European Hornets on Porch - Ask Extension
We have a nest of European Hornets on our porch near our front door. The nest is not accessible to us but we see the hornets come and go near our door...
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European Hornets on Porch #877143
Asked July 14, 2024, 10:14 AM EDT
We have a nest of European Hornets on our porch near our front door. The nest is not accessible to us but we see the hornets come and go near our door. How dangerous are they? Is there a way to get them to leave?
Howard County Maryland
Expert Response
There is no way to get the European Hornets to leave, unfortunately, and the only recourse is to either avoid the area (if another door is accessible) until the nest dies out this autumn, or treat it with wasp spray. Some pest control professionals would have experience treating or removing wasp nests if it's safer to hire someone to take care of it for you. Social wasps like hornets only use the nest for one season, so this coming autumn, all colony members will die, save for a handful of new queens that will disperse to find their own overwintering sites and, next year, new sites to start their own nest from scratch. The linked web page above provides more life history information if you're curious.
If they don't feel that the nest is threatened, they tend to leave people alone, though can be attracted to nighttime lighting, so if you leave the nest as-is for now, try to turn off a porch light so they don't wander around by the door itself or a window you might open. Adult hornets are only concerned with hunting for food (caterpillars, flies, other wasps, and assorted other insects) for their larvae and visiting flower nectar for themselves. They can sting if they feel threatened, either as individual wasps being swatted or if they think the nest is being disturbed.
Anecdotally, a European hornet nest was formed somewhere out of sight inside the roof at our office building last summer, not far from our front door. We did not have any conflicts, and the wasps seemed to disappear on their own by late summer. Of course, if you can't avoid the area and are concerned about stings (such as someone being sensitive to wasp venom), then it will probably have to be treated to kill the colony.
Miri
If they don't feel that the nest is threatened, they tend to leave people alone, though can be attracted to nighttime lighting, so if you leave the nest as-is for now, try to turn off a porch light so they don't wander around by the door itself or a window you might open. Adult hornets are only concerned with hunting for food (caterpillars, flies, other wasps, and assorted other insects) for their larvae and visiting flower nectar for themselves. They can sting if they feel threatened, either as individual wasps being swatted or if they think the nest is being disturbed.
Anecdotally, a European hornet nest was formed somewhere out of sight inside the roof at our office building last summer, not far from our front door. We did not have any conflicts, and the wasps seemed to disappear on their own by late summer. Of course, if you can't avoid the area and are concerned about stings (such as someone being sensitive to wasp venom), then it will probably have to be treated to kill the colony.
Miri
