A Plague of Wasps

[Big Boy]

I've rarely seen a wasp in Thailand during almost 30 years of visiting and now living here.

Tonight in the area of Bon Kai where I live there are thousands of the beasts being attracted to lights. Is it happening throughout Bon Kai?

This is worse than the annual termite swarms, and apparently, according to Mrs BB, if you get stung it's a hospital job.

Does this happen every year, or is this a very rare occurrence.

[HHTel]

We had them once a few years ago. It was down to a large nest in the area. Once that was located then the problem was quickly resolved. If these beasts are the same, they're not wasps but hornets which give a very painful sting.

[Big Boy]

Yes, I've just been looking at a few corpses that were left behind - much bigger than a UK wasp. The strange thing was that they did not appear until after dark, attracted by the lights (ours were switched off quickly, where we could). Walking the dogs last night was a nightmare, buzzing wherever I walked. They arrived at about 8pm, and were present until sun rise.

So can I assume nowhere else had the problem?

[joelle]

so far we haven't had any of them nasty things, may be there is a nest in your neighborhood as it seams strange that they were out all night unlike the flying termites which swarm around for about an hour, you better look out and see if you can spot anything

[Big Boy]

Yes, I will have a look, but apart from the odd corpse, they went as the sun came up. Vampire Wasps?

[STEVE G]

It must be a local nest, I was sat out in Hin Lek Fai last night and there were no wasps to be seen at all. If you do find a nest, the locals have ways of dealing with them that involves full face crash helmets and flammable liquids!

[Big Boy]

Yes, I'm thinking it must be local because nobody else seems to have suffered with it. My son was working outside last night when they forced him to stop. He'll be trying again tonight, so hopefully they've moved on.

Nocturnal wasps is totally new to me, and after seeing less than a dozen in the last 30 years in Thailand, to see so many last night was quite concerning.

[Big Boy]

Well, there's been no return tonight, so I've no idea what last night was all about

[pharvey]

From the descriptions, certainly seem to be Hornets - far bigger than wasps, nocturnal and attracted to light (at least several species).

From painful experience, these bu**ers give a very nasty sting. Wouldn't fancy meeting up with a swarm myself....

[Bamboo Grove]

It might have been a nuptial flight.

[lomuamart]

Mating?
The only similar thing I can think of is when the flying ants come out. That's normally just for one night as well.
The problem with hornets is that can be deadly. We don't have the Japanese ones here and I'm not going to link to what they can do but they're really nasty.

[Big Boy]

Maybe I should have photographed a few of the corpses before disposing of them

It was like a blizzard here all night, but they weren't nasty - I still walked the dogs, and survived.

[hhfarang]

I wonder if they showed up on radar?

http://whyevolutionistrue.wordpress.com ... -on-radar/

[Bamboo Grove]

Here in Finland we have had extremely lovely weather starting in June, mostly between 25-30 C. This time of year the wasps become a nuisance as they are leaving their nests, only the queen survives through the winter. This is a perfect weather for them as well and they go for anything that they can get their nose at, food, drinks even perfume attracts them.

Today I was barbequeing and they started to fly around and then I remembered something I had recently read. Make a trap for them. Put something sweet in a glass and mix it with water (I used honey and sugar) then add some beer (I was crying when I did that) and dish deteargent (this will cause the surface tension to dissappear so they will first get drunk and then fall into the liquid and drown) and leave it on your courtyard. Voila...two hours later, I've butchered 7 of them nasties. Genocide in the making.

[Bamboo Grove]

Final body count seems to have stopped at 20.