nests | Creativity Aroused

Haunted House, a photo by Fergiemoto on Flickr. Click on photo to enlarge.

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residence for spooks
sporting indelible costumes
haunted house
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Does this look spooky to you, even without seeing any of its residents?

This nest is a residence for the Bald Faced Hornet and was in my mother’s yard in her large Asian Pear tree. It was about 3-feet off the ground and larger than a football in diameter. When she told me about it last week while I was visiting her, curiosity motivated me to have a quick look and snap a couple of photos. However, fear of having a painfully potent encounter with lots of small black spooky-looking things drove me away very quickly. I have been stung before by yellowjackets and bees, and I’ve stepped on a bumble bee nest by accident – big owwwwwie for several days!! So I decided to use Wikipedia’s photo below so you can see what the little critter looks like up close.

Bald Faced Hornet – Source: Wikipedia

Here is some information about the Bald Faced Hornet:

It belongs to a genus of wasps in North America called yellowjackets, but called a hornet because it builds paper nests. It is not a true hornet.
Are large (greater than 15mm) with black and ivory coloring
Are common tree-nesting wasps
Are more aggressive than yellowjackets and other hornets
A nest can contain 400 to 700 workers
Will aggressively attack with little provocation, and anyone or anything that invades their space
Have smooth stingers, and will sting repeatedly if their nest is disturbed
Are known for their football-shaped paper nests
Nests are abandoned by winter and are not reused
Old nests provide good winter shelter for other insects and spiders since they are insulated from heat and cold
It is not considered safe to approach the nest for observation purposes
Their scary costumes and face masks are permanent!

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

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This is for the letter “R” Story Challenge by Frizztext, to share a short story or reflection, even an aphorism using a word tagged with each letter of the alphabet.
Kim Klassen texture used – Providence