HORNET RESTING

This handsome hornet (Vespa crabro) was sitting on an outside window sill having a rest.  It is probably a new queen looking for a sheltered place to hibernate.

In spring she will emerge and find a place to start a new colony.  She will chew up some old wood from a dead branch or an oak beam, mix it with saliva and make a sort of papier maché to build the first layer of a nest.  When the first eggs have developed into workers she leaves all the nest building and care of the larvae to them while she concentrates on egg laying.  

This behaviour is similar to all other social wasps but despite their impressive size (30-40mm long) hornets are less aggressive than common wasps (even common wasps only sting if crushed or threatened), although the venom packs more of a punch.  I have twice had to do a decay test on an old oak tree while hornets returned again and again to drink sap from a bark wound close to my face, taking practically no notice of me.

Hornets mainly feed on insects, 90% of which are flies, with an occasional treat of nectar or tree sap, so they are an important part of the ecology.  As with many social insects, only the newly mated queens, which appear in September, survive the winter cold.