Baldfaced Hornets Invade

Yesterday after spending a nice morning playing with the children on the driveway and in the back yard (where apparently our guardian angels were working hard), I glanced out the kitchen window and noticed the above: a giant nest, about twelve inches in diameter. This could not be good. A call to an exterminator and a description of the nest resulted in a diagnosis: baldfaced hornets (which I then looked at online and confirmed that that was what I was seeing). Indeed, these very aggressive hornets were flying into my big kitchen window all afternoon, as if seeing us inside and wanting to sting us. Thump, thump! I heard all day.

The exterminator said he'd be here the next morning at six thirty before the hornets were too lively. With our heat, though, we saw there was already activity at that time of the morning. Everyone made sure to be awake to watch the excitement! (John had spent all yesterday telling me that we did not need to hire an exterminator because he has a bee suit and two special chemicals in his car, so he could kill the "horn bugs.")

First the exterminator used a powder spray on the end of a long pole.

Then he used a liquid spray.

The poisons caused hornets to start flying out of the nest and I felt quite anxious wondering if we were going to witness a swarm of hundreds chase down our exterminator and I pondered how fast 911 personnel could get here. Some bugs flew around angrily, and others fell to the ground, twitching in death throes amidst the powder.


Video of the twitching

The exterminator gave the children two dead specimens to keep in their bug jar. They've been joyfully shaking the jar ever since, with Mary narrating, "I shake! I shake!"

We are supposed to avoid being around the hornets and watch the diminishing activity for the next few days. The exterminator will check with us on Monday to see if all activity has died down, at which point he'll return to remove the nest. He says he had seen only three baldfaced hornet nests in twelve years of practice, but ours has been the second this season alone. That made us feel special!