Why You Should Never Approach A Hornet Nest - What's Inside An Active Colony. Mousetrap Monday

well have you ever heard the saying they really stirred up a hornet's nest this is what that looks like oh they are hitting me hard they're coming out of there ready to attack we're gonna start peeling this away and seeing what's inside in today's mousetrap monday video you're going to get a close-up look at what's inside an active bald-faced hornet nest over my shoulder here is a pretty large paper nest about the size of a soccer ball and inside is a colony of bald-faced hornets they're not honeybees instead they're large stinging insects that are hunters and scavengers and they can be extremely aggressive this is as close as i dare get to the nest and even as i get closer i can see the soldiers coming out they're ready to attack so i'm gonna put on the bee suit and we're gonna take it apart piece by piece now the reason i'm destroying it is it's pretty dangerous to have in my backyard a couple weeks ago a friend of ours got stung by a bald face hornet so i was watching for the nest and i finally found it usually they're way up at the top of a tree usually a cottonwood tree but this one is at ground level so it's perfect for filming i'm going to zoom in put on the bee suit be completely protected we're going to take it apart so i can show you what's inside these hornets are not going to be happy as soon as we start there's going to be a tornado of buzzing and stinging but fortunately i'm protected don't try this at home let's take a look at what's inside this bald-faced hornet nest well have you ever heard the saying they really stirred up a hornet's nest this is what that looks like they are hitting me hard they're coming out of there ready to attack we're going to start peeling this away and seeing what's inside well as you can see the openings on the bottom there are dozens and dozens probably hundreds of these large ball face hornets coming out to defend their nest we're going to take apart this paper piece by piece if i didn't have the bee suit i would be in a world of hurt they build this paper out of the fiber of bark it's pretty cool [Music] and it's built in layers as they expand and make a larger colony they just add paper this probably has 10 different layers it almost looks like toilet paper although i wouldn't want to use this as toilet paper right now and these are pretty aggressive and angry we'll just peel off this exterior paper so it's pretty much hollow on the bottom with the opening and up top we're starting to see multi layers again these aren't honeybees there's no honey they're just ball face hornets and they are stinging my leather gloves and flying away with the stingers inside the glove i don't know if you can see all those layers we're starting to get to the chambers where they have larva [Applause] oh just fell out of the tree so let's zoom in on the ground and take a closer look you can see my face and how many ball face hornets are going for my face i would be in a world of hurt if this protected cover failed i have had yellow jackets get under the zipper before and that's a nightmare when they're in your face but right now i'm feeling pretty comfortable the suit seems to be working well and here is the multi-layers let's zoom in and take a look at them so you can see how they build the different layers this is brand new they expand and work their way out so the oldest ones are pretty wide the next level here is about five inches wide and this one's pretty small it doesn't even have any eggs in it you have that honeycomb shape but inside here's one that's just emerging and you can see different layers of the larva they get fed and their heads are sticking out and then when they're ready to pupate they cover this up it almost looks like a cotton covering then they chew their way out like this one and become an adult that's pretty fascinating that just emerged right there it's pretty soft bodied and it's pretty large here's a pupa almost looks like a worm and it wiggles all over here's the next layer down as you can see they're constantly laying new eggs and hatching out new members of their colony and they defend this pretty fiercely there's a bunch of adults down in this side there she is we have the queen well now you know what it looks like when you kick a bald-faced hornet nest they're pretty aggressive i'm going to make sure that no one comes in this area for quite a while but i am going to take the larva we're going to get a closer look at it and then we're going to feed it to a skunk in the backyard so let's go inside get rid of all these adults that are trying to attack me and we'll look at the larva well as you can see this is slightly less stressful than having all those bald-faced hornets flying around trying to sting me now we can look closely at the larva it's pretty interesting here's some young ones wanting to be fed you can see their head and these are starting to make the casing it's almost complete then they'll go inside and start to metamorphosize grow the wings and the legs and come out and emerge as young bald-faced hornets and here's the queen the egg-laying machine well that's quite a change they start out as a larva and then they go inside seal off the chamber and grow wings and legs and this is pretty small compared to that huge queen right here as i mentioned earlier one of the favorite foods of the skunk are the larva of a yellow jacket or bald-faced hornet if they find a nest underground they'll even dig it up so this would be quite a feast for a skunk i'm going to end the video by placing this in the backyard and seeing if a skunk comes along and enjoys all these protein-packed meals i'm going to do that with this side but with this chamber i'm going to take fishing these would make great bait to catch bass and bluegill so i'm going to hook them up on the fly rod and see how many fish we can catch but that will be another video now normally i'm posting videos about catching mice and rats but sometimes i branch out and show you how to trap yellow jackets bald-faced hornets and deal with the nests i'll put a list down below of some of my favorite videos on how to catch yellow jackets and ball face hornets if you haven't subscribed please consider clicking that button i've posted almost 800 videos on youtube and currently i'm posting new videos every monday and friday so if you want to see the best videos on how to catch mice rats squirrels chipmunks moles foals and gophers and sometimes yellow jackets and bald-faced hornets stay tuned now let's go feed a skunk [Music] you

Channel: Shawn Woods

Views: 4,101,000

Keywords: Shawn Woods, Mouse Trap, Mousetrap Monday, Pest Control, How to catch a mouse, mousetrap review, mouse trap bucket, mouse trap quicksand, mouse trap commercial, mouse trap bottle, big mouse trap, victor mouse trap, rat trap bucket, antique mouse trap, vintage mouse trap, rare mouse trap

Id: 19-qku8F8fA

Length: 8min 5sec (485 seconds)

Published: Mon Aug 22 2022