Hornet Nests Now Visible in Our Neighborhood

Now that most trees have lost their leaves, we find out what was hiding in their branches all summer long. Bird and squirrel nests are suddenly visible, and hornet nests turn out to be much more common than we ever imagined. I almost never see a Bald-faced Hornet in summer, but now I’m finding their nests in many trees in Columbus Park and throughout our Oak Park neighborhood. They look like big gray basketballs silhouetted against the sky:

Hornet nests look like big gray basketballs or balloons stuck in trees.

But when you get closer, you can see the arcs of hornet-made paper, glued by hornet “spit” to build the outer layers of the nest:

Hornets chew up dead wood, mixing it with saliva to make their own brand of paper.

Some brave creature tore off the bottom of this nest:

I'm hoping whoever tore into this nest waited until all the hornets were gone. (Worker hornets die off each fall, and next year's queen hornets burrow into soil or rotten logs to spend the winter in suspended animation.)

The outer layers of protective paper were torn away, exposing the inner cells — hexagonal tubes that look a bit like honeycomb:

Although the inside of a hornet nest looks like the honeycomb inside a bee hive, hornets build their entire nest with home-made paper (not beeswax).

Now, I’m not going to get all didactic and lecture you about the differences between honeybees and hornets. Let’s just say they both sting if you get too close, you’re not going to get much honey from a hornet, and honeybees won’t help control the fly population around your home. If you want to learn more, check out these online references:

• Who Are You calling a Bee, Mister?! Identifying Bees, Wasps, Hornets and Their Nests
• Wikipedia on Bald-faced Hornets
• Iowa State University on Baldfaced Hornets (I guess there’s more than one way to spell it.)
• Ohio State University Honey Bee Laboratory on Paper Wasps and Hornets
• Wikipedia on a bunch of other wasps that are also called hornets

—–

One of my Facebook friends had some advice for anyone who might consider bring a hornet nest inside for the winter. Patrick wrote, “I remember, as a kid, bringing one inside before the cold had done its deed to the hornets.” In other words, wait until there have been a couple of good hard freezes to kill off any remaining hornets (or other insects) inside the nest.

—–

P.S. Thanks to the Columbus Park walker who told me where to find the broken-open nest!