Hornet

Have a resident hornet, only one, it's been around for years. Total mystery. Appears in the summer, staggers around in the autumn, disappears all winter, then comes back in the summer again. Is never a problem, minds its own business.

 

Better look at face & rear.

 

Single hornet returns year after year, never two together. In high summer this beast moved so swiftly I couldn't see it to photograph it ~ turbo-powered ~ could only hear it to know it was around. Then in the autumn it collided with the side of my head, fell on the floor, that's when I managed to photograph it. It crawled away later, seemed to have a damaged wing. Couple of nights afterwards it appeared on the outside of the bathroom window when I put the light on inside. Saw it a couple of times doing this before the winter set in. Is it a male or a female please?

 

I suspect that if you leave an outside light on during summer evenings, you'll have more than one around! This link
European hornet - Wikipedia
explains the differences between male and female. I caught my cat playing with one, many years ago. Luckily, it must have been a male!

 

I could (still) never tell the difference - I was aware that hornets pose a threat to bees but then so do arachnids. Never seen a hornet until last year, they are awesome in every sense of the word I feel. Asian hornets I would not suffer, they are an invasive species.

 

We've got both here. They build nests in the woods all around and use the orchard as an all day café What with hornets, paper wasps, mossies, termites, cossus cossus and now palm moths, I'm going to invite David Attenborough to spend his remaining days here He'd love it!

 

Outdoors, it's only invasive species I strongly object to - some of which could have been contained & removed from the local environment by the powers that be, but are now far and wide. Mosquitoes I can keep at bay with insect repellent when necessary.