Gastro Gnome - Eat Better Wherever

Hornet’s nest display

I just collected one a few weeks ago but didn't take a photo. I'd previously located a different one when I cut down the honeylocust tree where the hive was hanging. They announced their presence by one flying down my shirt while others mobbed me, stinging me about 15 times. I was in a thicket with honeylocust thorns on the ground and all around. I dropped the saw and bounded out of the mess, luckily without driving a locust thorn through my foot. Then as I stood 50 yards away debating how to get my still running saw at the base of the hornet tree, a lone hornet left the nest at high speed, came directly at my head as I tried to dodge. It hit me right in the forehead, knocking me backwards onto the ground. They were mean! I managed to retrieve my saw without further incident and then left that nest till cold weather but some kind of critter got into it before freeze. But, I found another hornet nest hanging from a small limb over a creek on the same property. It's a beauty and I'm letting it sit in a dry and secure location till I get it ready for home decor.

I did a lot of chainsaw work this summer at our place and got mobbed by hornets on three occasions, stung multiple times on each encounter. I need to start checking trees before cutting! The first incident caused swelling and some pain, second incident not as bad, third incident my body hardly reacted and I was over it within a few minutes. I guess I built up immunity over the summer? A local old remedy for bee/wasp stings is to put wet chewing tobacco on the sting site. I've done it many times and it really seems to work but maybe it's imagination. We used to fight red wasps with sticks when I was young and so I've been stung too many times to remember.
 
I have three hornet nest. One in my cabin, one in my basement and one in my shop. I look for them every Fall when bow hunting. I found about a dozen this Fall but most were way too high in the trees to remove.
 
That looks nice set up like that.
I have got several over the years but never thought about a display like that... my luck would be to get it down during winter and get it in the house and realize it was still a active nest lol. Those things apparently bring big money online.
 
Tried to bring one in the house once when I was a kid, my uncle suggested to my mom I make sure they were all dead not just dormant. I assured her they were.

Turns out he was right, good thing my bedroom was f*cking freezing as a kid, those little buggers manages to awaken from their slumber and were crawling out of that thing all over the floor. Last time I tried to bring a nest home.
 
I just collected one a few weeks ago but didn't take a photo. I'd previously located a different one when I cut down the honeylocust tree where the hive was hanging. They announced their presence by one flying down my shirt while others mobbed me, stinging me about 15 times. I was in a thicket with honeylocust thorns on the ground and all around. I dropped the saw and bounded out of the mess, luckily without driving a locust thorn through my foot. Then as I stood 50 yards away debating how to get my still running saw at the base of the hornet tree, a lone hornet left the nest at high speed, came directly at my head as I tried to dodge. It hit me right in the forehead, knocking me backwards onto the ground. They were mean! I managed to retrieve my saw without further incident and then left that nest till cold weather but some kind of critter got into it before freeze. But, I found another hornet nest hanging from a small limb over a creek on the same property. It's a beauty and I'm letting it sit in a dry and secure location till I get it ready for home decor.

I did a lot of chainsaw work this summer at our place and got mobbed by hornets on three occasions, stung multiple times on each encounter. I need to start checking trees before cutting! The first incident caused swelling and some pain, second incident not as bad, third incident my body hardly reacted and I was over it within a few minutes. I guess I built up immunity over the summer? A local old remedy for bee/wasp stings is to put wet chewing tobacco on the sting site. I've done it many times and it really seems to work but maybe it's imagination. We used to fight red wasps with sticks when I was young and so I've been stung too many times to remember.
That apparent immunity can turn right into anaphalaxis (did I spell it right) which will kill you drt. Talk to your doc - getting hit that many times may warrant carrying epi-pens (one often is not enough alone). Seriously, check with your doc.

I hate hornets.

David
NM
 
That apparent immunity can turn right into anaphalaxis (did I spell it right) which will kill you drt. Talk to your doc - getting hit that many times may warrant carrying epi-pens (one often is not enough alone). Seriously, check with your doc.

I hate hornets.

David
NM
That is true. Always good to have epi-pens and benadryl.

We had a larger active hornet's nest too high for us to climb. We checked with with a pest removal service; they said $1200. Called our tree guys and they said, nah, dude, it takes like 10 minutes, we trim your trees, we'd be embarrassed to charge you. So kudos to @Dsnow9 and all the other arborists out there.
 
Did you fumigate it?

Dormant hornets coming awake in the home................LOL.

Dealt with those suckers most of my life. Stung a few times. Had to carry epi's in the Park trucks.
Meat bees were the worst.

Moved here and no meat bees and the wasps and hornets leave you alone for the most part.
I bee nice to the Tarantula Hawks. Most painful sting of any wasp,they say.
Have velvet ants too.....most painful ant sting,again,they say.
Don't plan on testing either theory.
 
This past summer the hornet battle was on! Love those ZAP rackets! Hammered the hives. Hammered some more. Hammer on! They kept coming, I kept slaying. I got a lot of other stuff to do, but hornets are going down. Did not save ANY trophies, did destroy a number of those hives.
 
I cut one down once to try and incorporate it into a bear mount. On the way home my daughter says "daddy why are there big black flies coming out of it?"

I hit the skids so fast on the highway and chucked that SOB out the window so damn fast and my wife looks at me and says. Well, that was your chance for something like that to come into the house. I haven't cut one down since. They are pretty damn cool though and an impressive build produced by mother nature.
 
I rolled up on a large nest one day in my van. I have 2 of my son's in the van and the nest was windshield high. I had the nest touching the windshield and turned on the wipers. Told the boys , these bees will hurt you !
 
My buddy cut one of those down on a fall archery elk hunt years ago. It was a below freezing morning. Appeared vacant. On his way home he had it in the cab of his pickup and the dang thing started coming alive. Hornets everywhere. It didn't make it to his home. 🤣
 
Every time I find on that I can reach, by the time it gets cold enough to get rid of the bees, it has either been torn apart by bears or ruined by rain.

This was a really nice one that I wanted to get but a week after I took this picture it was already torn apart by a bear.

BF NEST 2.JPG
 
Yeti GOBOX Collection

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