Many people have encountered large wasps, which are also called hornets. These insects are also sometimes called “flying tigers” and “winged corsairs”. Often, after meeting them, people have a negative opinion. Hornets often cause panic and even fear, and this fear is justified because this insect can sting a person painfully.
In most cases, the bites of these insects cause a severe allergic reaction in people. Nevertheless, large wasps can be useful. In order for your encounter with this insect not to be overshadowed, it is important to know who these “flying tigers” are?
As is known, the genus Hornets belongs to to the family True wasps. This is the reason for some similarity between these insects and wasps. The similarities between wasps and hornets are not only in appearance. The lifestyle, feeding and reproduction methods of these two species of insects are certainly similar. However, there are some differences between them.
Typically, the hornets' habitat does not intersect with human possessions. These insects can eat a variety of foods, but their preference is given to predation.
As a rule, other insects are caught by hornets in large quantities in areas close to their nests. For this reason, large wasps represent danger to bees. And for beekeepers they are a disaster.
Types of hornets and where they live
Now there are 23 species of these insects. Large wasps are found in various parts of the world. There are a lot of areas where hornets live. These insects are mainly distributed in the Northern Hemisphere.
Eastern hornet. This species is often found in Europe, the Asian part of Russia, and also Asia. They are characterized by an unusual color: the body of this insect is brown, but its distinctive feature is the yellow band, which occupies a third of the abdomen.
The Hornet genus is part of the True wasp family, and therefore these insects are rightfully considered the closest relatives of ordinary wasps, scientifically called paper wasps for their habit of building nests from young tree bark chewed and mixed with saliva. Hornets in their lifestyle, reproduction and feeding method differ little from ordinary wasps, but, nevertheless, they also have some unique features biology.
Hornets are practically the largest wasps. Only a few scolias and road wasps can compete with these insects in body length. However, due to their constitution, hornets can still be considered the most massive representatives of the wasp family.
As a rule, hornets live in any biotopes and are in no way connected with human settlements or agricultural lands. The hornet feeds on a variety of foods, but in general these wasps can be characterized as predators. The basis of their diet and food for brood are other insects, which hornets catch in large quantities in the areas around their nest.
Respectively, Where the hornet lives, bee families cannot feel safe either. That is why these insects are a real disaster for beekeepers.
However, despite all of the above, if you regularly find large red-headed wasps in your area, you should first figure out what the hornets feed on, where they live, and only then make a decision on how to fight these insects.
Where do hornets live
Today, science knows 23 species of hornets. These insects can be found in many places globe, however, most species are distributed in the Northern Hemisphere. Let's take a closer look at the most prominent representatives:
- Almost all hornets that are found in Russia belong to the European Hornet species. Representatives of this particular species are most similar to ordinary wasps, but at the same time boast larger body sizes.
- For Asia, the southern part of Europe, North Africa, as well as the Asian part of Russia, the Oriental Hornet species is common. This insect has a more original coloration with a completely brown body and a wide single band on the abdomen.
- Among the numerous species of hornets, there is one endemic. Only in the Philippines can you find this deadly insect. The venom of this species of hornets is so toxic that it ranks practically first among all poisonous insects.
European hornets live in forests, groves, in isolated thickets of bushes and in territories occupied by agriculture. The only thing that limits their range is the cold climate in the north and dry biotopes in the south.
Eastern hornets live in other habitats and prefer steppes, semi-deserts, sometimes turning into deserts, dry ravines and ravines. The eastern hornet is practically the only species capable of living in a dry climate.
Hornets live in families in nests they build. Their homes look the same as those of ordinary wasps. is a round-shaped structure made of paper honeycombs, suspended from tree branches or placed in hollows, rock crevices, various human outbuildings, and sometimes even in distribution or mailboxes.
This is interesting
Hornets are capable of causing serious damage to young trees, literally gnawing their top shoots when collecting bark to build their nest. Ash tree plantings are especially affected by hornets - with an abundance of insects, the tops of the trees can be completely gnawed, which is why growth stops or the crown is formed incorrectly.
The location of the future nest is determined by the founding female. She winters in any secluded shelter, and in the spring, either directly in it or in a specially found other place, she lays several eggs and feeds the wasps hatching from them. After birth, young hornets themselves build a large nest and care for the new brood.
On a note
Hornets love to build nests in toilets, sheds, under the roofs of verandas and summer kitchens. The reason for this is simple - there is no direct sunlight and drafts, usually quite quiet and calm. Sometimes hornet nests were found in cars that had not been used for a long time, inside concrete light poles, or in chimneys.
Residents of megacities generally encounter these insects much less often than residents of rural areas. If you figure out what the hornet eats, it becomes clear why - in an area built up with high-rise buildings, even a relatively small nest cannot always be provided with the required amount of food.
Nutrition of the largest wasps
The main diet of hornets consists of other insects, spiders, worms, millipedes and slugs. The hornet eats them in the nest, carefully cutting and eating away the fattest parts. Hornets feed most of the caught insects to their larvae - at this stage life cycle wasps are obligate predators, i.e. feed exclusively on animal food.
At the same time, adult hornets feed on the juice of berries (they are especially partial to blackberries, raspberries and strawberries), sweet soft fruits such as peaches and plums, honey, syrup, aphid secretions, meat and fish. They are attracted to almost any strong natural odors of wasting food. Summer residents should take this fact into account and try to prevent the appearance of such potential food on their site, because even the most ordinary rotting apple can serve as a wonderful food for a hornet.
A real find for a hornet colony is a family of honey bees. Not only are bees themselves very tasty for hornets, and wasps hunt them, sometimes chasing them at a distance of up to 5 km, but the contents of bee dwellings are an equally valuable food resource.
In a plundered hive, the hornet feeds on honey and larvae - this is a sufficient source of food for the hornet family for the entire season. It is not surprising that there is a constant war between hornets and beekeepers.
This is interesting
The giant Asian hornet, reaching a length of 5 cm, can kill up to 40 bees in a minute. And a squad of hornets numbering only 30-40 individuals is capable of destroying an entire bee colony of thousands in a few hours.
An interesting feature of hornets is that when catching insects, they do not use a sting, as, for example, ordinary wasps do, but kill their victims with powerful jaws. The hornet uses venom only for self-defense.
And yet, despite all the troubles that close proximity to a hornet can bring, it’s worth first figuring out how much trouble the nest that appeared on summer cottage. Hornets are not aggressive insects, and if you do not climb into the nest itself, they will not sting a person. But hornets are quite capable of destroying a fair number of pests in the garden.
Life of a hornet's nest
A hornet's nest may look different at different stages of construction. At the beginning it resembles a pear. Later, the “pear” gets a lampshade and it becomes like a chandelier.
At the next stage of construction, the “lampshade” lengthens, and its lower edges close together, again forming a “pear”, but of a much larger size. At all stages of construction, the honeycombs and chambers in which the larvae grow are visible in the nest.
Adult hornets spend only night hours in the nest, and also rest a little here between raids for food or building material. In addition to the worker hornets, there are also several wasps in the nest that are only involved in cleaning the honeycombs and caring for the larvae, but they are a minority.
This is interesting
Rove beetles and their larvae almost constantly live in hornet nests. They feed on the remains of the hornets’ meal, the larvae of their “neighbors” and various waste from the nest. These beetles cannot live independently of hornets.
How do hornets reproduce?
Hornets reproduce in much the same way as other social Hymenoptera.
Mating of hornets occurs at the end of the warm season of the year - in mid-latitudes this is August-September. By this time, the family becomes quite numerous, and the nest can reach 70 cm in diameter and 1 m in length.
At a certain point, the queen begins to lay eggs, from which males and females that are already capable of mating hatch (all working hornets are females, not capable of reproduction).
When the number of mature individuals in the nest becomes very large, they fly out, swarm and mate.
After swarming, the males die within a few days. Females never return to their native nest, but look for a secluded place for refuge in which they will wait for spring and give birth to a new family.
Working hornets do not live long - about 3-4 weeks. Moreover, many of them die much earlier when encountering other predators, being eaten by birds or at the hands of humans.
Life expectancy is approximately a year. She usually dies before the second winter of her life, when young females from her family leave the nest.
Male hornets have the shortest life expectancy. They live from several days to several weeks, depending on how long before swarming they appeared.
Wintering: who in the family experiences it?
As mentioned above, hornets spend the winter in secluded shelters: the homes of other insects, cracks in bark, hollows, cracks in rocks, under stones, in rural toilets between boards.
Having understood the breeding characteristics of hornets, we can conclude that of the entire family, only young females spend the winter, ready to establish new family. Old females almost always die before their second wintering, just as males and worker hornets do.
It is quite obvious that hornets living near human habitation cannot be considered unambiguously harmful or dangerous insects. They rarely sting, and in general they are calm, and sometimes even useful neighbors, because... In our gardens, hornets feed on various pests. Only for beekeepers are these insects clear enemies.
It should also be noted that due to the unreasonably frequent, useless destruction of nests in many regions of our country, hornets have become rare, in some places even listed as insects in the Red Book. Therefore, if the hornets' nest is located in such a way that it does not particularly disturb anyone, it should be left alone.
Interesting video: the queen hornet begins to build her nest alone
Japanese giant hornets attack a family of honey bees
There is no doubt that everyone, or almost everyone, seeing for the first time such a monster in the world of wasps as a hornet, felt fear and respect for this insect, impressive in all respects. Indeed, these large wasps can force even the king of all life on Earth - man - to reckon with themselves.
But is a disturbed hornet really dangerous, what is its maximum size, what types of hornets exist, how a hornet’s nest is constructed, how this giant wasp differs from ordinary wasps, what a bee can do against this predator, and much more we can learn in this review.
Features of the genus
So who are the hornets? The genus Hornets belongs to the family of true wasps. That is why representatives of this genus fit well into the external framework inherent in ordinary wasps. At the same time, there are some differences that will not allow these, albeit close, but still different taxonomic groups of Hymenoptera insects, to be confused.
Stinging insects.
What does a hornet look like next to a wasp? Large hornets differ from other wasps, first of all, large sizes. The dimensions of an insect such as a hornet range from 1.8 to 5.5 cm in length, depending on the species. Also, the wingspan of these largest wasps in the world can reach 8 cm. And this large wasp, in addition to its serious dimensions, has very powerful and impressive jaws, which also differs from most other wasps.
Among the differences between representatives of the hornet genus and other wasps, some differences in color should also be mentioned. The hornet insect has the same striped abdomen as most wasps. Moreover, if the color of the wasp is dominated by only two colors, namely black and yellow, then the color of the hornet is somewhat darker, and orange and brown shades have found their place in the color palette.
Well, you can’t ignore that unpleasant part of the story about this huge wasp, which concerns the main weapon of these stinging hymenoptera. It’s no secret that wasps tend to use their sting for its intended purpose in case of danger.
Although, it must be said that the wasp’s sting performs not only the function of an injection needle for treating a presumptuous enemy with a portion of poison. It is also a reduced insect ovipositor.
The sting of this insect is longer than that of a common wasp, and delivers a greater dose of venom than a bee, bumblebee or most wasps, making this miniature "tiger" a formidable opponent for any living creature that provokes its wrath.
Therefore, such cinematic epithets as “murder hornets” are often and, it must be said, not unreasonably used in relation to these not very cocky, but certainly capable of standing up for themselves insects.
Habitat
These insects are very widespread throughout the world, if we talk about middle and temperate latitudes. The common hornet is found everywhere in the central and southern regions Europe, including CIS countries such as Ukraine, Russia, Belarus. There are also plenty of them in Asia and North Africa.
Lifestyle
Like almost all Hymenoptera, hornets are collective insects. They live in large colonies in self-built cellular structures. Just like wasps and bees, only in smaller numbers. The hornets' nest is also larger in size than the wasps' nest.
Typically, these large wasps prefer to use hollow trees, attics of houses, occupied beehives, as well as animal holes and caves as shelters for their homes.
These wasps build their homes in several tiers, horizontally. The material for construction is chewed pieces of wood bark, most often birch, moistened with saliva. Therefore, such papyrus material is not white, but rather a brownish tint, while to the touch it resembles thin paper, something like paper foil, so to speak.
In created nests, hornets maintain a strict hierarchical system of relationships. At the head of the colony is the queen, which produces hundreds of eggs. She is protected by the rest of the family. All actions of its members are aimed at preserving the queen, and therefore the colony itself.
Each insect is like a cog in the system. Workers spend all their active time searching for food for the queen and the younger generation in the form of larvae. Among them there are also “cleaners” who perform the functions of “nannies” for the larvae and also clean the nest.
In fact, during the day, only the female, larvae and a number of workers and “nurses” are in the nest to maintain the colony’s defenses. The rest of the family visits the nest only at night to sleep. The hornets' nest is somewhat reminiscent of a feudal castle, with a queen, soldiers, artisans and servants. Just a little simplified.
Reproduction
The founder of the colony is the most fertile female, which managed to survive the winter and give birth to the first offspring. In the spring, she herself lays the foundation of the future colony, building the first honeycombs for the future generation, and she herself feeds the larvae that emerge from the eggs.
The hornet larva looks like most other insect larvae. It has a white, slightly grayish color, a dark head, and the same dark longitudinal stripe, as well as a segmented body.
By mid-summer, the first larvae develop into adults, after which they take on all responsibilities for protecting and providing for the queen and nest. The uterus no longer works and is exclusively engaged in reproduction.
The colony grows quickly, and by autumn there are already representatives of all “classes” in it, including the “drones” that fertilize the queen. Closer to the cold weather, fertilized females look for shelter for the winter, so that next season they can give birth to a new generation and become queens in their own families. The remaining members of the colony die even before the cold weather, since they live no more than a few months. The uterus can live for a year.
What types exist
Now let's talk about what types of hornets exist, and what are the characteristics of each of them.
Overall, there are more than 20 representatives of this genus of Hymenoptera. But we will consider only the most common of them.
So, let's highlight the following types of hornets:
- Common or European hornet.
The common hornet (Vespa crabro) is the most common species, living in the central and southern parts of Europe, Russia, Ukraine, as well as China, Mongolia, South Korea, Japan and the USA.
We can say that this is the same yellow hornet that a resident of the countries may encounter former USSR. Has all the classics for its taxon external characteristics. The length usually ranges from 2 to 3.5 cm. The head and chest are brown, the abdomen is yellow with black transverse stripes.
Large mandibles and large eyes, as well as sexual dimorphism in favor of females, indicate that this wasp belongs to the genus of hornets. - Eastern Hornet.
The most artsy in its own way appearance a representative of his kind. It has a color that distinguishes it from other species with one wide transverse yellow stripe on the abdomen. The body and wings themselves are bright purple. Dimensions range from 2.5-3 cm. This is the most heat-resistant representative of the genus, capable of living in steppes and deserts. The homeland of this most beautiful species is North Africa, about. Madagascar, as well as hot regions of Asia and Europe. - Dybovsky's Hornet.
It has a second name - Black Hornet. Interesting in appearance, having an almost solid black body color and brownish wings. Only on the abdomen can you see several thin dark orange stripes. Very rare view, found exclusively in regions of Asia, including countries such as Thailand, India, Japan, China and Korea, and the Russian Transbaikalia. The body length does not exceed 3.5 cm, like most other varieties. - Asiatic giant hornet.
He is also the hornet Vespa mandarinia. This is not only the largest hornet in the world, but also the largest representative of the wasp family in general. The huge Asian hornet can reach a length of 5.5 cm. Its wingspan can cover a human palm and is 8 cm.
This is indeed a very large wasp, resembling a small bird in flight, which gave it the local name among the Japanese “sparrow bee”.
Such a huge hornet poses a high threat to humans and domestic animals, since the danger of these insects is directly proportional to their size.
And these are not all types of hornets, there is also a PhilippineVespa luctuosa, tropical Vespa tropica, Asian Vespa velutina, and many other interesting varieties.
Hornets and bees
Hornets are omnivorous in nature. They feed mostly on the sweet pulp of various fruits, but they are also predators. These giant wasps feed their larvae with caught and killed insects, while the adults themselves are not averse to snacking on a caught beetle or bee.
To a greater extent, these are very useful creatures for humans. A colony of these striped hunters that settles next to a gardener’s home can protect the crop from most harmful insects. Hornets are at the top of the invertebrate food chain and can bring half a kilogram of live food per day to feed themselves and their larvae.
Uneven fight.
But in an apiary environment, the benefit of these predators ends. Hornets are a real beekeeper's scourge. The bee and the hornet are the prey and the hunter. Hornets and bees are long-standing and primordial enemies, because one of the main hunting objects for this giant wasp is the honey worker. Fed on killed bees (and wasps as well), their larvae receive all the necessary nutrients they need for development.
Bees are practically defenseless against hornets. If a scout wasp notices the presence of a bee hive on the territory, without protective measures on the part of the beekeeper, the hive is doomed. Even one huge hornet can destroy dozens of bees, crushing them with its jaws and using a deadly sting.
The main goal of a hornet invasion of a hive is not the bees themselves, but the honey. The sweet substance is a real wealth for wasps; it can feed the entire colony in abundance.
Bees have only one effective method to deal with one hornet. By attacking a wasp in a swarm and enclosing it in a continuous living vibrating “cocoon,” the bees can kill the enemy by creating overheating conditions for him inside this trap, created from the bees themselves, constantly moving around the wasp.
Relationship with a person
Of course, the hornet is a dangerous insect that poses a threat to human life and health. A bee sting and a wasp sting are different in nature. They have different chemical composition and are treated differently.
The bite of such a large wasp as a hornet can pose a serious threat to humans. The fact is that the larger the wasp, the greater the amount of poison it can inject into the sting site at a time. Moreover, wasps do not tend to lose their sting in the wound, as happens in bees.
They can inflict several painful injections, and even a person who does not have an increased allergic reaction may experience serious problems with well-being and health after several bites from an insect of this size.
This is especially true for a species such as the Asian giant hornet, which is considered by entomologists to be one of the most dangerous arthropods on the planet.
Such a huge insect can inject enough venom to cause anaphylactic shock. And here you will have to call an ambulance.
We must remember that the importance of these stingers for gardening is very great. Whenever possible, people destroy colonies of these dangerous creatures sleeping in winter and poison them in the yard, but this is an extreme necessary measure. You just need to follow the rules of coexistence, because these large wasps themselves avoid contact with humans.
You should not touch a hornet's nest under any circumstances, even if you find it in your attic at home. It’s better to call specialists who will do everything right. If a large wasp is circling near you, do not wave your arms or make sudden movements, this will only anger the insect and cause aggression.
Conclusion
Now we know what the largest wasp in the world is, we understand the varieties of these striped creatures, and we also know how dangerous an irritated hornet can be.
The industrious hornet is an insect that is not as simple as it seems at first glance. By creating a large family, the hornets work day after day for the benefit of their colony.
When they find themselves close to a person, they can not only bite painfully, but also benefit him. Therefore, it is important to know the habits of hornets and be able to negotiate with them.
Description and types
Appearance
Hornet (Vespa) is a stinging insect of the order Hymenoptera and the most major representative kind of social wasps. As an insect that represents its family, the hornet has a wasp-like waist, striped abdomen, thin transparent wings, large eyes and powerful jaws.
However, the hornet has a number of features by which it can be easily distinguished from the well-known wasp. He is twice the size of his relative.
The hornet's coloration includes yellow, orange, brown and black, while the wasp's coloration is only yellow and black. The hornet is often called the largest wasp.
Varieties
The main distribution areas of the insect are the northern hemisphere of the planet up to the 63rd parallel. There are a total of 23 known species of hornets. They have many similarities: lifestyle, reproduction, dietary preferences, but they differ in external characteristics and sizes. The most common ones are:
Hornets live in colonies in nests built in the form of several horizontal tiers of honeycombs. As a material for their home, they use a cardboard-like mass, which they make themselves by chewing wood fibers and moistening it with saliva. A nest can contain up to 7 rows of honeycombs, each row containing about 550 cells.
Hornets make their nests in hollow trees, in old birdhouses, under the roofs of houses, and in attics.Inhabitants of steppe regions settle in animal burrows or underground.
What does an insect eat?
Hornets feed on nectar and plant foods containing a lot of sugar. Among the insects' preferences are ripe fruits, berries, flower nectar, honey and tree sap.
At the same time, hornets are predators. They hunt insects to feed their larvae. With the help of its sting and powerful jaws, the hornet easily copes with flies, horseflies, gadflies, wasps, grasshoppers, etc. It completely chews the prey and feeds it to the larvae.
Reproduction of hornets
The founder of each hornet family is a fertile female (queen), who survived the winter in a secluded place. In the spring, with the onset of warmth, the queen wakes up, looks for a place for a nest, builds 
the first honeycombs and raises the first larvae from the eggs laid in them.
At the beginning of July, the larvae turn into working hornets, which immediately get to work. They obtain food for new larvae, feed the queen and protect the home from enemies. The uterus no longer works and only lays eggs.
With coordinated work, the family quickly grows, new rows of honeycombs are set up and the nest increases in size. Working hornets are sterile females, but by autumn, young queens and males (drones) capable of reproducing appear in the colony.
Fertilized young females hide in secluded places for the winter in order to create a new family in the spring, and the queen and males who have fulfilled their function soon die. The head of the family, the queen, lives about a year, and all other family members live only a few months.
Benefits and harms
Hornets are useful in that they destroy insects, making it easier for gardeners to combat garden pests, but the hornets' usefulness ends when they settle in apiaries.
Hornets - a thunderstorm of bees
In autumn, honey bees become the main food of hornets - other insects already die at this time.
When raiding hives, one hornet can eat about 30 bees in a day.When uninvited guests appear, beekeepers try to get rid of them by all possible means.
Being too close to hornets can also be dangerous for humans. An insect bite causes burning pain and can provoke severe allergic reactions.
The bite can be dangerous to humans
Consequences
When attacking, a hornet can bite one or more times. A single bite is not as dangerous to humans as multiple bites. Hit large quantity Insect venom under the skin can cause serious trouble. 
After a hornet attack, a person develops intoxication of the body, which leads to the following consequences:
- dizziness, headache, signs of nausea and vomiting.
- fever and chills, sweating.
- difficulty breathing, shortness of breath, in rare cases, convulsions.
The consequences may vary in severity. It depends on the type of hornet, on the person’s immune system, on his age and sensitivity to allergens. Children are the most susceptible to hornet venom. The most dangerous consequence of a hornet attack can be Quincke's edema and anaphylactic shock.
Help with a bite
There are several first aid rules for a hornet sting that will help minimize the consequences of an attack by the largest wasp. The sequence of actions is as follows:
- Examine the bite site and remove sting particles with tweezers, if any.
- Carefully squeeze out the insect venom.
- Wash the wound with soap and then wipe it with a solution of alcohol or potassium permanganate.
- Apply cold.
- Take an antihistamine.
You don’t need to visit a doctor if the hornet has bitten you only once and there is no deterioration in the victim’s condition. However, you should consult a doctor if the following signs are present:
- severe pain and extensive swelling of the bite site;
- weakness and severe manifestations of allergies;
- attack by several hornets at the same time;
- The victim's age is under 16 years.
How to Avoid a Bite
The hornet attacks only when it senses danger to itself or its nest. At the first threat, it releases a special substance - alarm pheromone, which serves as an attack signal for other individuals. Therefore, you should not kill the hornet near the nest. Hornets, 
sensing the smell of danger, the whole family can attack the offender of their relative.
It is advisable to destroy hornet nests only in cases where they threaten bees or their nests are located too close to housing. If the insects have built their home where they will not be disturbed, there is no need to be afraid of their attack. On the contrary, they will even become assistants in protecting the crop from others
What smells do hornets dislike? How to get rid of them? A lot of hornets fly over the garden. I do not know what to do. There is only one advice on the Internet: destroy the nest. But my neighbors and I checked the plots left and right and back and forth for five or six sections. NO ONE HAS A NEST. It's impossible to do anything, they fly everywhere. And when my grandchildren come, I’m very afraid that hornets will bite them (last year a neighbor’s teenager was bitten) and I don’t let them into the yard. I myself have allergies and their bite is undesirable for me. I have already watered the paths with acetic acid, hung rags soaked in kerosene, and treated the paths with clean ammonia - nothing helps. Does anyone know what smell hornets REALLY DISLIKE? Help with advice. Thanks to all.
Maria, you are not alone, most people are afraid of stinging insects, but in reality it’s not that scary. Remember that the insect never attacks first, but stings only if it is in danger. Therefore, you should not provoke it, and it will not defend itself aggressively. In nature, unfortunately, this is how it works: either you, or you. So try to live amicably with them. :)
Brr, it’s so scary, I’m very afraid of wasps, hornets, bees. This year, the hornets decided to settle under our garage roof and bit my brother, of course it was his own fault, but still I didn’t want neighbors like that. Their father poisoned them with dichlorvos, we understand that this is completely inhumane, but there is nothing you can do to protect your home. After this, the hornets did not appear again and, I hope, will not appear.
We are surrounded by many amazing living creatures and one of them is the hornet. Our today's hero is not very loved by people, of course, because hornets are capable of attacking a person and stinging him painfully. Hornet venom can cause an allergic reaction, and in large doses (that is, with multiple stings) can even be fatal. But on the other hand, hornets are also very useful insects, including that they are simply magnificent architects and builders, it all depends on the eyes with which we look at them. Our article today is about them.
What a hornet looks like: description, structure, characteristics
Hornet belongs to the type arthropod insects and a subclass of winged insects, its Latin name “Vespa” can be translated as “wasp”; in fact, the hornet is the largest wasp.
The size of the hornet averages from 1.8 to 3.5 cm and the largest of them are representatives of the species Vespa mandarinia, reaching 5.5 cm in length.
Vespa mandarinia is the largest hornet in the world.
You are probably wondering what is the difference between a hornet and a wasp. Let us answer that the hornet differs more from an ordinary representative of the wasp family. large size a head with a wide crown, with part of the hornet's head located behind the compound eyes. In addition to them, the hornet also has 3 ordinary eyes. The color of the head can be orange, yellow, reddish-brown, even black, interspersed with yellow spots. There are antennae on the head, and what is interesting is that their number is different in females and males, and this characteristic structural feature of hornets is one of the elements of sexual difference.
The hornet's abdomen is round in shape, and also has a slender waist in the area of the articulation with the chest. In general, the colors of hornets are very similar to the colors of wasps, the difference is that the alternation of black and yellow stripes in hornets is not so bright.
Females and queens have an ovipositor at the tip of the abdomen, which at the same time is the famous sting. In its normal state it will not be possible to notice it, since the sting is retracted into the abdomen. The sting itself is straight and smooth, without serrations (like those of the sting) and for this reason, hornets can use it repeatedly, just like other wasps, whose sting design is very similar. There is also a special poisonous gland at the base of the sting, which makes the hornet’s bite very dangerous to humans.
The hornet also has three pairs of legs, yellow, brown or black (depending on its type). The structure of the limbs is not very simple; they consist of a coxa, trochanter, femur, tibia with a spur and the tarsus itself.
Hornets are excellent flyers, thanks to their wings, which, like many other flying insects, have as many as 4: two front and two rear. During flight, the small rear wings are attached using special hooks to the large front wings, resulting in a single flying surface.
Where do hornets live?
Most hornets live in the northern hemisphere of our planet, but you can meet them in many other places. They live in Europe, Asia, northern Africa, North America, in fact, all temperate climate zone is their habitat.
Hornets nest
We have already mentioned earlier that hornets are excellent builders and architects and a clear indication of their skill will, of course, be the large, multi-tiered nests built by them.
Hornets build their nests in the most different places: in tree hollows, birdhouses abandoned by birds, in caves and attics of human buildings, on steep cliffs and hanging over tree branches. The color of the nests, as well as the shape, come in a wide variety of variations: brown, yellow, yellow-white, beige, purple; in shape they can resemble a pear, an oval or a large ball. The size of the nest can reach up to 70 cm in height and up to 40 cm in width.
Interesting fact: the process of creating hornet nests is a little similar to the process of creating paper, which is why such nests are sometimes called paper nests. The fact is that the materials used for construction are soft wood fibers and tree bark, which the hornets carefully chew and glue together with their sticky saliva. They apply a thin layer of this viscous mass onto the nest, and after hardening it turns into some kind of paper - you can even write on it with a pencil, although, of course, the quality of such “paper” will be significantly inferior to ordinary paper.
It is interesting that among the representatives of the hardworking kingdom of hornets, there are also hornets - drones and robbers. Such, for example, is the Dybovsky hornet, which does not build its own nests, but instead likes to settle in the built nests of hornets of other species, killing the local queen, taking her place and laying its eggs on worker hornets that are in the dark. This is a real palace coup in the kingdom of hornets
But some eastern species of hornets have a tendency to build underground nests with an extensive system of passages and tunnels. In some ways, such nests resemble anthills or termite mounds.
What do hornets eat?
In terms of their feeding style, hornets are omnivorous insects, but they are still mostly vegetarians, preferring plant foods, especially if they are rich in sugar. They especially love overripe fruits: apples, pears, plums, they adore honey and nectar, which is why they often raid bee apiaries. If necessary, the hornet can turn into an excellent hunter, whose prey will be flies, grasshoppers, dragonflies, spiders, bees and even their closest relatives, wasps. Some particularly warlike species of tropical hornets can destroy up to 500 colonies of bees and wasps within their lifetime (not at all long)!
Interesting fact: representatives of the Vespa bicolor tropical hornet species living on Hainan Island sometimes attack orchids, mistaking them for bees by their smell.
But what is curious is that the prey killed by the hornet, which is thoroughly chewed into a suspension, is not used as food for the hornets themselves, but serves as a source of food for feeding the voracious larvae during their growth period. Sometimes hornets find dead insects for this purpose, which they also chew as food for their offspring.
Reproduction of hornets
Hornets are social insects with a complex hierarchical structure and caste system. Each hornet performs its strictly defined role, depending on its caste. The division into castes: female worker hornets, males and the queen, helps the hornet kingdom organize, including their proper reproduction, nutrition, nest building, protection of their colony and many other useful and important things.
With the onset of warm days, the queen flies around the territory in search of a suitable place to build a nest where a new colony of hornets will live. When a suitable location is found, the queen begins building honeycomb cells. Then one egg is placed in one cell, from which a small larva forms after a few days. In two weeks it will turn into a pupa, which, in turn, again after two weeks will become a fully grown individual, capable of gnawing through the lid of the cell and coming out.
Lifespan of hornets
It again depends on the caste of the common hornet: working females live on average no more than a month, males usually die a couple of weeks after mating with the queen (such an unenviable male share in insects, like hornets), but queens can live up to two years , including successfully surviving the winter.
Types of hornets, photos and names
Here are the most popular and interesting, in our opinion, species of representatives of the hornet kingdom.
She is also a hornet wasp - a very large representative of the hornet family: the queen reaches a length of 2.5-3.5 cm, the males are somewhat smaller - 2.1-2.8 cm. Females and males also differ in structure: for example, males have antennae of 13 segments, in females from 12. It is interesting that only females have a sting (they use it mainly for protection), males are deprived of it. Their abdomen is colored with alternating stripes of orange-yellow and black. The common hornet lives in all European countries (including Ukraine), China, Kazakhstan, North America
This representative of the hornets is a full citizen of the Philippine Islands, which is where their habitat is. Unlike ordinary hornets, they are black in color. The mournful hornet is also one of the most dangerous, since this species produces a special highly toxic poison, which makes its bite especially unpleasant.
She is also an eastern wasp - another representative of the hornet family, as you guessed by the name, living mainly in the east: in Turkey, Iran, India, Pakistan, Oman, China, Nepal and some other countries. But representatives of this species are also found in southern Europe: Italy, Romania, Bulgaria, Greece. It is not without reason that he lives in these southern places; he especially loves warm and hot climates and tolerates them well. Characteristic feature The eastern hornet is characterized by the presence on its abdomen of a wide stripe of a yellow-whitish hue. According to the observations of scientists, this very stripe contains a special pigment xenotropin, which allows insects to convert absorbed sunlight into electricity. Further research in this area could yield amazing results in the energy sector, but let's return to the hornets.
Or Vespa mandarinia has also already been mentioned in our article as the largest hornet in the world - the length of some representatives of this species exceeds 5 cm. It is also the proud owner of the longest sting (about 6 mm), which makes its bite very painful and dangerous. Lives in Asian countries: Korea, China, Nepal, India, mainly in mountainous areas.
It is actually a subspecies of the Asian giant hornet native to Japan, where it is also called the “sparrow bee.” It is also a very large representative, its body length often exceeds 4 cm. It is also very dangerous; due to the presence of nerve toxins in the venom, its bite can be fatal; in Japan, about 40 people die every year due to the bite of this insect.
Hornet sting, poison and consequences
Of course, a hornet bite is an unpleasant thing, because it causes acute pain, redness, itching, fever, and in the worst cases can cause an allergic reaction, even leading to deadly anaphylactic shock. Sometimes suppuration and necrosis of the skin may occur at the site of the bite; this is explained by the presence of histamine, acetylcholine and other toxic substances in the hornet venom. Bites are especially dangerous Japanese hornet, the Asian great hornet and the tormented hornet.
What to do if bitten by a hornet
If you have been bitten by a hornet, you must immediately take the following measures:
- Take an antihistamine, for example, Suprastin, as quickly as possible; it will slow down the occurrence of an allergic reaction.
- You can try to suck out the poison released by the hornet from the wound, but you need to do this very quickly, since the skin at the site of the bite begins to tighten and if you missed 1-2 minutes after the bite, then there is no point in doing this.
- It is worth putting a cold compress on the bite site; it will slow down the spread of the poison and at the same time reduce swelling of the skin.
- Apply Fenistil gel to the bite area.
- If you have a fever after being bitten, do not bring it down unless it rises above 38 C.
- Do not drink alcohol under any circumstances.
- If you feel worse, do not hesitate to call an ambulance.
How to get rid of hornets
Hornets, despite the danger posed by them, also bring benefits, for example, they destroy various harmful insects, all kinds of garden and vegetable pests. But still, there is no place for them to live next door to a person. And the hornets themselves do not often appear near human dwellings; they are usually attracted here by sweet aromas: the smell of honey or overripe fruits.
If a hornet accidentally flew into your window, do not try to drive it out by furiously waving a rag or other object, it may well sting you. It’s better to wait until it calms down and sits down like some kind of surface and quickly cover it with a simple glass jar. Then carefully release the hornet outside.
Hornets - an empire of ruthless killers, video
And finally, we bring to your attention a film about our heroes, under the menacing title “Hornets - an empire of ruthless killers.”
