Himself decided to have a lay in the hammock. He said he got in and before he knew it the ground was coming up at him fast. The end had come undone from the tree trunk and down he went. He said he didn't have enough breath in him to call out to me and there he was spread eagle on the ground with a flippin hen pecking at his head. ( his words) All my fault of course, he says I didn't tie it on properly. Thing is, he tied it back on after I undid it so I could get back and forth to the clothes line yesterday. After an inspection of his body it was deemed that he was okay.
My daughter, granddaughter, her boyfriend and grandson were here last weekend. It was lovely to see them and the weather was perfect. Laurie asked me if I had heard of wood wasps. I said no I hadn't at which point she got a log from the stacked wood and showed me. Well, not the wasp but the hole it was in. She said it made a loud crunching noise when it was eating and that there would be a small pile of sawdust kicked out. I hadn't seen or heard anything until the other night when I was sitting out having coffee with friends. I asked them if they had heard of these wasps and the answer was no. Only moments after that we all turned our heads to the log as there was a very loud crunching sound coming from in and a lovely little pile of sawdust on the table under the hole. As far as I know it's the larvae that's doing the chewing.
You can't really see the hole in this picture as it's very small.
So I decided to get some information on these creatures. They are hot tempered and sting. They don't swarm but lurk. They have long life cycles. They will eat through siding, even asphalt to get back to their nests. That's just some basic information.
This is a picture I found of the adult.
6 comments:
I'm glad Mr. is ok, though I have to admit, the bit about the hen pecking his head was funny. Don't tell him I said so.
I've heard of wood wasps, but just recently. We were watching a building show and someone had an old 17th century house that had them in the masonry of all places. I thought just rats could eat through concrete. Ick. You want to watch the things don't decide to take up residence in your house.
Glad Himself didn't do himself any injury; either from his fall or the over attentive chicken!!
and of course, no matter what befalls the males of the species, it's always the fault of the female!
Those wasps must be very hungry to make all that noise - great that you've got to see where they are though.
trust the viking. cool wasp pic oc
OUCH..glad no damage was done to the Mr...
We have Carpenter bees here they drill holes in the wood and thats where they raise the young in tunnels in the wood..They are quite annoying but dont sting, they make a very fine sawdust pile also. They look more like a bumble bee.
There you go Oldcrow, you should have been in the Hammock yourself (after checking the knots) and then himself wouldn't have fallen out and he could have brought you a cooling beverage - seriously glad he's okay though. Don't worry too much about the wood wasps, yes they are fearsom looking, but like men if you ignore them they'll go away (good for the garden too - wasps not the men - they just fall out of hammocks. Most solitary wasps, of which there are over 100 wood wasps species can sting, but very rarely humans. Andrew
Glad himself is OK, Crow.
I'm amazed at the large pieces your wasp chucked out of its log.
Love the picture of the adult.
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