General Chat

We certainly do have paper wasps in France though I have never heard of them in England. They are quite handsome.

So long as they are left to their own devices they are not a problem but can get quite bolshy if they think they are under attack. The sting is way worse then the typical guepe or even a frelon and can even be fatal. For that reason the nests are removed if they pose danger eg near a school. They are not a universal problem and removing them from the eco system altogether is bad news.

It was not myself who called in the exterminators to the hornets it was my O.H.!

If everything that moves or can be eaten and that some people were susceptible to were removed then life would be even duller than it is already in this Age of the ElfNSafety. As many of these problems are allegedly genetic it makes one wonder how they persisted for so many generations. Maybe Darwin has it wrong ?

Who though is going to call it for the cockroaches rah rah rah. Who?

Sylvie is right about fire ants though they are feisty and have a bite from hell. Maybe we could put them in barrel bombs and drop them on ISL. They are far more fearsome than an F16.

Thomas Crapper was born in Yorkshire in 1836. He was an inventor. His inventions took longer to catch on than I thought.
:-D

I have had paper wasp nests in my (now dilapidated) shed, have admired their construction and left them.
I like hornets, they are less likely to sting than wasps, and seeing loads of them drunk on over ripe figs outside a pub in the New Forest wash hilarious!

Wood ants can almost (but not quite) rival fire ants in bite, as a woman we found - yet again in the New Forest can testify.
Feeling a little weary from her walk, she found a perfect place to rest - a mound.
The mound was the habitat of the Wood Ant. Not too happy with their abode being used as a resting place, the ants came out and bit!!

I've had one bite from a wood ant - nowhere near his habitat, just a roaming b*stard who bit me - it was very painful - like intensified sunburn (which I initially thought it was - then realise it couldn't be as it was under my jeans), then the perpetrator of my pain emerged.

What this woman suffered, I can't imagine. Driver and I took them to the nearest road and called for an ambulance.

I believe, though a sanitation inventor, Thomas Crapper, did not actually invent the flushing toilet, but fared better as a manufacturer of flushing toilets.

Pleased as I am to see that the New Forest has enlisted another species to discourage grockles Sylvie is correct the pain score of a wood ant is maybe 2 yards whereas the fire ant goes the whole nine yards. They are agressive, quick on their pins and can really ruin your day or worse.

I wonder if another New Forest pest, the lycra clad cyclist, could be introduced to the wood ant? A terrific match.

The Daily Mail alleges that the fire ant has made it to the British Isles but more reliably the Independent corroborates this:
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/weird-news/super-ants-with-deadly-attraction-to-electricity-escape-from-gloucestershire-and-head-for-london-9627259.html. Can they handle ice, snow, Boris Johnson ?

Ants may be the next dominant species if they are not already. What they can't sting the termite variation will eat. Where can you get an echidna ?

Well I am sure the wasp OH found was a queen, it was huge and I would rather it be dead than me. I do not like to kill anything but I have been stung twice and go into anaphylactic shock and believe me its awful. It gets worse each time a person is stung so I do not fancy a third one. I thought with it being winter I was safe for a few month.
Sylvia

Sylvia

better to be safe, and carry an epi pen with you all the time

Sylvia
I do carry my epi pens with me, just pray I never need them.