Bald Faced Hornet Nest Removal | Long Island Bee Removal

BALD-FACED HORNETS LONG ISLAND, NEW YORK

Bald-faced hornets are also known as bald hornets, white-faced hornets, white-tailed hornets, spruce wasps, black jackets, and bull wasps. Bald-faced hornets are not true hornets but rather an aerial yellowjacket wasp. The bald-faced hornet is a eusocial insect that lives in colonies and is named for the distinctive ivory-white markings on its face. Bald-faced hornets are distinguished from other yellow jacket wasps by their white and black markings and significantly larger size. These hornets have three distinctive white stripes at the end of their abdomens. Bald-faced hornets have a stout body and translucent dark brown wings. Female worker hornets are covered with small hairs, while the queens are hairless. Bald-faced hornets are 5/8 to 3/4 of an inch long. Queen bald-faced hornets are consistently larger than workers in their colony. Male bald-faced hornets develop from haploid, unfertilized eggs and females from diploid, fertilized eggs. Worker female hornets can, therefore, lay eggs that develop into drones. After sufficient workers have been reared and queen-destined eggs have been laid to give workers a reproductive advantage, the bald-faced hornet queen may be killed.

BALD-FACED HORNET DISTRIBUTION & BEHAVIOR

The bald-faced hornet is native to and found in North America, including Southern Canada, Alaska, the Rocky Mountains, the western coast of the United States, and a greater part of the eastern United States. However, the bald-faced hornet is absent from arid regions of the United States. Bald-faced hornets will build a sizeable gray, papery nest, occasionally reaching three feet in length on a tree branch, in shrubs, or on the soffit of a Long Island residence. The bald-faced hornet nest is constructed of two to four layers of hexagonal combs encased in about two inches of protective paper. The nest is built with air vents in the upper part of the nest, allowing excess heat to escape and an entrance hole at the bottom. These social wasps are omnivorous and are considered to be beneficial insects due to their predation of spiders, caterpillars, flies, and other yellowjackets. However, their aggressively defensive character makes them a grave danger to people who come too close to their nest. Bald-faced hornets vehemently defend their nest by repeatedly stinging and spraying venom into an intruder's eyes, resulting in short-term blindness.

BALD-FACED HORNET FACTS

Bald-faced hornets belong to the family Vespidae and the species Dolichovespula maculata. Hornets are the largest and most aggressive members of the wasp family.

Bald-faced hornet predators include raccoons, skunks, foxes, and bears. These animals rip open bald-faced hornet nests to consume the hornet larvae and pupae. Additional predators of bald-faced hornets consist of birds, spiders, frogs, praying mantises, and bee moths.

Bald-faced hornets have barbless stingers, permitting them to sting repeatedly without losing their stingers. Bald-faced hornet drones are unable to sting.

Bald-faced hornets, in the process of seeking out flower nectar, they play a role in pollinating plants.

Bald-faced hornet eggs hatch in six days, and the larvae develop into adults in nine to ten days.

Bald-faced hornets have a thin waist between the thorax and abdomen, known as a wasp waist. It distinguishes them from bees, which have thick waists between the thorax and abdomen.

BALD-FACED HORNET LIFE CYCLE NASSAU COUNTY, NEW YORK

During the spring, queen bald-faced hornets reared and fertilized at the end of the previous year start new colonies. Bald-faced hornet nests are newly built each year. A queen hornet that has emerged from hibernation will choose a site to construct her nest, lay eggs and rear the first batch of hatchlings. The hornet offspring will develop into infertile female workers and assume the tasks of expanding the spherically shaped nest, foraging for food, and caring for the offspring while the queen now functions only to produce more eggs. The female worker hornets sometimes damage shrubs and trees with thin bark as they strip off the bark to construct their nests. The worker hornets chew up the bark, which mixes with their saliva to become a pulpy substance, which is spread around using their jaws and legs and dries into a papery structure. Female worker bald-faced hornets guard the nest and feed on tree sap, fruit pulp, and nectar. Worker hornets prey on insects and other arthropods, chewing them up and feeding them to the developing brood. As the summer progresses, the hornet colony grows and can reach a population of as many as four hundred workers. In the later part of the summer and early fall, the bald-faced hornet queen begins to lay eggs, which will develop into male drone hornets and new queens. Following pupation, the newly emerged fertile male and female hornets leave the nest to mate. Fertilized queen bald-faced hornets then hibernate in protected places such as hollow trees, rock piles, and attics and start new colonies in the next year. Male and female worker hornets die at the end of the season. The old bald-faced hornet queen, if not killed by workers, perishes with them in the fall.