Wildlife Autumn 2007 (spring wildlife Down Under)

[Carlo]

Just as well. You wouldn't want a (cow) pat on your back anyway--you'd wind up taking those beetles home with you...

[Rob]

Some more hornet pictures. I found a nest in the local woods and having read here that they are docile I crept to within a few metres of the nest.

Unfortunately it was on the shady side of the tree trunk and there were loads of overhead branches so there wasn't enough light to get decent photos

[mark smyth]

very brave, Rob!! I dont think we have Hornets over here

[Rob]

The hornets nest is in a local country park with full time rangers.

A lot of school trips go there and the nest was only about 30M from the path, so I thought the rangers would have exterminated the nest if they attack people.

Having said that, they are still scary so I didn't want to disturb them too much!

[Maggi Young]

I don't think I'd have taken the risk that they WERE docile, Rob. Super to see how beautifully the nest fits in with its surroundings.  Glad you're here to show and tell, though!

[Lesley Cox]

I always understood that bee stings could be bad, wasps much worse and hornet stings could kill, at least in susceptible people. You wouldn't get me near a nest for love nor money. I saw a hornet once years ago in Queensland, Australia. I thought it was a helicopter!

[Anthony Darby]

No hornets up here either. I think if the rangers exterminated a nest in a country park they would quite rightly get their 'jotters'! These insects are rare, especially in the midlands.

[Martin Baxendale]

Hornets are quite common in Slovakia where my wife Ivi comes from. I saw a small swarm in her parents' house one night - just found them buzzing around the landing - and they scared the pooh out of me (even wasps freak me out after a childhood encounter with a wasp nest - bike? - which involved me being stung on the bum amongst other places!).

Many people kill them on sight in Slovakia 'cos they say hornet stings can kill - especially children and especially multiple stings. Ivi's mum chased them out the window with a newspaper.

Don 't know if they were a different sub-species to English hornets, but they were massive - never seen anything like that in Engla nd.

[Anthony Darby]

Hornet stings, I have it on good authority, are 'surprisingly mild'; no worse than a wasp sting and while it may be more painful than a bee, the volume of poison released is less. See http://www.vespa-crabro.de/hornets.htm

[Rob]

It's good to know that their stings are surprisingly mild.

Usually when bees swarm are they less aggressive because they haven't got a home to defend, so maybe it was safe to chase the Slovakian hornets out of the window with a newspaper.

One last picture as the one at the bottom looks to be staring at the camera.

[Paul T]

The volume may be lower but if more people are allergic to the hornet sting than bee sting it would lead to more deaths.  That's just a possible explanation as to why they are known for killing?  I have no idea as to reality, but that WOULD explain it.

Apparently one of the most dangerous insects is the Jumping Jack ant from Tasmania.  It is one of the few ants that will chase attackers, rather than running around until it finds them.  They can jump up to 15cm repeatedly so they can cover ground quite quickly.  The sting isn't that poisonous but there are a lot of people who are seriously allergic to it, so it kills more people than most insects  I am not sure whether these figures are "number of people" or "number of people in relation to amount of people stung".  I saw a documentary at one point on the 10 top insect killers and they were at the top.  Interestingly a week later I found a nest of them, so they are obviously here on the mainland as well.  They were identical to the pictures and they definitely jumped, and unlike any ant I have ever seen prior to that they came out of the nest hole and stood and "looked" around them then headed straight in my direction.  Never seen an ant that looked at the big picture like that before, the obviously recognised me as the problem and ran/jumped straight towards me.  Quite freaky.  I left rather quickly and disposed of the nest shortly thereafter.  I would never have believed what I had seen except that I'd seen that TV show.    Just such a coincidence seeing them so soon after it, and never having seen them in the years before or since.  Theyir jumping and behaviour was just SO distinctive.  If it wasn't them then it was something closely related, and given my various allergies I was not taking a chance and finding out whether I was allergic to them or not!! 

[Anthony Darby]

I think allergies really negate the 'dangerous' argument. You could say that a hornet is no more dangerous than a peanut....to some people. A butterfly could be lethal - if it got stuck in your throat and you choked on it.

[Paul T]

OK, if every single person in the world was allergic to peanuts, wouldn't you say that peanuts were dangerous?    If a reasonable number of people are allergic to Hornets (and as I said, this is a hypothesis as to why they could be regarded as dangerous if their sting is mild) then I think you'd be classifying them as dangerous.... at least until you'd been stung by one and knew that YOU weren't one of those allergic to them!! 

[Anthony Darby]

The Horntail (Urocerus gigas) is regarded as dangerous and hawkmoth caterpillars too, because of their appearance (they both have great big horns at their rear), and unless you dance the tarantella you will die from a tarantula bite. All myths I'm afraid and the first two don't sting and a true tarantula  bite is painful (ditto for the great big bird-eaters - I've been bitten three times) but harmless. You are more likely to suffer from tetanus. I'm allergic to hairy caterpillars but they aren't dangerous either. It is people's perception and the insect's deception. I'm you want dangerous, go for certain snakes or funnel-web or brown recluse spiders or box jellies. Some of these will make the flesh drop off your arm, always assuming you survive that long. I certainly haven't met anyone who died from a hornet sting.

[annew]

Well, you wouldn't have if they died would you?