Just recently, our oldest daughter noticed this hanging in our neighbors maple tree. It is a huge hornet nest. I mean HUGE!!! It is bigger than a soccer ball, perhaps even slightly larger than a basketball. We were hoping that it didn’t have any hornets in it, but we found out that it did once we threw a rock at it. They came swarming out! (I don’t recommend doing that!! LOL) It is probably about 25-30 feet up in the tree. We have tried thinking of ways to get it down and to save the nest. My daughter wants to cut it open and look at the inside of it. I think it will be a great science lesson. Again, we have to get it down in one piece. Any suggestions?
The outside is so neat looking. You can tell where they have added on to it over and over. It even has twigs going right through the nest. You can also see several openings where the hornets can go in and out of the nest. It also has leaves sticking in it too. I think what fascinates me the most is the color. It looks like there are 3 different colors on the nest. It is in a layered pattern.
Have you ever seen a nest this big? I have seen hornet nests before, but nothing this size. I have heard of them being much larger out in the forest though. For now, we are just leaving it alone. We are hoping that once the cold weather comes, it will be easier getting rid of the hornets so we can take it down.
Have you ever found anything like this and let the kids dissect it?
Umm…unless you can be positve that it's no longer being used, 'opening it in winter' might just mean the residents are snoozing!?!
I have seen one as big as that, my son was stung by some, not knowing it was in the roof top cover of a swingset. They are nasty, so watch out. I would wait, like jim said, until Winter. It looks incredible!
I have seen one as big as that, my son was stung by some, not knowing it was in the roof top cover of a swingset. They are nasty, so watch out. I would wait, like jim said, until Winter. It looks incredible!
Wow! THat is a cool nest! Definitely wouldn't dissect unless I knew they were all gone and dead. Yikes!
yes, we dissected one a couple of yrs ago…this is what we done..we used hornet spray to kill the hornets(it was on the side of our house next to the pool-we left it till it got large and the noise of children playing disturbed them) then a few days later we cut into it-very neat and there were still some alive including egg stage all the way to adult stage..the nest itself was so cool to see how dynamic it was
We went to Hurricane Creek in Alabama and the ranger showed us one that was HUGE.
Yours is beautiful though. I would make 1005 sure it was empty but how fun would dissecting it be?
We opened one – not that large – in central oregon. The larvae inside was great! I think my husband sprayed it, then the kids hit it with a stick or such, and we looked at a chunk of it. Wonder if you could saran wrap it and put it in a freezer for a while?
Wow! It looks awesome! I have seen nests like these around my home (I live in the mountains) but I never stayed around long enough after seeing them to even think about how incredible the nest actually is. Good luck with getting it down & dissecting it. I hope when you do get it down, you will update us with photos of the inside of it. It would be neat to see the inside.
wow, that is really neat, I think it's kind of beautiful. I'd be afraid to dissect it. I think, if I thought they were gone, I'd have someone (dh) get it down, and then seal it up in a big trash bag and spray bug spray inside and leave it for a few days.