i saw something that looked like a wasp

[hotpink]

but it was huge!! someone said it was a hornet, but i've looked on google images and they all look small compared to this beast i saw! it looked like a wasp, but it was at least the size of my index finger, and it seemed to have a long black stinger. what is it?

[China Doll]

It does sound like a hornet. There's different types I think.

This like it....

http://www.kendall-bioresearch.co.uk/wasp.htm

For the record... just getting that link for you has brought goose bumps up on my arm shudder

[Lonnie]

Might also have been a Hornet Moth, very rare in this country, but I had one in my Garden a couple of years ago.

http://www.muenster.org/hornissenschutz/hornet _moth.htm

[quizbabe]

I caught a hornet once and it was the size of my little finger yellow and brown striped (not black like a wasp). Hummed like a wasp only louder.

[lugus]

Sounds like a wood wasp. Very big, very scary and totally harmless. The 'stinger' is an ovipositor for laying eggs under tree bark.

[Cetti]

Have a look at this recent post hotpink, as it sounds like it could be the same looks- ferocious-but-harmless Giant Horntail:

http://www.theanswerbank.co.uk/Animals-and-Nat ure/Question438264.html

[taperface]

Hotpink - Oh dear! Your post made me dither, but I'm sure you'll find out what your huge wasp really was. Just for the book - I went on a Derbyshire holiday last year. The place was beautiful...until we realised that the house was surrounded by woodland, whereupon hundreds of giant wasps had decided to make their nests. It was a nightmare getting out of the house, as swarms of the things settled on the glass and the windows. I assume they would've given a very painful sting - but didn't hang around to find out!