European hornet or Cicada Killer or something else?
Location: Central NJ
August 24, 2011 12:47 pm
We’d love to know if these guys are European Hornets, Cicada Killers or something else.
We have a lot of them in and around our house in Cental NJ during July and August.
Thanks.
Signature: Erik
Dear Erik,
These are in fact European Hornets, and they are in the act of gathering bark from this shrub. The hornets will chew the bark into pulp that they use to construct chambers for housing larvae in a communal paper nest.
Thank you very much. Does “communal paper nest” have any implications about whether it’s likely or unlikely they live inside the tree on which they are pictured in the photo? We can’t find their nest on the shrub (which has a truck covered with ivy), but during the late afternoon there are a large number of the hornets on the branches (maybe 20-30).
Thanks again.
Erik
These European Hornets are foraging for bark, and the nest might be a considerable distance from your shrub. We would not recommend looking too thoroughly for the nest, as the Hornets might sting if they feel the nest is being threatened.
I have the same bees that are eating the bark from my lilac, they are mean. They come after me if I sit on my porch, attacked a humming bird and killer it and they stung my sons dog. I used Talstar, an insecticide concentrate that I bought at our local Southern States store to get rid of the stink bugs a couple of years ago. By the way, Talstar is safe for humans and pets. It worked wonderful on the stink bugs and I’m hoping it will do the same for these European hornets.
Also have these hornets eating bark on my Lilac bush, that we are currently trying to cut back. (South Jersey) Did the Talstar work? Or should we wait until they go dorment?