What kind of bee/hornet is this!

[tequilathursday]

Lol, Yeah spelling was never a strong suit of mine. I just scroll up and spell it the way I see it. Either way they still make a heck of a dent in your forhead and that bee is pretty nasty too.

 

[MoonRise]

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Negeltu said:
I believe I've read that hornets and the such are actually less aggressive and have less of the "toxic stuff" than honeybees.

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Nope, hornets and yellowjackets are pretty aggressive. Way more than honeybees, except for Africanized bees which are actually a little smaller and have a slightly less potent toxin than normal bees. Further, hornets, wasps, and yellowjackets can usually sting multiple times (their stinger is smooth) whereas bees can usually only sting once (the stinger assembly gets ripped out of the bee because the stinger is barbed, which means that the barbed stinger and the still pumping poison sack are stuck in the victim and the bee will die cause its buttt is ripped off!)

 

[Lurker]

I've been swarmed on twice in my lifetime and I don't want to experience it again. These pictures are giving me the creeps.

 

[turbodog]

Hmmm, I looked them up on the net. Interesting creatures for sure.

Ever seen a velvet ant? Nasty critters, AND they "talk".

 

[PeterW]

Mean!!! We had some 2cm long buggers appearing as bodies overnight in our offices. We found the nest outside and got it nuked. The guy who dealt with them identified them as 'belgian wasps', as opposed to the german or english varieties..... sting like $%*& apparently.

Hope this helps.

PEterW

 

[The_LED_Museum]

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Billson said:
Guys,

Did a search on google because I was sure you were spelling it wrong. They're spelled "cicada" not "secada" unless you're referring to the singer in which case I hope he's careful as there are flying insects trying to kill him so they could feed their young with him. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif

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I wanted to correct the spelling of "cicada" too, but I didn't want to come off sounding like the "spelingg polleesce", since I misspell some words myself, like "toliet", "blub", and "kapeesh". /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/eek.gif /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/icon15.gif /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/eek.gif

 

[Sigman]

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turbodog said:
Hmmm, I looked them up on the net. Interesting creatures for sure.
Ever seen a velvet ant? Nasty critters, AND they "talk".

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--------------------
Ever see a 1963 Outer Limits episode called "The Zanti Misfits"? /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif

 

[kakster]

I for one, welcome our new insect overlords.

 

[kongfuchicken]

/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/crackup.gif

 

[JonSidneyB]

I used to see those all the time when I lived in Oklahoma. They are different looking than Tarantula Hawks but live the same way. They kill the cicada, lay eggs in it in a whole in the ground. The hatchlings eat the cicada when they hatch. I could be wrong but I think it is a type of solitary wasp.

 

[JonSidneyB]

velvet anys....yep...they are a wingless wasp.

Ya wanna hear something we used to do that was stupid when I was young. We would hunt bees with those .357 revolver sized shotgun shells with #12 shot. We would shoot a solid bullet into the nest to stir them up and blast bees on the wing and run and jump in the pickup to reload. The foolishness of youth. We out grew this habit when we shot a hornets nest out by an almost unsed portion of a place by Lake Ponca. The place was known as the old shelter house. It is not smart to shoot a hornets nest with revolvers.

 

[UnknownVT]

Interesting - it seems that those are
Cicada Killer Wasps -

page on Mining Bees & Ground Nesting Wasps

 

[brightnorm]

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MoonRise said:
...hornets and yellowjackets are pretty aggressive. Way more than honeybees, except for Africanized bees which are actually a little smaller and have a slightly less potent toxin than normal bees...

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Whatever happened to those Africanized bees, are they still making their way North?

Brightnorm