wasps

[pdust]

there was a wasp in my bedroom earlier, it was the biggest wasp ive ever seen in my life, it was massive! I was crapping myself it would sting me as i tried to get it out the window cos i could see its stinger from over the other side of the room lol


anyway what i wanna know is....is it likely to be a lone giant or could there be more of em? And why is it so blooming big when its the first nice day we've had for ages, i thought the cold would have killed them off or something. Anyway I fancied a walk in the woods and they are usually bigger there than they are near the houses and i read and watch wayyyy to much horror stuff and i darent go now.....just in case... well you never know....

[jomifl]

Sorry to be a spoilsport with all this excitement, but hornets are really quite docile, OK they are big and they can sting but why would they want to sting you? We have lots of hornets around our fig tree in the summer but they have never been any trouble. My 'party' trick is to pick up bees wasps and hornets and let them walk on my hand, never been stung doing this as they don't perceive me as a threat. Hornets have a red patch on the back of their abdomen (the middle section of their body). If no red patch then at this time of the year it will be a queen wasp, later on it may be an asiatic wasp. he easiest way to put them out of the house is to put a cloth such as a duster or hanky over them then fold them up in it. Then simply open a window or door and unfold it, they will be glad to escape. Just get over your irrational fear of buzzy things and life will be easier. Mozzies are worse they are sneaky.

[FredPuli43]

Think not a wasp or hornet, because you could see its 'stinger' from the other side of the room. The 'wood wasp' is an insect which is coloured like a wasp, and resembles one, but it's big and harmless. What looks like a long stinger is, in fact, its ovipositor, the long tube used for laying its eggs under the bark of trees.

[jomifl]

By the way if you attack them with a rolled up newspaper they will be within their rights to sting you and you will deserve it. They are god's creatures they have their place (perhaps not in your bedroom though:-)

[chaptazbru]

I have every right to be scared as I have been stung several times without any provocation at all, apart from when I knocked one off my dog and it stung me instead ! Some people are allergic to their stings and they can cause problems.

[ladybirder]

My two least favourite things, mozzies and wasps, because one causes swelling, itching and a bad reaction and the other stings like crazy.
And rsvp, nice to see you again, you've been missed.

[pdust]

thanks gness lol...... well i may not remember the instructions entirely especially the technical bits but i wont forget the last bit ;)

[pdust]

thanks for that jom..... ive always seen hornets as docile, til today that is ... ive no idea why they would wanna sting me but its happened before with a wasp for no reason so it could happen again.... i dont have an irrational fear of buzzy things because like you i can pick up bees and have them in my hand no problem, its spiders that i have a stupid fear of..... also i dont attack them with rolled up newspaper.... my aim isnt that good... but you can chase them out by waffing the air near them....


hi fred.... i may have exaggerated the stinger a little..... but whatever it was im glad its gone... and thanks, theres lots of open countryside nearby so it could be something like that

[lilacben]

I live in somerset and we have had some really huge wasps in this year.!

[sunny-dave]

I like spiders !! They are the good guys of the insect/arachnid world (along with bees of course).

Wasps are a different matter - evil things - any that make the mistake of coming indoors here never leave again ...

[seadogg]

We use a drinking glass and stiff paper or thin card. Put the glass over the wasp, slide the card under the glass and carry outside. Our conservatory is death to wasps as it has a pitched roof and they have never done me any harm. Usually they are more of a problem at the end of summer.

[needawin]

It is a woodwasp. I don't know if they are harmless or not but agree they are scary.

[pdust]

aww you dont splat them do you dave? they make a right mess

i would have done that if it had been sat somewhere seadogg but it was flying :(

[pdust]

i just googled needawin and they are really scary looking... dont think it was one of those :s

[China Doll]

What's that rhyme, 'black and yella is a friendly fella but yellow and black means stay well back' or some such thing... did you happen to notice the patten of the stripes? ;oP I'm petrified of wasps. Actually I'm petrified of pretty much anything which has more than four legs... irrational I know but I guess that's why it's called a phobia!

[RATTER15]

Like jomifl said, hornets really are gentle giants, they rarely sting but as FredPuli43 said What looks like a long stinger is, in fact, the ovipositor, of a wood wasp, the long tube used for laying its eggs under the bark of trees.

[pdust]

i love bees china, they are really unafraid of people and crawl around on your hands quite happily :) im not bothered by jimmy long legs either, its just spiders, must be the 8 legs cos jimmies only have 6.

im totally unsure what it was ratter, im just glad it buggered off without getting me lol

[FredPuli43]

Thanks, needawin. I repeat, it is a wood wasp. The insect is also known as the horntail. It is a sawfly, and has nothing to do with the wasp or the wasp family, or bees, come to that. What wasp has a long "stinger", such that you'd notice it from a distance?. The horntail has no sting at all but is about twice the size of the ordinary, and real, wasp and bears a resemblance to a wasp. The horntail name comes from it's pointed abdomen, the 'wasp' one from it looking like a wasp. Goodness knows how many get swatted by people who think it is a hornet (a placid beast itself, you do well, or badly, if you can contrive to get one to sting you) or a wasp. It is probably out looking for a nice tree when it wanders into a house !

[FredPuli43]

By the way, I notice that the woods are near the houses. Now, there's a coincidence! The giant wood, so called, 'wasp' or horntail is pretty big

[pdust]

it wasnt a wood wasp ive googled ..it was just a big wasp.... check back and you will see i said i exaggerated the sting... i also did a lol on the OP when i said it...you cannot sit there and state as fact what it was when you didnt see it.... i have never seen those wood wasps until i googled...

[Kiki-frog]

pdust, although I've been stung by a hornet and it was horrible, to back up what someone else said, they don't seem naturally aggressive. I've one that comes into my office every day during the summer months, flies along the bookshelf as if checking out all the titles, then flies out again. He never shows any interest in me at all. We call him Harry the Literary Hornet. (Probably not the same hornet each time, but I like to think so!)