How to get rid of hornets and nests in the house, in the country and other places. How to get rid of a nest of hornets and individual individuals in the house and in the country? Roy in the hollow

Man is surrounded by a great variety of animals. Hornets are well known to us, but people do not like them. This insect causes fear, and sometimes panic and horror. It can attack a person and sting him painfully. Hornet venom can cause a severe allergic reaction, and multiple stings can be fatal. If anaphylactic shock occurs, immediate medical attention should be provided. At the same time, the hornet is useful. These individuals are excellent architects and builders! The whole question is what attitude we have towards them.

Hornets are social insects

People call them pirates. Other names are "winged corsairs", "flying tigers". Here is what the biological classification of hornets looks like:

• class of insects (Insecta);
• order Hymenoptera (Hymenoptera);
• family of folded paper wasps (Vespidae).

The world has twenty-three types of hornets and many of their subspecies. In some European countries they are under state protection. So, for example, in Germany, a fine of 50 thousand euros is provided for the destruction of nests of such insects. The common hornet lives in numerous colonies or families, which include: female, males and working individuals. By the end of August - beginning of September, the number of the colony can reach 400-800 pieces.

There may be several females in a family, but there is only one hornet uterus. At the same time, to prevent mating and deposition of fertilized eggs by other females, the main queen emits a special smell (Pheromone), and the secondary ones lay unfertilized ones, from which only drones hatch. Hornets settle in earthen nests, choose a tree hollow for housing, places under round roofs, on fences. They make nests using saliva by chewing wood. The first spring generations consist of working hornets. Autumn - these are females and males. Only fertile individuals remain for the winter. They go into hibernation.

An ordinary hornet destroys prey with a blow of a sting. Another way is to tear the victim apart with their jaws. become food for predators different insects, including the night ones. The hornet kills the caught bee immediately and sucks it out. The breast of the victim is carried to the nest for feeding its brood.

A large family of winged predators catches up to 500 or more grams of insects per day. In the garden and garden, hornets are very useful!

They feed on the juice of ripe fruits, trees and the nectar of readily available flowers.

Protein food is necessary for the uterus for exhausting work - the deposition of eggs. Hornets almost do not sleep, they only freeze for half a minute about 20-25 times a night and do not move.

Dimensions and description

Anterior half of uterine breast yellow color. The head is the same color. The first two rings are dark brown with yellow stripes, the rest are yellow brown spots. The hornet's uterus is 25 to 35 millimeters long. Males and workers are smaller in size.

The uterus and working individuals have a sting - this is a modified ovipositor. In the upper part of the head on the sides there are three simple large Oni of a reddish-orange color, and the cut resembles the letter C. oral apparatus gnawing type is equipped with very strong mandibles. The body is covered with hairs. For the development of the ovaries and the production of eggs, the hornet uterus needs food rich in proteins. For successful hibernation in August - September, the uterus eats plentifully and accumulates the so-called fat body.

Life cycle and features of the existence of the hornet family

In the spring, at the end of May, the uterus wakes up after hibernation. She makes reconnaissance flights in search of a place to establish a nest. Having found a suitable one, he lays the first hexagonal combs and attaches the next ones to them. Soon, an egg will be laid in each cell, and after 8 days larvae will develop in them, and after 12-15 of them, as a result of metamorphosis, a hornet will appear.

Before the start of breeding, the hornet uterus determines and purposefully lays eggs from which drones or future queens hatch. This is controlled by the release of sperm.

By mid-June, workers will be building the nest, and the queen will only lay eggs.

From September juveniles appear. Since that time, the old hornet uterus has been neglected. Her ability to lay eggs is significantly weakened, and those that are produced are eaten by workers in a few minutes. So the queen leaves the hive and dies at the age of about one year.

Female workers feed passive females and males. Absorbing a large amount of proteins and carbohydrates, the young uterus stocks up with the necessary reserves for a long winter. Uneducated cocoons are eaten by workers and drones.

Mating takes place in autumn. The broodstock can be fertilized several times. Males die after two weeks. Fertilized queens look for a sheltered shelter for wintering. Diapause is coming.

In early November, the last of the working individuals die. There are no signs of life in the hive. Most of the young queens will not survive the winter.

Hornets - builders and architects

When a hornet nest is set up, insects use rotten wood. It must be chewed and mixed with saliva. Honeycombs are built from the resulting substance. The shell of the nest also consists of it. Glue is also saliva. The dried surface is analogous to corrugated paper. The color depends on the type of wood. The nest is not used for the second year. After winter, in spring, the uterus finds a convenient place for a new nest. She attaches a small leg to the ceiling. The first honeycombs are made on it. The expansion of the dwelling always occurs from top to bottom, the notch is in the lower part. A large hornet nest has 6 tiers. The largest ones reach a diameter of half a meter.

Alarms

Just like other insects, hornets are able to unite with a whole nest and sting the enemy for self-defense. It is very dangerous! When threatened, the hornet releases an alarm pheromone. This substance activates the brethren to attack. Do not kill the hornet next to the nest. Distress signals are able to raise the whole family to take revenge on the offender.

Various materials can serve as a trigger for an attack, according to chemical properties capable of coming into contact with the pheromone, including clothing, skin, food condiments.

wasps

In scientific Latin, a hornet is an insect designated as Vespa - "wasp". Vespula - denotes the usual genus of wasps (literally translated as "osishka"). In science there is a clear classification of this type of insect, but in real life there is confusion when distinguishing between large hornets and other representatives. Real wasps are smaller and have a bright yellow with black color, while the hornet is an insect of a darker color.

There are some called hornets. Spotted Dolichovespula Maculata occupies a special place among them. She lives in North America. In English, it is called Bald-faced hornet, like real hornets. It is black with ivory stripes. Most likely, wasps are called hornets because of their habit of creating above-ground nests. There is also the Australian hornet Abispa Ephippium, a species of solitary wasp.

Benefit or still harm?

In the literature about the forest, the hornet is often presented as a dirty trick that must be neutralized, as it gnaws at the thin bark of trees. Because of this, branches curled with rings are formed, which die off. This damage, compared to that caused by other wild animals, is very insignificant. It is good to have a nest of hornets in the garden or vegetable garden! Interesting fact: in one day a large family of predatory insects can destroy more than five hundred grams harmful insects. They catch live prey and rarely take on carrion!

But these are the main natural enemies for ordinary worker bees. The gluttonous big hornet and its fellow giants swoop down on bee nests in order to feast on their honey with larvae. Among the known cases: thirty large hornets exterminated 3 thousand bees in an hour and a half. Hornets crush their prey with powerful jaws. Bees have also developed ways to protect themselves: carbon dioxide and heat. Getting into the "bee ball" with a high temperature, the hornets will kill the workers in ten minutes. In addition, the concentration in the ball sharply increases carbon dioxide.

on the backyard?

Unlike other wasps, hornets are difficult to lure with honey baits or jams. Start fighting in early spring. At this time, the wasps are in initial stage building their nests. First of all, they inspect all buildings, especially those rarely visited.

Found nests are sprayed with strong insecticides, and then removed and burned. When they are big, it's difficult. Effective baits poisoned with pesticides are minced meat and fish, which hornets often use to feed larvae. They are placed in places inaccessible to pets. Various sweet traps are made for adult insects, especially with beer or fermented kvass.

Why and how dangerous the hornet is

For humans, the venom of most hornet species is less toxic than bee venom. After the injection, the sting remains in the wound. But this insect can sting several times in a row. The deadly properties of the poison are due to the content of high concentrations of mandorotoxin and toxic substances that cause the destruction of the tissues of the human body.

If the hornet has released a lot of poison, a serious inflammatory reaction will occur. Why is a hornet dangerous for a person? With high individual sensitivity, the consequences can be very severe. If there were a lot of injections, as happens with a disturbed hornet nest, a fatal outcome is possible. Japan has sad statistics: every year, having received a bite from a giant hornet, about forty people die. The venom of Asian individuals is highly toxic. European specimens are smaller and not as venomous. According to a special Schmidt bite pain scale, the pain from a hornet lesion is approximately comparable to that from honey bee and is located at the middle level of the scale, as moderately strong.

As a rule, fears of a hornet are exaggerated: its bite is disproportionate to the size of the insect.

Having found a nest of hornets in your country house or in the attic of your house, you should not panic. There are many ways to help clear your home of such a nuisance so as not to wait for someone in the family to be bitten.

The appearance of hornets and the danger of their bites

- insects that are very similar in appearance to wasps, but have some differences: a larger body size, a brown abdomen. They are useful predators, because they feed on various garden pests and their larvae. They also like sweet nectar, vegetable fruit juices and honey. There are more than 20 species of hornets in the world, many of which are listed in the Red Book.

If large ones often fly into the room, then the hornets built their nest not far.

On a note!

Killing individual individuals is completely optional: they cannot be scared or waved at them. It is better to wait until such a "wasp" sits down and catch it by covering glass jar. Then take it away and release it into fresh air.

However, you should be aware that having a colony settled nearby can cause a lot of problems due to their ability to protect their home and numerous bites.

It has several unpleasant aspects:

• when protecting their home, they can attack a person and inflict on him;
• when stinging, hornets are able to take out a sting and bite their offender several times in a row, which is more dangerous to health, since the toxicity of such a poison can lead to a severe allergic reaction;
• such insects harm bees by attacking and killing them, as well as destroying their hives.

For children, pregnant women and people with allergies, numerous stings of hornets are of great danger, because they can cause Quincke's edema, anaphylactic shock and be fatal.

Therefore, in order to, you should definitely start looking for hornet homeownership, and for this you need to know what the nest looks like and where to look for it.

The nest and its search

To make their hive, hornets use young tree bark. For construction, they chew it, wetting it with saliva, which makes it soft and viscous. Then they build a nest in the form of a ball, cocoon or cone of brown or gray color, whose dimensions can reach up to 70 cm, as seen in the photo of the hornet nest. Many adult workers are engaged in this at once, the noise from moving and chewing the bark is heard a few meters from the hive.

Interesting!

Construction is carried out in tiers, usually from top to bottom. Inside, honeycombs are made on several floors and numerous transitions similar to the contents bee hive. The total number of honeycomb plates sometimes reaches 500.

It is difficult to calculate how many hornets are in the nest at a certain time, because the number of residents in the colony depends on favorable conditions and nutrition, from the stage of development. The uterus regularly moves, laying eggs, and the working insects take them apart and feed them, watching the development of the larvae and their transformation into adults. On average, 300-400 inhabitants can live in a hive.

The location of the nest with hornets can be different, the selection criterion for them is to find a secluded place where there is no wind or draft:

• utility or household premises;
• attic or roof space;
• a secluded place on a balcony or loggia;
• in the cracks of the building cladding;
• in the branches of a shrub or tree;
• inside a stump or hollow of a tree;
• abandoned animal burrows in the ground.

To find such a nest, the easiest way to follow the flight of insects is to place some kind of food bait, which they will drag in parts to their colony.

If such a structure is found inside a house or cottage, then it will be necessary to remove the hornet nest from the attic or other premises so as not to endanger the people living there.

Interesting!

Having settled near the apiary, the hornet family also poses a great threat to the life of bees, since adult bees will be chosen as hunting trophies, which they feed to their larvae. With a mass attack, predators may well destroy an entire bee colony of several thousand individuals in 2-3 hours.

Ways to destroy nests

The use of the nest in such insects is seasonal and occurs only during the spring-summer-autumn period. Then the hornets leave their nests: most die, and the fertilized females hide in secluded places in hollows or under the bark of trees, where, as it gets colder, they fall into diapause until spring.

On a note!

It is winter that is the ideal period for the destruction of an already empty hive. It is easy to remove and destroy without fear of being bitten.

It is much more difficult to remove the nest along with its inhabitants, because they are very vigilant in guarding their home and can attack a person, causing him a lot of harm.

Therefore, it is imperative to consider and take all kinds of protective measures:

• put on clothes made of dense fabric with long sleeves, the cuffs should fit to the arms and fasten;
• be sure to wear a thick hat on your head, or better - a protective helmet with a mesh;
• on feet - boots and gloves - on hands;
• goggles or a mask - on the face;
• in such a situation, a beekeeper's suit is ideal;
• prepare a disinfectant in case of bites, as well as an anti-allergic agent;
• think over in advance a “retreat plan” and escape if a swarm of hornets chases: a reservoir or an enclosed space;
• children or allergic patients to be temporarily relocated to another place.

There are several ways to destroy a hornet's nest. It is better to do this at night or at dusk:

• Drowning the hive in a bucket of water or in a solution of kerosene, and it is not necessary to remove it. If the nest is located at the top, then it is better to raise the bucket to it, substituting a stepladder under the bottom. Immerse the entire hive in liquid for several hours, preferably for a day. After waiting for time, remove the softened house.
• It is quite easy to remove the nest by treating it with an insecticidal aerosol designed to kill pests: Executioner, Get, Karbofos, Lambda Zone, etc. It will take 2-3 bottles. You need to spray the entire internal cavity of the hive through the inlet, then go away and do not touch it for several days. During this time, those individuals who did not spend the night in it will return to the poisoned dwelling, and they will also die from the poison. It is better to burn down the house later.
• Treat the nest with foam from a fire extinguisher, trying to wet the honeycombs, all the inhabitants freeze. Further, the house can be torn off the base and destroyed.
• You can remove a nest hanging from a tree branch by burning it, which will require kerosene or gasoline, but care must be taken not to start a fire.
• If the hornets settled in a hollow tree with a narrow entrance, then you can pour a strong chemical agent and then quickly seal any gaps.
• You can reliably destroy the nest and the inhabitants by taking a large plastic bag and putting a jet of insecticidal spray into it, in order to then cover or wrap it around the dwelling, trying to seal it. This method is convenient when you need to remove the hornet nest in the house.
• Another way is to clog the entrance to the nest with foam.
• When the colony is located in a hole underground, it is better to fill it with boiling water or spread a fire in this place, digging the inlet a little.
• You can pour kerosene into the "underground" dwelling and set it on fire.

On a note!

All of these methods are best used at night or in the evening when predator activity is reduced. Contrary to popular belief, the night is not the time when the hornets sleep: at such hours they either rest or are busy with other things. A flashlight should be used very carefully during procedures, because insects react negatively to changes in lighting.

Prevention of hornets and nest building

To on garden plot or the hornets did not settle in the apiary, experienced gardeners and beekeepers begin to carefully observe the appearance of females in the spring, which, after hibernation, begin to search for a favorable place to form a colony.

Large females up to 5 cm in size, having found a suitable branch or hollow, begin to sculpt a nest in order to breed and organize a colony. At first it looks like a small Walnut. At such a moment, you can easily tear it off with a shovel or other tool, then crush or burn it along with the inhabitants.

Experts also advise in the spring to catch hornet queens, for which a bucket of water is placed, into which something sweet or sour (vinegar) is added, and then soap is added. Insects fly to the smell, and then drown due to the inability to get out of the liquid.

Similarly, a trap is made from a plastic bottle with a cut off neck, which is placed inside like a “funnel”. A solution of honey and beer is poured inside, on the aroma of which all insects flock and fall down. They won't be able to go upstairs.

Such methods will help prevent the spring settlement of a colony of hornets on a plot or apiary. By the beginning of summer, all large queens equip their homes, and the danger of their arrival is sharply reduced.

The hornet cannot simply be killed or slammed, because when crushed, an odorous substance is released from the calf, which signals to the brothers about the danger and calls them for help. And this is fraught with the beginning of a massive attack of an entire colony of "biting" insects.

Conclusion

When deciding to destroy the nest and breed the hornets themselves, one should take into account how real the threat of their living nearby is for people or bees in the apiary. After all, these insects benefit nature, and many of their species are even listed in the Red Book as disappearing from the face of the Earth.

People are well acquainted with these insects, but they do not like them, rather, they are hated. They cause fear and panic. They are considered extremely dangerous. They attack people and sting very painfully. Their venom causes severe allergic reactions. Their multiple bites can be fatal to humans.

And at the same time they beneficial insects, wonderful architects and builders, moderately peaceful and not very aggressive! The whole question is how to treat them.

People call them winged corsairs or pirates. This is known to all hornets - Vespa belonging to the class of insects - Insecta, the order of Hymenoptera - Hymenoptera, the family of folded paper wasps - Vespidae.

• Around the world, 23 species of hornets and many of their subspecies are known.
• In Belarus it is found Vespa crabro hornet.

Hornets are predators. They kill their prey with a sting or tear it apart with their jaws. Flies, mosquitoes, beetles, gadflies, wasps, grasshoppers, caterpillars, dragonflies, butterflies, spiders, weakened bees become victims of predators. Hornets can also hunt for nocturnal insects.

• During the day, a large family of winged corsairs can catch more than 500 grams of insects. Hornets are useful for the garden and vegetable garden!

The hornets themselves prefer to feed on nectar, pollen, ripe fruits and vegetables. And they feed their larvae with chewed gruel from insects. The larvae secrete a sweet substance that worker hornets feed on in non-flying weather.

I have been watching hornets for about fifteen years. And all because they chose my attic to build their nest. country house. With enviable tenacity, every year from mid-May to October, they "lodge" with me. The hornet family does not give us much concern. But in the evenings, if you do not close the exit to the attic, when they see the light in the room, they fly in to circle around the electric light bulb. But the hornets are always only interested in the light bulb. Insects never pay attention to people. Yes, and we always tried not to disturb their usual rhythm of life. Everyone peacefully went about their business. For all the time of acquaintance with the hornets, they bit me only once. Once a hornet flew into the hallway in the evening, and decided to wait out the night right in my boot. In the morning, putting on my shoes, I stepped on a hornet and, of course, got what I deserved. The pain was severe enough, the leg was swollen up to the knee.

The hornet will never fly to a table where there is sweet, will not persistently climb into a jar of jam or sit on a fragrant pie or grapes. In this he differs from annoying wasps and always tries to fly away from a person and not collide with him.

Hornets attack a person only when there is a real threat to their home. If you accidentally or deliberately damage their nest, do not expect mercy. They will fiercely protect their offspring from intruders. Unlike bees, the hornet stings repeatedly, as long as it has enough poison for this.

Like all insects, hornets do not transmit alarm signals to each other. In the room where predators could fly into in the evening, flypaper for flies hung next to the electric light. The hornets circled around the light bulb, sat on the Velcro and, of course, stuck to it. They furiously tried to break out of the trap, flapping their wings incredibly fast, buzzing loudly, but more and more bogged down in the adhesive. And the newly arrived hornets repeated the mistakes of their predecessors, seeing and hearing the torments of stuck relatives.

Hornets are excellent architects and builders. They make their nest from rotten wood, which they chew and mix with saliva. From the resulting substance, the hornets build honeycombs and the shell of the nest, using their saliva as glue. The dried shell of the nest strongly resembles corrugated paper. The color of the shell depends on the type of wood from which it is made.

Hornets never use their nest for the second year. In the spring, after wintering, the hornet queen finds a convenient place to build a new nest. She attaches a small leg to the ceiling, on which she makes the first honeycomb cells.

The queen lays eggs in the honeycomb, from which the larvae develop. Gradually, the honeycombs increase in size, the first working hornets appear, which are included in the construction of the nest.

The nest grows from top to bottom, while the number of tiers with combs increases and a multilayer nest shell is formed. The more tiers of honeycombs will be laid, the more hornets will live in this nest. The shell of the structure up to 8 centimeters protects the larvae of the hornets from the summer heat, accidental cold snaps and drafts.

• According to the literature, big family insect nests reach a diameter of 1.5 meters! Perhaps such huge structures are built by hornets of other species that are not found in Belarus.

For many years, "my hornets" built nests the size of soccer balls. Under the roofs of abandoned buildings, I found their old "houses" still bigger size. But this summer, the hornets built a real work of architectural "hornet thought"! Maybe because two recent years I did not give them the opportunity to climb into the attic of my house, having previously carefully caulked all the holes through which they made their way there.

But the hornets really liked living with me! They gnawed through the rags and construction foam under the very roof and calmly began to build their nest, which I discovered already in the midst of construction. According to my estimates, by the beginning of September, about 500 hornets lived in it. Obviously, the summer of 2011 was very favorable for the reproduction of insects: they had enough food to feed their numerous offspring.

In the photographs, you can see how the hornet nest increased tier by tier, how the shell around it appeared.

The paper nest has numerous pockets - vents. At the very top, the hornets made a gate, through which they crawl from the street to the nest, and then go down to the entrance.

Being in the nest, the hornets emit a lot of liquid, which flows out of the structure in drops. So that the ceiling insulation does not get wet, I put a container under the nest. Behind life cycle hornet family had to endure almost two buckets their waste products. And at the end of September, the hornets began to actively throw out undeveloped larvae.

Until the very frosts, life is in full swing in the nest of insects. By mid-October, all working hornets die, and young queens will find sheltered places for wintering with slight temperature fluctuations, where they will stay motionless until spring, waiting out the severe winter cold.

And yet, no matter how excellent builders the hornets are and no matter how peacefully they behave, one must try to keep them away from humans.

Get rid of hornets the easiest way is at the very beginning of summer, when the young queen is just laying the future nest. At this time, there are still very few insects, and a person can cope with them.

There is an opinion that a large hornet nest can be destroyed at night by placing it in a plastic bag or by spraying insecticides on the nest. But in a large nest, it is difficult to spray poison so that it acts on individuals in its entirety. In addition, few people know that hornets never sleep, well oriented in the dark and will easily attack a person at night. And it is also known that hornets stay overnight where the night found them. Arriving in the morning in their destroyed nest, the hornets will sting everything that moves. A fun life for a couple of days will be provided to you!

If you find a large nest of hornets in the attic of your house, try not to touch it. And since you are unlikely to find a specialized service for the destruction of these insects, tune in to live peacefully with them until the first frost, watching their life. Simple Rules human behavior with dangerous neighbors: do not get too close to the nest, do not make sudden movements near it, do not make noise, do not destroy insects near the nest. BUT late autumn try to close up all possible cracks through which the hornets can climb under the roof of your house.

IN summer season owners of private houses often have a question about how to get rid of the hornet nest on the site. Large stinging insects very rarely show aggression away from their homes, but they can attack a person if he accidentally happens to be nearby. Hornets settle in attic spaces, in hollows of trees, in any quiet and closed places from atmospheric precipitation. Therefore, it is very difficult to notice their dwelling until the angry insects fly out of it, trying to expel the enemy from their territory.

Why get rid of hornets and wasps?

Gardeners and gardeners know that predatory insects destroy a lot of pests in the area. Hornets are no exception: every day they collect several hundred different bugs and caterpillars, bringing these undeniable benefits. But beekeepers consider the destruction of hornets a necessity, because these predators prey on honey bees. Often they ruin the hives, stealing honey.

Wasps and hornets are sweet lovers. Therefore, gardeners also suffer from their neighborhood. During the ripening period of berries and fruits, wasps can damage a significant part of the crop, choosing the most ripe and juicy fruits.

The appearance of stinging insects on the site is a threat to its owners. The fact is that when protecting their home, insects attack any creature that is next to it. Both children and adults can be affected.

Unlike common wasp venom, hornet venom often causes a severe allergic reaction in humans. In the event of an attack by a large number of insects, with increased human sensitivity, even death is possible.

The bites of wasps and hornets are especially dangerous for children, pregnant women and patients with bronchial asthma. Ingestion of even small amounts of poison into the bloodstream can cause them to swell the bronchi, causing suffocation. An allergic reaction can develop into anaphylactic shock. A large amount of poison when bitten by many insects can even provoke kidney failure in a healthy person. In all such cases, the person needs urgent health care, and in its absence, the outcome can be the saddest. Therefore, the question of how to destroy a hornet nest on a site is sometimes the most urgent problem.

Ways to deal with wasps and hornets

A single insect that accidentally enters a room is usually not dangerous. Attracted by the smell of sweets or fruits, wasps often fly into a person's home. You can carefully expel an uninvited guest into open window, but sometimes for some reason the hornet can beat against the glass for a long time without noticing the exit. In this case, the insect is easily provoked to attack.

To avoid being bitten by an angry hornet, you need to catch it with a glass jar or glass. When the wasp begins to crawl along its walls, quickly close the neck with a lid, a piece of paper, a saucer or other flat object. Shake the insect out of the can into the street.

If hornets and wasps fly into the house very often and several at a time, then their colony may be somewhere nearby. In this case, you will have to fight with unwanted neighbors. Before you remove the nest of hornets or wasps, you need to find it. You can do this if you put somewhere a piece of fish, meat, sweet fruits. Soon, insects that have flocked to food will begin to constantly ply between the found prey and the dwelling. It won't be too hard to follow them. You can find the construction of hornets in a variety of places:

• in utility and household premises;
• under the roof or in the attic;
• on the balcony or loggia;
• behind the cladding of the building;
• in a shrub or dense crown of a tree;
• in a hollow or not uprooted stump;
• in the burrow of an animal.

In no case should you destroy the discovered nest. Enraged by the invasion, wasps can attack even at dusk and at night. artificial lighting at night. The number of insects flying to protect the dwelling can be enormous, depending on the size of the colony, and the consequences of numerous bites will be deplorable.

If a hornet nest in a country house is found in one of the buildings in an accessible place, then the easiest way is to use pesticides in the form of aerosols. Hornet repellent (Raptor, Kombat, Aktara and others marked "against flying insects") should be generously sprayed inside a sufficiently sized plastic bag. After that, quickly pull the bag over the construction of the insects and close the access of air inside it. If the insecticide evaporates, the insects will quickly die. After that, you can remove the package by removing the socket along with it.

Other Wasp Control Methods

There are some effective ways how to get rid of hornets when the use of aerosols is impossible for some reason:

1. If the colony is on a stone, brick wall or in an earthen hole, then the fight against the hornets can be done with the help of fire. Built from chewed wood fibers, the dwelling of insects is highly flammable. For greater effect, it can be sprayed with gasoline or alcohol, brazier lighter liquid. It is important to keep in mind the measures fire safety: if there is a possibility of ignition of dry grass, wooden parts of the building, etc., then it is better to get rid of insects in a less dangerous way.
2. Wasps living in a hole can be flooded big amount boiling water. About 5 liters of boiling water should be poured into the discovered entrance. From high temperature and a couple of insects die instantly. But this method has a drawback: the colony can be very large, and only part of its inhabitants will die.
3. When the hornets settle inside a small wooden building, fumigation with sulfur dioxide will help. To obtain it, an ordinary sulfur checker is sufficient, which is used to process cellars and storage facilities in the country. Place the checker in a metal container, set it on fire and install it in the shed where the nest was found. It is advisable to plug the gaps with rags or paper through which wasps can fly out and sulfur dioxide can escape. After treatment, do not open the room during the day.
4. If it is impossible to get to the nest, then the question of how to get the hornets out in the attic or under the roof of the house will take a little longer to decide. It is necessary for some time to accustom insects to feed in a certain place, putting a little minced meat there. When they begin to confidently visit the bait, you need to add Parisian greens or some kind of wasp and hornet remedy (dichlorvos, Aktara and other chemicals) to it. Carrying poisoned food into the colony, the insects themselves will destroy the larvae and the uterus, stopping the appearance of new individuals. The working members of the colony will gradually die out from eating the bait and naturally, since their lifespan is not very long (up to 1 week).

As a rule, in winter, many colonies of hornets and wasps die. In early spring overwintered females begin to search for places suitable for the formation of a new colony. Instead of deciding how to deal with hornets in the summer season, you can prevent them from appearing on the site.

How to avoid the neighborhood of stinging insects?

You can distract the female from looking for a place convenient for building a home with the help of the smell of fermentation. The simplest trap for hornets can be made of plastic bottle. The upper half of it must be cut off and turned over, lowering the neck into the body. At the bottom of the bottle pour some fermented jam, beer mixed with a small amount sugar, homemade kvass or mash.

An insect attracted by the smell, getting inside the bottle through the neck, will not be able to find a way out of it. The captured hornet will remain trapped until it is destroyed by humans. In the same way, you can catch wasps flying into a human dwelling.

To prevent the appearance of a colony of stinging creatures near human habitation, it is necessary to carefully examine all possible habitats before the onset of warm days. Nests found at this time can be easily removed and burned without fear of attack by their inhabitants. It is advisable to detect and cover with a var the hollows in the trees on or near the site, to sort out accumulations of large rubbish in sheds and attics, in which wasps can find shelter. Slots and holes in the walls of buildings that are attractive for building nests need to be repaired cement mortar or gypsum plaster. It is important to remember at the same time that clay mortar is a material suitable for wasp buildings.

When pruning fruit trees cut branches should not be left in heaps on the site. Such clusters wood material can be chosen by hornets to build a colony. Rotten stumps provide winter shelter for a variety of pests, but can also attract stinging insects.

Only by destroying places suitable for the habitation of unwanted neighbors, it is possible to avoid the appearance of wasps dangerously close to humans. Living a few tens of meters from country house hornets will useful helpers that kill many pests. A forest area or a forest belt will provide them with enough convenient places for settling where insects will not interfere with people.

hornets nest

Most summer residents or beekeepers are well acquainted with such an unsafe flying insect as a hornet. This winged predator inflicts very painful bites that lead to severe swelling, prolonged, twitching pain, allergic reactions, and in some cases, even anaphylactic shock.

Information about hornet nests is divided into the following sections:

However, hornets are not considered as aggressive and annoying as their closest relatives - wasps. They attack a person only when they feel a threat from him to their nest, to which it is better not to approach closer than 50 meters.

Important:
Located in the structures of outbuildings, it poses a constant threat to people. That is why these nests need to be able to find, and carefully get rid of them.

What is a hornet's nest?

Hornets, which are called Vespa in Latin, are social insects. They live in families, equipping a cozy nest for themselves. The queen always lays the nest, which builds the first combs. After that, the remaining individuals of the family are connected to the construction.

The dwelling of these large wasps is built from young bark, which they gnaw from the tops of tree branches.
Chewing it with their powerful jaws to the state of a slurry, similar in appearance to paper softened in water, they begin to form it " building material» honeycombs, then constructing a thick protective wall around them. Such a dwelling is built in layers, from top to bottom.

The hive that Vespa builds for themselves is a structure with the following approximate parameters:

• about 40 cm wide;
• height 70 cm;
• wall thickness 8 cm.

The nest itself is multi-tiered, with an intricate system of labyrinths and honeycombs in which the larvae are located. It is to feed these larvae, which are incredibly carnivorous and voracious, that hornets need to hunt other insects - flies and mosquitoes, grasshoppers and spiders, locusts and bees. Adults, on the other hand, are not averse to eating vegetable sweet food, in the form of flower nectar, the pulp of overripe fruits, aphid secretions, and especially honey.

This is interesting:
Most often, in wildlife, hornets build nests in hollow trees or earthen burrows, within the same human habitat, construction site any secluded place of the estate, protected from wind and drafts, rain and sunlight, can become.

It can be:

• attics of residential buildings or outbuildings;
• chimneys;
• a place under the roof of verandas, sheds and summer kitchens;
• outdoor toilets;
• voids in concrete pillars;
• old, long time unused vehicles.

The size of the nest always depends on the number of larvae and the number of hornets themselves. Outwardly, it has a light gray color, and a structure similar to corrugated paper or cardboard. If such a nest is located near the entrance to the room, it is better not to enter it until you get rid of unpleasant and dangerous neighbors.

The dwelling built by Vespa only exists for one year. If the uterus remains in it to winter, then next spring it will begin to build completely new house for your family.

Why you need to get rid of the home of hornets

To answer the question of why it is necessary to destroy hornet nests, one should pay attention to the benefits and harms of this large insect that it brings to humans. Undoubtedly, there is still a certain benefit from the Vespa, and it consists in the fact that the hornets:

• eat some harmful insects, such as flies, mosquitoes or small locusts;
• occupy holes that could become a home for rodents that cause significant harm to the economy;
• they themselves are food for some species of birds, which in return can eat more useful bumblebees and bees.

On this, the useful moments of the life of flying corsairs, as representatives of the genus Vespa are often called by the people, end. And if we compare the benefits with the harm that hornets do at the same time, then it immediately becomes clear why they need to get rid of their nests located near human habitation. The harm from these insects is more significant, and it affects both the person himself and the fruits of his activity. It consists in the fact that Vespa:

• pose a real threat to people's health, stinging them very painfully and causing dangerous allergic reactions of the body to the injected poison;
• they destroy bees, often eating out their whole families, and this causes material damage to beekeepers;
• gnaw at tree branches and fruits, causing damage to gardening.

How to find a hornet dwelling?

It should be remembered:
If you began to notice at your dacha or personal plot, as well as in the apiary of unnaturally large wasps, up to 1.8 - 2.5 cm in size, which means that somewhere nearby there is a nest of hornets.

If you watch them in in large numbers, then the dwelling of these insects is very close. The best option find him, will - follow uninvited guest, because, having caught the prey, he will definitely fly to his nest. But this may not happen immediately, and in flight the hornet can be lost sight of.

To facilitate your search, you need to resort to tricks, observing special care. For this you need:

• knock down a hornet on the fly with a tennis or badminton racket;
• putting on thick gloves, take an insect and tie a thick light thread to its body, clearly visible against the background of greenery and other vegetation;
• throw the hornet to the ground, quickly retreating to a safe distance;
• follow the flying insect, which now will immediately immediately fly to the nest.

Having found the home of the hornets, there is no need to rush to get rid of it. You should carefully consider how and when this is best done. And until that moment it is undesirable to approach the nest, so as not to cause aggression of its inhabitants. After all, these creatures carefully guard their home, and with fury rush to its defense.

How best to get rid of a hornet's nest

It is not at all easy to remove the hornet nest, even if you try to reach it, you risk being stung. Therefore, if such a natural hive is located at a sufficient distance, and does not pose a threat to the safety of people, it is better not to touch it at all, but to exist peacefully with it until frost.

It is best to destroy such nests at the very beginning of construction, when there are still few hornets in them. But, if this moment has already been missed, and pests threaten your safety and cause material harm to the economy, then you will have to fight them in the height of summer.

To do everything neatly, competently and as safely as possible, you need to follow certain rules:

• hold an action at night, when the hornets have less mobility, although at this moment they can also attack, protecting their homes and families;
• be sure to take protective measures, which will require tight clothing covering the body, reliable gloves and a beekeeper's mask;
• prepare in advance hydrogen peroxide and alcohol, a cold compress and Suprastin;
• if you were discovered and the hornets began to fly out of the nest, you need to move to a safe distance without making sudden movements.

There are several ways to destroy hornet nests (drowning in a bucket presented to the ceiling, burning or poisoning with insecticides). In each individual case, you need to choose the most suitable, reliable and convenient option, depending on nest location.

Photo of hornets nest