Man I hate these critters

This thing seemed to grow to this size in a week. Hopefully the city will take care of these little critters tomorrow

that is a pretty amazing bit of insect architecture

wow.,.. I have actually never seen a bee hive... huh.. so thats what winnie the poo was going after huh?

This is not a beehive - it is yellow jackets and they can really sting if you mess with them

gotcha.,.. well bees make the same size hive correct?

It looks like our hornets nest around here, but the hornets are black & white and carries a whallup. Our yellow jackets nest in the ground around here also.

Those are hornets, specifically the European Hornet which is most common in the US. We have problems with them every year trying to build their nests in the gourds my wife hangs out for the birds to nest in. Their sting is not deadly but it hurts like holy heck! Nice shot!! ...now buy some spray and move them out before they sting the kids! Hornets act defensively to hive attacks and will send everyone to attack the attacker. All it takes is one kid and one rock/stick to set them off.

Very cool hornet's nest!

I have been stung by those hornets twice....and you should have see the horrible, gross lesion/welt it made on my arm that lasted about 2 weeks!

Shutterbug Doug wrote in post #8343809
Those are hornets, specifically the European Hornet which is most common in the US. We have problems with them every year trying to build their nests in the gourds my wife hangs out for the birds to nest in. Their sting is not deadly but it hurts like holy heck! Nice shot!! ...now buy some spray and move them out before they sting the kids! Hornets act defensively to hive attacks and will send everyone to attack the attacker. All it takes is one kid and one rock/stick to set them off.

Yup, pretty nasty little buggers. Fortunately it's on city property in front of my house so they're sending someone out to deal with them.

Maureen Souza wrote in post #8343839
Very cool hornet's nest!

I have been stung by those hornets twice....and you should have see the horrible, gross lesion/welt it made on my arm that lasted about 2 weeks!

I can imagine Maureen. Their stings are really painful, and it's like they just grind that singer into you.

I was stung while riding my road bike up a pretty steep hill several years ago. One of these flew into me and down the front of my shirt ... and thinking it was a harmless bug crawling around in my shirt I swatted it. I got zapped really hard three times before I could get off my bike and get it out of my shirt.

Bob_A wrote in post #8343876
I was stung while riding my road bike up a pretty steep hill several years ago. One of these flew into me and down the front of my shirt ... and thinking it was a harmless bug crawling around in my shirt I swatted it. I got zapped really hard three times before I could get off my bike and get it out of my shirt.

Yikes -- that sucks! I've been riding for a couple of years now and (luckily) have not run into this situation yet, but I know it's only a matter of time!

Bryan

Great pic but it makes me shudder and gives me goose bumps. I saw way to many of those nests when I was a kid and was on the receiving end of more stings than I care for. To this day, bees give me the creeps.

to correct what has been already stated - this looks much more like a paper wasp's nest. you can google paper wasps to get a better description of them, but in general that are harmless unless provoked, & are considered a great benefit to have around as they eat lots of bugs that you typically DON'T want around, esp if you have a garden.

They look like wasps to me.

This reminded me of a funny story that my wife's uncle told us.

He grew up in the country, and hunting was a way of life, and very much a family event. One year, one of his cousins started collecting hornet's nest, and would coat them in lacquer and sell them as ornamental items for people to set in their house. Anyway, the men in the family decided to go hunting for a weekend. Close to their camp, they found a large hornet's nest that they thought was empty, so the cousin and a couple of the relatives decided to try and get it down by shooting the limb it was attached to with their shotguns. After about 10 shots the older father came over to see what the noise was about, only to see them firing shot after shot at the hornets nest. The father told them "you boys just can't do anything right" and with that, thinking that the boys were just trying to get rid of the nest, he points his shot gun at the hornets nest and fired one shot, hitting the hornets nest and dropped it to the ground. He gave them a smirk and a grunt, turned his back and just walked back to camp. At that point, the boys went over to the hornets nest to see if it could be saved, only to find that it wasn't empty. It was still very much an active hive, and the the hornets were none too happy. They proceed to swarm and attack the boys who promptly hi-tailed it back to camp. I laugh every time I hear that story.