Wasps on the Move - 'Killer Wasps' swarming in my Garden? - ecoTrain

gardenbsquared (59)in #macro • 7 years ago (edited)

Two days ago in the early evening a swarm of wasps arrived in my garden. Swarming wasps can be dangerous as they might easily become aggressive. But in this case they were most likely looking for a new place to nest and they left us and the dogs alone.

Still one has to be careful not to disturb them. They are protecting the queen which is probably hidden in the centre of the colony.

I could not find out what kind of wasps they are. Or are they hornets? Are they aggressive? Do they sting?

I had no idea but I had to photograph and film them as close as possible.

Here’s a little video I made.

The next day I took many photographs. This was not that easy because of the extreme contrast in light.

The colony is hidden inside the shadows of a bush while streaks of direct sunlight, shining through the leaves, hits the wasps.

This gave me a couple of spectacular pictures.

My presence made some of the wasps slightly aggressive and they started to show a threat display.

They stand on their hind legs flapping their wings while looking really angry at me.

This picture is upside down. It’s very grainy because it’s so dark but it really shows that threat display. I played with the colors to give it a bit of that ‘Avatar’ look.

I was a bit worried though. Do I want a nest of unidentified, maybe even dangerous wasps in my garden? I was already thinking how to remove them. I don’t want to harm them but if I leave them they might be a threat and there are a lot of young children around.

I decided to smoke them out but luckily that was not necessary. My filming most likely disturbed them too much and less than 24 hours later they were gone.

They swarmed out again leaving no trace but a memory card full of pictures.