Seriously.....are hornets good for ANYthing?

CarolynRenee · #1 10/30/08, 03:34 PM

Ok, I know they are good for making one run around the yard like a crazed maniac, swatting at apparantely invisible attackers and trying to squash the occasional bugger that flies up your shorts....but seriously...

are they good for ANYTHING? I know that a lot of wasps are good polinators, so I usually leave them be (unless they decide to make a nest under the porch), but do hornets polinate stuff? Eat other "bad" insects? Provide food for some other "good" insect? Provide a voting base for a third party candidate?

I try to go by "live & let live", but if I cannot come up with some sort of redeeming quality I'm gon'na hunt them down, drown 'em with diesel & have a big ole bonfire (and probably get stung while attempting it, but it should make me feel a little better knowing I was able to put an end to some of the little buggers).

TexasArtist · #2 10/30/08, 03:39 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by rose2005

Had one go up my skirt when I had company the other day. It stung me and I had to be brave about it and not rip off my clothes in front of everyone.

Rose

Ohhhhh good enough for a deer but not for company huuuuuh

OOOOOWWW why'd you kick me??!?

TexasArtist · #3 10/30/08, 03:40 PM

I've seen one attack and kill a spider then take off with it. I assume for food (take out!)

Bonnie L · #4 10/30/08, 03:51 PM

Don't they eat dead animals?
Rose - I know how you felt. I had that happen to me a community bbq - made me wonder for the first time in years if pants might be better than skirts!

agmantoo · #5 10/30/08, 05:38 PM

Those small black hornets that make the paper nest on tree limbs eat flies. I never destroy one of those.

jasper · #6 10/30/08, 05:39 PM

i think the only thing they are good for is wasp spray sales

Danaus29 · #7 10/30/08, 07:28 PM

Wasps and hornets eat caterpillars or spiders, depending on the species. Then you have the Cicadia killers which eat Cicadias and a small number are pollinators.

longshadowfarms · #8 10/30/08, 08:03 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Danaus29

Wasps and hornets eat caterpillars or spiders, depending on the species. Then you have the Cicadia killers which eat Cicadias and a small number are pollinators.

Bah, humbug! I HATE hornets! They feel like you've been whacked with a baseball bat! And for the record, I have stripped at least twice due to hornets

though fortunately there weren't many people around for the pants and only DH for the shirt.

**Terri** · #9 10/30/08, 09:41 PM

They prey on catterpillars.

Windy_jem · #10 10/31/08, 12:06 AM

I'm deathly allergic to them, I kill them all!

Quint · #11 10/31/08, 05:06 AM

I hate them all. A month or two ago I got the ever loving scrap stung out of me by wasps. I was lucky they weren't yellow jackets or I would have been either dead or in the emergency room. I'm fairly allergic to them and a bunch of stings from yellow jackets would probably kill me.

I'm plagued by wasps around here. Always have been. I'm constantly having to clean nests from the eaves and overhangs. Not a pleasant job for me either as I'm an absolute coward when it comes to bees and wasps. Screaming like a 6 year old girl and running away level of coward. I'd rather wrestle a wolverine buck naked than deal with a wasp in the house.

Madame · #12 10/31/08, 08:23 AM

They don't bother me. I've never been stung in my life.

LFmenagerie · #13 10/31/08, 09:57 AM

I’m not particularly fond of them, especially when they nest on the house, garage, or barn, but they are good scavengers and insect predators.
Quint - if you just kill the nest and leave it up, the others won’t come back to build a new one. They are deterred by nests of their own species.
Tom

hunter63 · #14 10/31/08, 10:14 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by TexasArtist

I've seen one attack and kill a spider then take off with it. I assume for food (take out!)

That's intresting, as I had a large spider, web along side and behind a gutter down spout.
As I was building a deck in that spot at the time, I was being bothered by "yellow jackets" (the small, nasty, hunt you down and sting you, for no good reason, kind).

I watched one get caught in the web and the spider came out and wrapped it up, did the "inject the juice, and save for later, trick".

I spent the summer feeding the spider, I would swat the YJ, but just wound him, so he could still move,(spider wouldn't come out for a dead one) then pick him up and "into the web he goes".
She got pretty big, and I had to wash off the spider "drippings" in the fall" on the siding.

Also had a wasp pull a cabbage worm out of a hole on a head of cabbage,
was also kind of intresting.

I generally leave them alone as long as they leave me alone, if they don't, I don't have a problem using the nastiest chemicals I can find.

Paul Wheaton · #15 10/31/08, 11:16 AM

I once lived on a farm that was surrounded on three sides by a thousand acres of forest land. About every other year we were swarmed by yellow jackets. A square foot of ground would have about 50 yellow jackets hovering about an inch off the ground. It was like something from a horror movie. I should have taken some video.

I trained the chickens to eat them, and then I started to build contraptions to catch them and dry them so I could feed yellow jacket jerkey to my chickens over the winter.

It turns out that the yellow jackets were put there intentionally. I was told that the they would kill some kind of bug that was eating at the trees. So the companies that owned all that forest land was somehow bringing yellow jackets in. Interesting.

TexasArtist · #16 10/31/08, 12:10 PM

wow, so I'm guessing it works both ways. Sometimes the spider wins, sometimes it's the wasps that wins. LET THE BATTLLLLLE BEGIN!

Quote:

Originally Posted by hunter63

That's intresting, as I had a large spider, web along side and behind a gutter down spout.
As I was building a deck in that spot at the time, I was being bothered by "yellow jackets" (the small, nasty, hunt you down and sting you, for no good reason, kind).

I watched one get caught in the web and the spider came out and wrapped it up, did the "inject the juice, and save for later, trick".
:

hunter63 · #17 10/31/08, 12:33 PM

TA, LOL I guess your right.

Down side was when my daughter's frind ask me what I was doing, so I showed her my "swat a YJ, toss him into the web, watch the spider get it" trick.
She just said, "EWWWWWWWW" and told my daughter that I was weird.

But you do see some really strange stuff if you can just take a little time and pay attention.

TexasArtist · #18 10/31/08, 01:00 PM

Why didn't you just tell her "hey do you know how much good entertainment like this would cost on t.v.............scuse me while I go call the discover channel I might have a series going and don't even know it!!"

Quote:

Originally Posted by hunter63

TA, LOL I guess your right.

Down side was when my daughter's frind ask me what I was doing, so I showed her my "swat a YJ, toss him into the web, watch the spider get it" trick.
She just said, "EWWWWWWWW" and told my daughter that I was weird.

But you do see some really strange stuff if you can just take a little time and pay attention.

Junkman · #19 10/31/08, 06:06 PM

The last 2 years we got an influx of almost 2" yellow sand hornets. They drilled under our steps and in DW's rocks in the rock garden. Nasty buggers! And, they do sting. They would chase you into the house. Once they went into a hole we would throw Sevin dust in and never saw them come out. We saw very few honey bees this year. Mostly bumble bees and regular hornets. Years ago my Father was driving from work with his arm on the window and a bee went up his shirt and down his coveralls. Luckily he was near a relative's home and ran in. After being stung a few times in various places.

mezzogirl · #20 10/31/08, 08:46 PM

They taught me how to run really fast. I am not friends with the hornets....