Bald Faced Hornets

The excitement/entertainment of the day was watching this bald faced hornets nest being dismantled.   You can maybe appreciate the flat face…their hive is so beautiful.  Sam came with his vacuum and vacuumed them out into a jar… (this size nest maybe 100-150 insects) .  Then they get put on dry ice which kills them rapidly and  a middle man sends the frozen bees off to different medical labs to be used to make vaccines for those who are allergic to them.  The interesting fact I learned from Sam today was that the hornets will fly straight at his facemask, squirting their venom.    I didn’t get too close.   

Extras show Sam (with our tree trimmer  Harold, who found it in the crabapple tree he was going to trim earlier this morning) and the vacuuming and the dismantling of that beautiful nest.    and a close up of the vacuum and the bees.  There will be a few disappointed drones left, but hopefully no queen.