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Archive for August 8th, 2023

Diary #684

Posted in Diary, tagged , on August 8, 2023| 1 Comment »

I am always in a bit of awe when faced with the speed at which animals can build enormous structures.  Last week I was working very near where Jae spotted this hornets’ nest yesterday morning, and saw neither bugs nor nest; within that time it had grown to nearly the size of a soccer ball.  And while I’m generally pretty “live and let live” where insects and other creeping things are concerned, hornets are far too aggressive to allow inside the atrium!  Unfortunately I did not have any of the “kill hornets from 6 m away” spray, but I used the flying insect spray judiciously and managed to clear them out without getting stung; a shovel then took care of the mostly-empty nest.  I’d say there were already several dozen adults, and I didn’t try to count the larvae (though I saw dozens of sealed cells when the nest fell and broke open).  But since I’ve always found the hymenoptera fascinating, especially in their construction of city-like nests, I just had to take a picture before I removed it.  And as soon as I finish writing this I’m going to add “wasp spray” to my next grocery list, as a precaution against another swarm building a nest way up near the peak where I’d have had a devil of a time dealing with them otherwise.

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