A funny thing has happened. Each and every time we look into the life of an insect we find on the farm we are surprised. In the case of this nest it houses the bald faced hornet, a hornet with a black body and white face and tail. Almost an inch long when flying around, one flying past will stop you and get your heart racing.
And it turns out they pollinate a little, but mostly eat other insects: yellow jackets, filth flies and blow flies.
I can't identify flies. But we have plenty and actually prefer the bald faced hornet to the flies...as livestock farmers, the fewer the flies the better!
So the nest will stay here. And we will keep a respectful distance. This photo was taken from inside the truck, windows up, air conditioning on, heart pounding.
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I commend you! Heart pounding is sure correct! Hornets and yellow jackets require great respect (and distance) - but you're absolutely right about their usefulness in eating other insects. It takes a lot of courage to let them do their thing, though.
ReplyDeletethankfully it is in an out of the way spot that we will happily avoid!
DeleteI wish we could have taken the same approach. Unfortunately, the giant nest we discovered is on the eaves of our house and they have decided that dive-bombing us in the yard is much more fun than leaving us alone.
ReplyDeleteIf that nest was located in the eaves of the house it would be a different story here!
DeleteIt's on the second story and had grown to a humungous size by the time we noticed it, so we initially had hopes of living and let live. The hornets had other ideas. Nobody got stung, but there were a few mad dashes to the house.
DeleteSo glad no one was stung! Something got me the other day while I was picking beans, not a bit of fun in that!
DeleteI'm jealous. Of the beans, not the sting. :) I never got my beans in this year. Life unfortunately got in the way.
ReplyDeletebeans, once established, really do feel like Jack and the Beanstalk!
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