Sunday, August 28, 2011

[jules' pics] More dangerous than nuclear meltdowns...

The Hornets R Back!!! You will remember that, back in 2009, Japanese hornets (which kill about 40 people a year in Japan) were plentiful in our neighbourhood, and we tracked the source down to radical Buddhism at Zuisenji, our local temple...


Japanese hornet nest - closeup

All seemed quiet last year and we thought perhaps the monks had gassed the sleeping hornets over the winter. Perhaps the colony just died off. But they're back and they're setting up a shiny new home.

Japanese hornets nests

For those who don't remember what they look like, here's a massive hornet sucking on a medium sized camellia flower:

Beauty and the beast - Japanese Hornet


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Posted By jules to jules' pics at 8/28/2011 09:26:00 PM

5 comments:

EliRabett said...

Ah what you need is a natural products chemist who will come and take the nest in order to extract all the goodies. Eli had a friend complete with bee suit who made a living publishing on bees, wasps and moose but not bunnies.

He was well known locally, and got a call whenever a nest appeared. Of course, there may be religious objections in your case

William M. Connolley said...

Could we see a picture of one next to your hand? I'm not sure how big a Camellia flower is.

James Annan said...

Unfortunately, the buddhists are vegan, so no hornet sashimi for them!

Here's a pic I took earlier. :-)

David B. Benson said...

Our first grasshoppers of the year sawing away last night. Maybe not as noisy as cicadas, but still...

No hornets around here and the last wasps were seen maybe a decade ago.

amoeba said...

I met some Vespa velutina in France a few years ago and while a little scary, they aren't apparently anything like as aggressive as they are in Taiwan and Malaysia, where their reputation is about as bad as that of Japanese giant hornets.

It seems entirely possible that V. velutina will make it to the UK at some stage in the future.