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Lodgers...

Steve Maskery

Steve Maskery

Old Oak
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Can anyone identify my lodgers? If they leave me alone, I'm happy to leave them alone, but having been stung by a frelon (worst pain since kidney stones, my hand still itches 3 weeks later) I don't want to go gung ho in removing them. It's actually quite a beautiful structure.
S
nest (Medium).jpg
 
Steve Maskery said:
Well there is a lot of publicity about Asian Hornets here but these appear to be totally black. The beastie that stung me was black and yellow and about the size of a nuclear submarine.
S
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Definitely French, then. The Brit Vanguard subs can’t deploy because their Alpha escorts aren’t seaworthy right now.

Hang on….. perhaps if we were to breed wasp colonies and lob them into Russia instead of proper munitions….. I’ll just be a minute or two phoning Wes Streeting.
 
Id be interested in what the authorities do
Over here ,rather than destroy it,they leave it to research the location of the previous and subsequent colonies,which while useful in the long run it's not helping to those on the receiving end right now.
 
Mairie may arrange for someone like this to come around with a long pole, a hand pump and some white powder which he told me was a natural plant extract (I forget which one).

IMG_5055.jpeg
 
I think one of the destruction issues, (given that these things are very bad for bee colonies) is to destroy the nest when most or all of the hornets are in it. During the day, many of them will be foraging. Same as for wasp nests really.
 
I went to the Mairie today. The lady pointed me to a poster on the wall which said STOP FRELONS, plus a phone number. The upshot is that a man is coming tomorrow morning to deal with it and I shall be €100 poorer. Apparently that is a bargain, an acquaintance of ours paid €160 just last week.
S
 
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AJB Temple said:
I think one of the destruction issues, (given that these things are very bad for bee colonies) is to destroy the nest when most or all of the hornets are in it. During the day, many of them will be foraging. Same as for wasp nests really.
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If it is the same white powder that is used here, then it doesn't really matter. The powder will be transported deeper into the colony by the animals themselves when they return and will "infect" the rest of the colony quite effectively. In my experience it will take one or two days before all the inhabitants of the colony will be dead.
 
Steve Maskery said:
I went to the Mairie today. The lady pointed me to a poster on the wall which said STOP FRELONS, plus a phone number. The upshot is that a man is coming tomorrow morning to deal with it and I shall be €100 poorer. Apparently that is a bargain, an acquaintance of ours paid €160 just last week.
S
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Doesn’t sound too bad to me Steve, I certainly wouldn’t want to be in close proximity to these damn things on a regular basis. Anyway you’re doing the right thing and definitely better off without them.
Ian
 
The frelon-busters, a young couple, have been and gone. They were here about half an hour, tops.

She donned the gear while he stood and watched her go in. When the hornets began to get a bit miffed he ran off altogether.

But job done, he said that if any are still around in a couple of weeks, he'll come back again, no extra charge.

His English was as good as my French, so there was no problem communicating, lots of Franglais.

Bonus - having quoted me €100, he charged me 90. I'm happy.
S
 
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