Traits, mating, nest building, and more

the essentials in brief

• A hornet queen is between 2.3 and 3.5 cm tall and, in contrast to her workers, has red-brown spots on her abdomen.
• The hornet queen starts building her nests in spring and lays and cares for her first eggs.
• A nest dummy or essential oils such as B. Clove oil can prevent the hornet queen from building nests.
• Hornet workers and their queen can sting several times; a hornet queen's sting is extremely painful.

How to recognize the hornet queen - size and other features

The hornet queen differs significantly in appearance from that of the worker or the drone. Using the characteristic features in the following table, the sexes can be distinguished from one another:

A well-nourished hornet queen can grow to just under 4cm

It is noticeable that the hornet queen differs from her colony especially in terms of her size. The wide range in size development is due to the food available in autumn and spring: the more food the queen finds during this time, the larger it becomes. Their weight also fluctuates very significantly depending on the season: a well-nourished hornet queen starts with around one gram Body weight in the season, it quickly loses weight due to the effort of laying eggs and is practically halved by Autumn.

Digression

The largest hornet in the world lives in Japan

When does the hornet queen fly?

You only have the opportunity to observe a hornet queen outdoors for a very short time each year. The animals spend most of the year in the nest or in winter quarters. Between April and mid-May - earlier or later depending on the weather - the hornet queen leaves her winter quarters and starts building the nest within a short period of time.

As soon as the first workers have hatched, they take over the foraging and the Brood care, so that the queen remains in the nest as head of state and only with laying eggs is busy. During the summer months hornet queens cannot be seen. The young queens only fly out from September, mate and then look for a suitable winter quarry.

Nest building

After leaving the winter quarters, the hornet queen immediately looks for a suitable place for the future nest. Often this is set up close to last year's one, but old nests are not used again. So you already had one last year Hornet's Nest in the garden, keep an eye out for activities of the Hornet Queen in the following spring. You can recognize this, for example, by the fact that the strikingly large hornet flies to the same place over and over again.

Once the queen has found a suitable spot, she builds the hornet's nest from carefully chewed and saliva-covered, rotten wood. At the same time, an egg is placed in each finished honeycomb, from which the first larvae finally hatch. These are initially taken care of by the queen, but after about four weeks the first finished workers take over both the care of the other offspring and the nest building. From this point on, the hornet queen is only occupied with laying eggs and thus continuously provides for offspring. The queen lays around 40 eggs per day.

Prevent nest building and drive away the hornet queen

If you discover a single hornet in spring that is obviously busy building a nest, you can drive it away with gentle means. This is useful, for example, if the animal wants to place its home in an extremely unfavorable place - for example in a roller shutter box, under the canopy or near the terrace. Perfume the moisturized area with clove oil, one at a time Hornets scent that is not at all popular, and seal the entry point with an impenetrable material. Close-meshed insect nets, for example, are very suitable for this, but also simple construction foam. Offer the hornet queen an alternative nesting option in a less dangerous place, for example in a hornet box.

Despite their bad reputation, hornets are usually not dangerous

Digression

Hornets are protected

Can the hornet queen sting?

Since the Sting has evolved from the laying apparatus evolutionarily, only female animals have one. Both the queen and the workers can sting, only the male drones cannot. The hornet queen's sting is slightly longer than that of her worker, after all, the ancestral mother is also about ten millimeters taller than the average subordinate. In contrast to bees, hornets can sting several times. Incidentally, drones cannot sting, but act as if when threatened.

How dangerous is a hornet sting?

The above-mentioned “popular wisdom” is an age-old misconception that probably stems from the ancient custom of using hornets as a weapon of war. At that time the animals were locked in locked clay jugs and thrown over the walls of besieged cities. There the vessels burst and the confused, frightened hornets stung en masse in shock. In fact, the hornet's “poison” is no more harmful than that of a wasp, but is chemically very similar to it. Only those allergic to wasp venom need to be careful with hornets, because this similarity often leads to cross-reactions. However, with a single sting, a honey bee releases a much higher dose of "poison" than a hornet, which is mostly due to the sting remaining in the skin.

First aid after a hornet sting

Hornet stings often swell very much

The painful stimulus after one Hornet sting is explained by the longer sting that penetrates deeper into the skin. However, the pain subsides quickly, especially if you cool it down as soon as possible. Clear, fresh water is very suitable for this. Alternatively, you can also use Fenistil gel or a cream based on Aloe vera Instruct. If you have an aloe vera plant at home, simply cut a piece of a leaf and open it lengthways. Then place it on the stitch with the open inside facing down. A doctor's visit is only necessary if allergic symptoms become noticeable after a sting.

Way of life and duties

The queen and hornet people are busy between May and October, with each animal fulfilling its assigned tasks during this time. While the queen lays eggs and takes care of the hierarchical order, the workers get the food, look after the offspring and guard the nest. The hornet's life cycle follows a strict scheme.

Mating and reproduction

Towards late summer, more so-called sex animals hatch, which are the new young queens and the male drones. Depending on the strength of the hornet state, more or less new queens will be produced, as most of them will be using only one drone or pair a few drones. The young queens fly out of the nest from September and first eat a supply for the winter. Only then do they come to the mating flight with the drones - usually on a sunny autumn morning. The young queen then looks for suitable winter quarters as quickly as possible.

death

The drones, on the other hand, die a few days to weeks after mating. The old queen, too, breathes her life out in October at the latest or is even killed by her workers. Finally - often with the onset of the first frosts - the last workers also die. With this, the hornet colony is completely wiped out, except for the wintering young queens. Only in the coming year will the "offspring" emerge, provided they have survived the winter, into new colonies.

wintering

Immediately after mating, the young queens look for suitable winter quarters, if not yet surprised by a cold snap or eaten by a predator - such as a bird will. They prefer the smallest cracks and crevices, for example in walls, but they also dig tunnels themselves in soft, rotten wood or bury themselves in the earth. Often these winter quarters are located near the old nest and therefore close to human dwellings. Many of the young queens do not survive the winter, freeze to death or fall victim to hungry birds or other predators.

What does the hornet queen eat?

Hornets are omnivores

Hornets are extremely good Hunters, whereby the workers in particular stand out as such. They are the ones who fetch protein-rich food for the larvae and also prey on wasps and other insects for this purpose. The adult hornets, on the other hand - and thus also the hornet queen - feed to a large extent on plant juices and nectars, which is why the animals are often found on trees that are rich in sap (for example lilac, willow, ash or birch) and they are very fond of sweet fruit to have. However, in contrast to wasps, hornets are rarely attracted to human food.

frequently asked Questions

Do the workers lay eggs too?

In the hornet state, the queen alone is responsible for laying eggs. However, the workers are not sterile, but rather have fully functional ovaries. However, these actually only produce eggs in very rare cases, as the workers leave them functionless themselves. Recent research has shown that it is by no means the queen who uses pheromones to make her workers sterile. Should a worker lay eggs, they are quickly discovered and eaten by the others. Only towards the end of summer, when the queen is not or hardly taken care of anyway. is already dead, hornet workers sometimes lay eggs. However, these can no longer develop properly due to the advanced season of the year.

How long do the drones live?

The male hornets - called drones - have a very short life expectancy of just a few weeks. They hatch towards the end of summer and die right after mating with the young queens.

What happens to the hornet people when the queen dies?

A hornet colony without a queen cannot survive as the workers themselves only have a maximum life expectancy of four weeks and the queen is solely responsible for laying eggs. Should the queen actually die before the end of her life - for example due to an infection - the workers begin also with the laying of eggs, but these are unfertilized (no mating ever took place!) and so only males hatch Hornets. However, these cannot contribute to the survival of the hornet people.

How big can a hornet people get?

A hornet colony is nowhere near as big as a colony of bees, for example, but with a good food supply and suitable weather, it can easily grow to 600 to 700 individual animals.

Does the wooden bee also belong to the hornets?

the Wooden bee - due to their similarity to the hornets - is colloquially also called "black hornet" referred to, but actually belongs to the real bees and is therefore not closer to the giant wasps related. The heat-loving insect can be up to three centimeters long and is therefore the largest species of bee found in Germany.