Man is surrounded by a great many animals.Hornets are very familiar to us, but people do not like them. This insect causes fear, and sometimes panic and horror. It is capable of attacking a person and hurting him. The poison of hornets can cause a strong allergic reaction, and multiple bites can be fatal. If anaphylactic shock occurs, immediate medical attention should be provided. At the same time, the hornet is useful. These individuals are great architects and builders! The question is, what is our attitude towards them.
Hornets - social insects
People call them pirates. Other names - "winged corsairs", "flying tigers". Here is the biological classification of hornets:
- insect class (Insecta);
- hymenoptera detachment (Hymenoptera);
- family of folded paper wasps (Vespidae).
The world has twenty-three types of hornets andmany of their subspecies. In some European countries, they are under state protection. So, for example, in Germany for the destruction of nests of such insects a penalty of 50 thousand euros. The common hornet lives in numerous colonies or families, which include: female, males and working individuals. By the end of August - the beginning of September, the number of the colony can reach 400–800 units.
The family may have several females, but the uterusonly one hornet. At the same time, to prevent the mating and the laying of fertilized eggs by other females, the main queen emits a special smell (Pheromone), and the minor ones lay unfertilized, from which only the drones hatch. Hornets settle in earthen nests, choose a tree hollow for dwelling, places under round roofs, on fences. They make nests by saliva, chewing wood. The first spring generations are made up of working hornets. Autumn are females and males. For the winter, only fetal specimens remain. They hibernate.
The prey is destroyed by the hornetsting Another way is to break the victim with its jaws apart. Food predators are different insects, including nocturnal. The hornet kills the bee caught immediately and sucks. The breast of the victim is carried to the nest for feeding his brood.
During the day, a large family of winged predators catches up to 500 grams or more of insects. In the garden and garden hornets are very useful!
They feed on the juice of ripe fruit, trees and the nectar of easily accessible flowers.
Protein food is necessary for the uterus for exhausting labor - egg deposition. The hornets barely sleep, only freeze for half a minute about 20-25 times a night and do not move.
Dimensions and description
Передняя половина груди матки жёлтого цвета.The head has the same color. The first two rings are dark brown with yellow stripes, the rest are yellow with brown spots. From 25 to 35 millimeters has the length of the hornet's uterus. The sizes of males and working individuals are smaller.
The uterus and workers have a sting - thismodified ovipositor. At the top of the head, on the sides, are three simple, large, facetted eyes. They have a reddish-orange hornet, and the incision resembles the letter C. The mouthparts of the gnawing type are equipped with very strong mandibles. The body is covered with hairs. For the development of ovaries and egg production, the hornet uterus needs food rich in proteins. For successful hibernation in August - September, the uterus feeds heavily and accumulates the so-called fat body.
Life cycle and features of the family of hornets
In the spring, at the end of May, after hibernationwaking up the uterus. She makes reconnaissance flights in search of a place to base the nest. Having found the right one, lays the first hexagonal cells and attaches the next ones to them. Soon, an egg will be laid in each cell, and after 8 days the larvae will develop in them, and after 12–15 of them, a hornet will appear as a result of the metamorphosis.
Before the start of breeding, the hornet's uterus determines and purposefully lays eggs from which the drones or future wombs hatch. This is controlled by the release of sperm.
By the middle of June, working individuals will be engaged in the construction of the nest, and the queen will only lay eggs.
Since September, young individuals appear.From now on, the old hornet's uterus has been neglected. Her ability to carry eggs weighs heavily, and those that are produced are eaten by female workers in a few minutes. So the uterus leaves the hive and dies at the age of about one year.
Female workers feed passive females and males.Absorbing a large amount of proteins and carbohydrates, the young uterus is stocked with the necessary reserves for a long winter. Uneducated cocoons are eaten by workers and drones.
In the fall, mating takes place. Uterine young can be fertilized several times. Males die in two weeks. Fertilized uterus seek shelter for wintering. There comes a diapause.
In early November, the last of the workers die. The signs of life disappear in the hive. Most of the young queens will not survive in the winter.
Hornets - Builders and Architects
Когда обустраивается гнездо шершней, насекомые use rotten wood. It is chewed and mixed with saliva. From the resulting substance are built honeycombs. The nest shell also consists of it. Glue is also saliva. The dried surface is similar to corrugated paper. Color depends on the type of wood. The nest is not used for the second year. After winter, in spring, the queen finds a convenient place for a new nest. It attaches a small foot to the ceiling. The first cells are made on it. The expansion of the home always occurs from the top down, the notch is in the lower part. A large nest of hornets has 6 tiers. The dimensions of the largest reach a diameter of half a meter.
Alarms
Just like other insects, hornets are capableunite a whole nest and sting the enemy for self-defense. It is very dangerous! Feeling threatened, the hornet releases pheromone anxiety. This substance activates fellows to attack. Do not kill the hornet near the nest. Distress signals are able to raise the whole family for revenge on the offender.
The starting signal for an attack can serve as a variety of materials that are chemically capable of coming into contact with pheromone, including clothing, leather, and food seasonings.
Wasps
In scientific Latin the hornet is an insect,designated as Vespa - "wasp". Vespula - refers to the usual genus wasps (literally translated as "Osishka"). In science, there is a clear classification of this type of insect, but in real life there is confusion when distinguishing between large hornets and other representatives. The real wasps are smaller and have a bright yellow with black color, while the hornet is a darker insect.
Есть большие осы, которых называют шершнями.A special place among them is the spotted Dolichovespula Maculata. She lives in North America. In English, it is called Bald-faced hornet, as well as real hornets. It has a black color and ivory stripes. Most likely, the wasps are called hornets because of their habit of creating aboveground nests. There is also the Australian hornet Abispa Ephippium, a species of solitary wasp.
Benefit or still harm?
In the forest literature, the hornet is often represented asdirty dog, which must be neutralized, as it gnaws the thin bark of trees. Because of this, twisted branches are formed that die off. This damage, compared to that caused by other wild animals, is very insignificant. In the garden or the garden is good to have a nest of hornets! An interesting fact: in one day, a large family of predatory insects can destroy more than five hundred grams of harmful insects. They catch live prey and rarely take up carrion!
But these are the main natural enemies for ordinaryworking bees. A gluttonous big hornet and its fellow giants fly on bee nests in order to eat their honey with larvae. Among the known cases: thirty large hornets killed 3 thousand bees in an hour and a half. Hornets are crushed by their powerful jaws. Bees also developed methods of protection: carbon dioxide and heat. Getting into the "bee ball" with a high temperature, the workers will kill the hornet in ten minutes. In addition, the concentration of carbon dioxide in the balloon increases sharply.
How to get rid of hornets on the plot?
Unlike other wasps, hornets are hard to lure.honey bait or jam. Begin the fight in early spring. At this time, the wasps are in the initial stages of building their nests. First of all inspect all buildings, especially rarely visited.
Found nests sprayed with potentinsecticides, and then removed and burned. When they are big - it is difficult. Poisonous pesticides baits from meat and fish stuffing are effective, which hornets are often used to feed the larvae. They are put in places inaccessible to pets. Adult insects make various sweet traps, especially with beer or fermented kvass.
Why and how dangerous is the hornet
For humans, the venom of most species of hornet lesstoxic than bee. After the injection, the sting remains in the wound. But this insect may hurt several times in a row. The deadly properties of poison is due to the high concentration of mandorotoxin and toxic substances that cause the destruction of human tissues.
If the hornet released a lot of poison, there will besevere inflammatory reaction. How dangerous is the hornet for humans? With a high individual sensitivity, the consequences can be very difficult. If there were a lot of injections, as happens with a disturbed nest of hornets, death is possible. Japan has a sad statistic: every year, getting a bite of a giant hornet, kills about forty people. The poison of Asian individuals is highly toxic. European specimens are smaller and less venomous. On a special scale of painfulness of Schmidt bites, the pain from a hornet’s lesion is roughly comparable to that of a honeybee and is on the middle level of the scale, as moderately severe.
As a rule, fears of hornet are exaggerated: its bite is out of proportion with the size of the insect.
