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European #hornet - Vespa crabro - PT "vespĆ£o"

These gentle #insects have had various nests around the land since I've been here. Their biggest regular until the last wildfire was 3m up in a hole in a cork oak over a path. Their volume of their fanning outside was a reassuring weather-temperature-check hum to me every time I walked under. They're working up there, but not restored yet, I think -- no humming yet.

But every time I walk past this old oak post, 30 cm from my face on a main path, I see and hear them collecting rotten wood fibre from it for their constructions. They've etched out the softer areas. Sometimes one will leap off and fly a loop around me to see what I am, but never are they aggressive there...

Other years and places when I've come too close to a low-level nest, they still don't sting or land, but get pretty loud and fast "buzzing" me.

a 5 cm wasp on an intricately textured rotting oak post. It's gnawing soft flakes out of an area, close to where the yellower freshly exposed wood cavities show they've been active. There's other passages exposed, gnawed in prev years by long gone beetle larvae etc.
#insects #hornet
in reply to SolaršŸŒ„Garden

Hteph
mastodon - Link to source
Hteph
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They are very impressive in size, but as you say, way less aggressive than "ordinary" wasps (and those generally don't bother me unless I stray too close to the hive or when binging sugar after the hive have closed down)
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