Graham Workman column: hornets - The stuff of nightmares

Never seen a hornet locally until last week when we’ve had three turn up in the cottage! They look absolutely enormous in comparison to our much smaller wasp species. The hornet can be seen in a variety of habitats including woodland, grassland and urban areas. It is common in central and southern England and Wales, but populations are thought to be spreading further north. Hornets build nests in trees so it makes sense that we are in their range. I think that the hornets all which appear to be Queens see our back door open and like birds often do mistake it for an opportunity to build a nest in the dark spaces.

Now these hornets have a pretty painful sting and although a lot less aggressive than our wasp species. They will sting in response to being stepped on or grabbed, but usually avoids conflict and will turn the other cheek. It is also defensive of its nest and can be aggressive around food sources. Care should be taken when they are found in these circumstances, as they may sting without warning.

Now birds – no problem and we always either catch them or open doors and windows and they usually dash out without any fuss. Now hornets pose a scary situation and need a tad more thought being put into their capture and release (or not if Adele my wife gets to them first!!) So far two out of the three escaped (where shooed out by me!) alive. Sadly, they are a threatened species in all of Europe. European hornets benefit from legal protection in some countries, notably Germany, where killing a European hornet or nest has been illegal since January 1, 1987, with a fine up to €50,000.

Now here comes the scientific babble which explains the scary side of hornets! Social hymenopteran species (in ordinary speak, hornets and some wasps that live in ‘nests’) typically communicate with each other through behaviours or pheromones. In the European hornet, a typical alarm dance is performed outside of the nest and consists of consistent buzzing, darting in and out of the nest, and attacking or approaching the target of the alarm pheromone. The alarm pheromone is stored in, and secreted from, internal venom sacs. 2-Methyl-3-butene-2-ol is the main pheromone component that causes V. crabro to express this defensive behaviour. So basically this means if you attack their nest the whole nest will attack you – according to what I found whilst researching the species sting venom yield around twenty stings could bring on liver failure!! So I would recommend if you see a nest leave well alone. Unless the nest has a potential to cause harm to people live and let live. They feed on a host of insects some of which are no friends to people so another reason to leave them alone.