everal days. I once received a single sting from a large hornet in Mexico. The initial pain was much worse than that of a honeybee and within less than one minute I had such a severe headache that I could not stand up for several minutes.
Bald Face Hornet-Dolichovespula maculata. This is a North American insect commonly called the bald-faced hornet (or white-faced hornet or white-tailed hornet). Its well-known features include its hanging paper nests and the females' habit of defending them with repeated stings.
Bald Face Hornet. Image Courtesy of PiccoloNamek.
It belongs to a genus of wasps called yellow jackets in North America, but is not called that because it lacks yellow coloring. Instead, it is called a hornet in the American sense of a wasp that builds paper nests, especially one of the subfamily Vespinae. It is not a "true hornet" in the British sense, that is, a member of the genus Vespa in the same subfamily, such as the Asian giant hornet or the European hornet.
The bald-faced hornet lives throughout North America, including southern Canada, the Rocky Mountains, the western coast of the United States, and most of the eastern US. They are most common in the southeastern United States. They are best known for their large football-shaped paper nest, which they build in the spring for raising their young. These nests can sometimes reach 3 feet tall. Like the median wasp (Dolichovespula media) in Europe, bald-faced hornets are extremely protective of their nests and will sting repeatedly if disturbed.
Every year, queens that were born and fertilized at the end of the previous season begin a new colony. The queen selects a location for its nest, begins building it, lays a first batch of eggs and feeds this first group of larvae. These become workers and will assume the chore of expanding the nest — done by chewing up wood which is mixed with a starch in their saliva. This mixture is then spread with their mandibles and legs, drying into the paper-like substance that makes up the nest. The workers also guard the nest and feed on nectar, tree sap and fruit pulp. They also capture insects and arthropods, which are chewed up to be fed to the larvae. This continues through summer and into fall. Near the end of summer, or early in the fall, the queen begins to lay eggs which will become drones and new queens. After pupation, these fertile males and females will mate, setting up next year's cycle of growth.
Remains of Bald Faced Hornet Nest. Image Courtesy of Makuabob.
As winter approaches, the wasps die — except any just-fertilized queens. These hibernate underground, on hollow trees until spring or other protected locations. The nest itself is generally abandoned by winter, and will most likely not be reused. When spring arrives, the young queens emerge and the cycle begins again.
Bald-faced hornets visit flowers for nectar, especially in late summer, and can be minor pollinators.
Like other social wasps, bald-faced hornets have a caste system made up, in one nest, of the following: Queen — the fertile female which starts the colony and lays eggs; Workers — infertile females which do all work except laying eggs; Drones — males, which have no stingers, and are born from unfertilized eggs; New queens — fertile females, each of which, once fertilized, may start its own nest in the spring.
Bald-face hornets will sting repeatedly if disturbed. Like other stinging wasps, they can sting repeatedly because the stinger does not become stuck in the skin. Some suggest putting baking soda or meat tenderizer on the area of the sting, but others say such treatments do not work.
European Hornet-Vespa crabro. This species is commonly known simply as the "hornet", is the largest European true social wasp. The queen measures 21–1.4 inches long; males and workers are smaller. The antennae have 13 segments, while in females there are only 12
This species is not particularly aggressive except when defending the nest, and care must be taken when in its proximity, as the stings are quite painful. As with most stinging insects, European hornet