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| Well, a little anti-climatic with the results I guess.
So went back there this morning about 4:30 am, but it was still upper 60's for temp. Drove the UV, actually an EV right behind dozer with lights shining on back of dozer. Being an EV, with no noise could hear buzzing right away, and some of the hornets started landing on back of dozer where light was shining and some went right for the EV's lights. A few flew close to me, but were more focused on the light like some had responded they would. Looked in front of canopy and the nest appeared gone. My first thought was maybe an Ag Talk volunteer had saved me the trouble, lol. Somehow the branch must have flexed enough for the nest now to be positioned about dead center of the canopy, apparently with the entrance hole flush against the top of the canopy. IDK, did the nest get lighter? Calm as could be, so wind didn't do it. Went back and sprayed with wasp spray foam on the ones on the lights and back of dozer. Climbed up and did the same trying to get some in between top of dozer and bottom of nest. I felt pretty confident the way I was dressed I didn't have much to worry about. Goggles with a face mask, hoodie, jeans tucked into boots, good gloves this time, not ones with holes in them, lol. Went and started dozer, which takes a while to warm up before it will move. That did NOT trigger a bunch flying out of nest, which looked to be still intact, though got to admit I didn't try and get a close look at it in the dark. There were still some flying around, and with temps in mid 60's they didn't seem slowed down at all. Waited around with not much activity, and after I thought the dozer warmed up enough, hard braked left to try and limit any corn damage. Still little wasp activity, so backed up a touch as the right brake works better, then drove forward unscathed. I think many hornets had already abandoned the nest, which broke apart as I drove forward. A few wasp still inside tending to things. I think this nest was under going construction, as it wasn't near as big as others I've seen, which might have the girth of a basketball and be 2' from the top to bottom, avg. pinata size maybe. This was maybe half that. Spookiest thing was driving back in the dark and hearing a gunshot fairly close. Wonder if neighbors have a triggered sound thing go off on a timer around their sweetcorn or something. Don't know, but that got my attention, lol.
 (Free at last (full).jpg)
 (Inside hornets nest (full).jpg)
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 Free at last (full).jpg (75KB - 12 downloads)
Inside hornets nest (full).jpg (53KB - 12 downloads)
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Hornets nest dilemma
