Does anyone know whether Hornets Nests become dormant (no living hornets or larvea or small hornets in the winter time? We have a very large one on our place that we would like to get down and preserve and use as a decoration. Please give any advice you might have on the subject Thanks

-- C B Anderson (wande333@earthlink.net), July 16, 2001

Answers

Response to Hornets nest

Wanda, when I was in the 4th grade, we cut down a hornets' nest to take for show & tell in the winter time. As the temperature rose in the car, hornets started crawling out of the nest. Needless to say, the nest did not complete the journey!

-- J C Vaughan (whileaway3@cs.com), July 16, 2001.

Response to Hornets nest

We had a huge one on our property from last year. We watched it this spring and saw no action so we took it down and stored it in the garage until we were sure it was empty. Seems like they put in an awful lot of work for just one year, though!

-- Elizabeth (Lividia66@aol.com), July 16, 2001.

Response to Hornets nest

You need to wait until after the first frost to collect your hornet's nest. In the fall, new queens and male hornets are born. The queens mate and leave the nest to hibernate in a protected place. The first frost kills the remaining males and workers. It might be good idea to wait for a good hard freeze before bringing a nest indoors.

Many of the queens will not make it through the winter, but those who do will begin new nests in the spring. Having mated the previous fall, they will lay their eggs in the small nest they begin by themselves. The first batch of workers to hatch will finish the nest.

This is probably more than you wanted to know. Important thing is you that you wait until it is sufficiently cold to kill the last of the males and workers before collecting a nest. Even then, you could let it winter in a barn and protect it from rats and other vermin.

-- Jim (catchthesun@yahoo.com), July 16, 2001.

Response to Hornets nest

CB, if I am going to save a nest I wait till night, really dark, slip up to the nest and stuff a small cloth in the hole. Slip a plastic bag over the whole thing and put it in the freezer. Then you KNOW everything in there is dead. Quite a few people do collect the hornets themselves and would like to have them. They are used for making antivenin for people with allergic reactions to stings. JUst had to remove a nice hornets next from my duck house. Hope this helps.

-- Little Quacker (carouselxing@juno.com), July 16, 2001.

Response to Hornets nest

I'm not trusting! -G- I squirt the nest with wasp/hornet killer spray. The can sprays 22 feet away, so I'm safe.

-- ~Rogo (rogo2020@yahoo.com), July 17, 2001.

Response to Hornets nest

In my experience, 22' is not far enough away from a nest full of angry hornets, even if they are half dead and dying. You wouldn't get me anywhere near a hornet's nest unless its the dead of winter and a hard freeze, then I'd bag it as quickly as possible and do what someone else suggested, put it in the deep freeze for a good long while to make sure they're all dead.

They say "madder 'n a hornet" for a reason ...

-- Sojourner (notime4@summer.spam), July 17, 2001.