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Wasps & hornets

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Re: Wasps & hornets

Postby Pinch » 18 Apr 2017, 20:24

Mike G wrote:Just an aside...........hornets main prey is wasps. They are also very hard to raise to the the point of anger, so although they can be a bit intimidating, leave them alone, they're on our side!

I was once bitten on the bum, through trousers, by a wasp. Thing is, it was just after the bowler had released the ball, and it was in the last few overs of a big one day semi-final in front of thousands of people, and obviously I had keeping gloves on. There's sod all you can do in those circumstances other than grit your teeth......although the physio's cold spray provided some relief at the end of the over.


That's really unfortunate Mike and top marks for holding on - hope you won the match matey! :P
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Re: Wasps & hornets

Postby Woodbloke » 19 Apr 2017, 14:36

TrimTheKing wrote:
Woodbloke wrote:Be very afraid of Asian Hornets which now seem to be making an appearance in Europe. Up to twenty people each year are reportedly killed by these things in Japan - Rob


I read about these this time last year, and 12 months previous. Seems to be a bit of a scaremongering tactic by someone for some reason but from my investigations the purported size and the dangerousness of them all appears to be utter hogwash!

From what I can tell their stings are only marginally more powerful than a Euro hornet and almost all deaths attributed to them have been elderly and prior ill folk or people with allergies, same as would be vulnerable to a normal bee or wasp sting!

Smacks of another Daily Fail propaganda bullcrap story to me.

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Tell that to SWIMBO 'cos she was nearly munched by one when we were in Japan a few years ago. When you get stung by one of them, it releases a nasty niff which attracts all the others. The only thing you can do is run and find shelter indoors. Look yonder...https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=Asian ... 9&bih=1236

Nasty little buggers - Rob
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Re: Wasps & hornets

Postby TrimTheKing » 19 Apr 2017, 18:03

The stories I saw Rob showed them as about the size of a Jack Russell, which is where my comments came from. But the comments on the deaths stand as a Japanese 'expert' stated that almost all those death stats were as I wrote originally.

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Re: Wasps & hornets

Postby RogerS » 19 Apr 2017, 19:43

Perhaps we all need a tame pig on a lead? Bit like what the aristos used to sling in their beds at night before they got in. The pig attracting all the bedbugs and fleas.

And talking of flying things...found out another VGR (Very Good Reason) not to move. Midges. At the moment they are sort of vaguely around...we shall see. Jungle juice spray...I know where that is. For me to put on...not to spray.

We shouldn't really complain. After all, we're not living in Oz where some poor sod had his todger bitten twice by a spider.
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Re: Wasps & hornets

Postby Pinch » 19 Apr 2017, 19:48

Rob, all wasps have the trait of becoming more aggressive when close by to another one stinging. Even if you kill a wasp with other wasps close by, there's trouble ahead. They let off pheromones when either stinging or getting squashed, which riles their colleagues to the point of group attack. :twisted:
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Re: Wasps & hornets

Postby Pinch » 19 Apr 2017, 19:52

Good point Roger.

The one to really watch is us humans...

One of my mates had his nose bitten off by another human being! :shock:
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Re: Wasps & hornets

Postby Pinch » 23 Apr 2017, 15:35

Expanding foam comes in very handy for filling up gaps.

This should keep out the little blighters... :lol: :P
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Re: Wasps & hornets

Postby RogerS » 23 Apr 2017, 15:38

Bit unfair not to warn your mother-in-law first :lol:

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Re: Wasps & hornets

Postby selectortone » 23 Apr 2017, 17:40

The biggest threat Japanese wasps pose is to our native honey bees. A beehive is a larder full of food to a Japanese wasp and it's the bees themselves not the honey that they want. They butcher the bees, eat what they need and and carry the remaining bits back to feed the larvae in their own hives. Once a wasp has found a hive it will alert its mates and just a few dozen wasps can wipe out an entire hive.

Japanese honey bees have a tactic to combat this; when a wasp enter their hive they swarm around it in a tight ball of several hundred individuals and raise the temperature of the wasp and starve it of oxygen until it dies. Unfortunately European bees haven't learned this trick.

(You may have guessed by now I'm a bit of a fan of the humble bee - honey, bumble or otherwise... :D )
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Re: Wasps & hornets

Postby Rod » 24 Apr 2017, 10:06

Just been reading about the Spanish Slug which is very difficult to control and now over here munching our crops. Breeding with ours it's produced a Superslug resistant to our cold weather.

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Re: Wasps & hornets

Postby Malc2098 » 24 Apr 2017, 10:35

A couple of years ago, I had a square of 70 onion sets all grown to about 30 cm high. All were eaten from the top down by fat orange slugs.

Their breath must have smelt awful!
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