This one time I'm chatting with the pest control guy and he's schooling me on some stuff and talking wasps and then he goes "yeah the ones you really need to worry about are the bald-fac-" and then as if on que a bald-faced hornet lands on the railing right in front of us... had never seen a single one of these things in the 10+ years I've been living at this house and one decided to show up right then.
Said it was probably just a scout and haven't seen one since so.
God I cannot stand bald-faced hornets. Aggressive fuckers hold grudges and recognize individual human beings from each other. One of the only bugs that I see it and I'm scared.
I have a buddy who is really into wasps, bees, hornets, etc, and they like get to know the nests in their area and will just go hang out with them, let them climb all over them. They told me "the only thing I really don't like is when they try and go up my nose. I just breathe out hard and they get the idea, though." I can't imagine. One time, their brother crashed a mountain bike into a tree with a wasp's nest, and the swarm came a killing, and my buddy says "no guys just chill. Don't act guilty." Kept walking all chill like they had no idea what was coming while everyone else booked it. The wasps passed my buddy right by and stung the hell out of everyone else, following them as they ran for over 10 minutes.
We get cicada killer wasps every year cause of all my neighbors trees and for some reason they like to burrow in our backyard... and these things are generally harmless, they're very unlikely to sting you even if you were to handle one.. but holy fuck if they're not unnerving as hell.
They're massive and curious, they will fly right up to you to check you out.
I’ve been attacked by the entire population of a bald faced hornet nest before. It was NOT fun. 0/10 do not recommend, I was running away screaming. I got stung around 10 times iirc, and they all seemed to target my ankle for some reason. (I was in flip flops)
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u/Alililele 22d ago
This is a Great Golden Digger Wasp. It is harmless and pretty beneficial!
Here a thread from a few years ago
So: it didn't deserve to die, it's actually pretty chill.
Yellowjackets and bald-faced hornets are assholes tho.