions from bald faced hornet stings. As with other stinging insects, as these can be highly aggressive insects. If you find the bald faced hornets nest on your property, and you want it removed or eliminated, you might be better served just by calling your local pest control company for help. At faith pest control, we offer a free consultation and a 100% make you happy money back guarantee. If you hire faith, pest control, get rid of your bug problem. Excuse me. And at the end of 30 days, you’re not 100% Happy, we’ll come back and retreat your home for free. And we’ll keep on trading it for free and to tell you tell us that you are happy. That still doesn’t make you happy. We’ll give you back every penny you spent on the original treatment. Plus, we’ll pay you an additional $25 for your time and trouble just for fooling with us. Bottom line. I want you to be happy with the service that we provide, or you won’t pay us a penny period. If you feel like what I’ve said makes sense. Please call fetes pest control today 770-823-9202 and asked to speak to me Fred tally. I’ll be more than happy to speak with you and answer any questions that you may have.
Well, Fred, that’s great information. Hey, if you’re in the north Georgia mountains in Jasper, Blue Ridge, Ellijay, Georgia, or anywhere in the north Georgia mountains and you have problems with bugs, just listen to this podcast over and over again and share it with your friends, so you’ll know what to do. And then of course, if you’re like me, and you just don’t want to deal with it, call Fred. Fred will take care of you and make sure you get the problem solved. We do this podcast as a community service for all the fine folks in Jasper, Georgia, Blue Ridge, Georgia, Ellijay, Georgia, and anywhere in the north Georgia mountains. You can get this podcast from our website, or you can get it from any of the fun podcast services like Apple, Google podcasts, Spotify, and Amazon. Even if you just ask your Alexa Hey, play the faith pest control podcast latest episode, it will start playing and you can listen right there on your speaker devices. So until next time, this is Mike Stewart for the faith pest control podcast.
Transcribed by https://otter.ai
