Hopalong Hollow....

Hopalong Hollow, where the Blueberries grow sweet, and the moss feels soft beneath your feet.

Sunday, August 10, 2014

What IS it???

  Walking thru the meadow in a drizzly rain, I happened upon an unusual site.
 Past the "Travelers Joy", a marvelous wild Clematis that has made a natural hedge all along the goat fence,

,

 and through the last of the Queen Annes Lace,


 and the wild morning Glories upon the ground..

Where Wild Black Eyed Susan have self seeded  in abundance,

                         Beneath the towering Joe Pye Weed                    
 I stumbled upon this interesting object:

 It is almost perfectly shaped like a BEE SKEP with a symmetrical round body, a flat bottom and a pointed top, around 15 inches tall.
There were little buzzing bodies circling round and round. I could not identify them as either bees or wasps but I kept my distance. I wish I could have taken a more crisp picture. The "BEES OR WASPS" OR HORNETS" ? have thick black bodies with yellow stripes. The nest's material looks similar to those paper nests you see hanging from trees made by wasps, but those are generally misshapen blobs, while this is nearly perfect. I could see the round entry way down along the bottom of the "SKEP" with dozens of tiny creatures going to and fro.
Have you ever seen such an object as this? It is the body of this nest that makes it truly wonderful. If you nature lovers can identify this nest and it's inhabitants, please let me know.
  I hope they will vacate the premises in the winter so that I can have this for my "collection" of old used houses.....

18 comments:

  1. Jeri, I think it's a hornet's nest. Do not get too close...
    Nice end of Sunday,

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Don't worry, I won't get too close.. I have had my share of stings!

      Delete
  2. Beautiful and would love to see it thoroughly, but stay away. Ground hornets and their bite keeps on stinging for a long spell. In my area, they build underground and bite my husband when he mows over them. They are rely aggressive too. What a beauty.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Donna, I wonder do they die over the winter? I'm glad I found it before my husband ventured out there with his new weed whacker!.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Yike! I am glad to know you kept your distance Jeri... The meadow is so beautiful...
    I love Queen Annes Lace, and the Morning Glories are beautiful.. This wild Clematis is just thriving on the fence... So lush..

    ReplyDelete
  5. We've had ground bees that you have to be careful about mowing over and disturbing. We haven't seen them since I saw a skunk one night in the spot where the nest was. My dog alerted me to the skunk not too far from the deck (fenced off to our dog thankfully). I saw the white streak which a flashlight later confirmed was indeed a skunk. We haven't been bothered by the skunk so it was very welcomed to the bees.

    ReplyDelete
  6. We have paper wasp nests that look like that. When I stumbled on one I got stung 35 times and became allergic… Pretty but not a safe thing. I hate poisons but we had to use it later when we got the same thing again...

    ReplyDelete
  7. What a beautiful nest you stumbled upon. Glad to hear you are being cautious. Years ago my husband and I were canoeing on a lake and paddled near a giant nest. We back paddled as fast as we could to get away. ♥

    ReplyDelete
  8. Stay safe. Nice find in an scary way. The nest looks like a drawing waiting to happen.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Dearest Jeri Landers! Good mornin'!

    OK, you know me...I am a nature lover, but I'm a city slicker my blood, so I have NO idea what this could be. Hmmmmm.........what I am always blown away from is that every so often, in our OWN backyards, we find something totally new. Year after year, we see the robins, the squirrels, the bunnies, the wasps, etc....but when a new and unidentified creature appears, it only shows me how POWERFUL the nature of nature is. What is almost creepy (but in a fun and fabulous way) is the perfection of the shape. An architect and builder couldn't do better....

    I hope someone helps you out to find what this is. I will keep close watch for the answer! In the meantime, enjoy that magnificent garden of yours...I AM! (my moon flowers continue to dazzle me at night!)

    ReplyDelete
  10. Pretty sure it's a hornet's nest-odd to see it on the ground. I saved a nest after they had vacated, but my husband didn't want it in the house-he said it smelled like a wet dog! I looked up their life cycle-the queen will go dig a hole in the ground till next year and a new nest will be built for her and her kids. All the slave bees will die-some of them in the nest, and I think that's why our nest had a smell. I do love the nests, and the bees are pretty good if they are not bothered. But they have a wallop of a sting. Ours were white faced hornets.

    ReplyDelete
  11. Wooo hooo! Weee heee! Stingidee stingadeee! Hornets Hornets!!
    Do you think it fell from somewhere?
    I just love how they look in a nature collections. It was fun to see the pictures :-)
    It sure does look very cool hidden in the brush, very "skeppish" for sure!!
    Hope you shall be able to retrieve it easily!
    Joy joy, and many Blessings, Linnie

    ReplyDelete
  12. Our natural world is so amazing--I had no idea that there were such thing as ground wasps, hornets or bees! The texture of that skep is way cool.

    ReplyDelete
  13. Jeri - I fear it might be a hornet's nest. We have ground ones here in my part of the world and I have been attacked twice when mowing. They are definitely mean critters. Have to agree though that this nest is perfectly made but I don't think they will vacate until next year so you may have to wait to collect this one. Hope you have a wonderful day. Hugs

    ReplyDelete
  14. I'm with everyone else, hornets. Be careful! :)

    ReplyDelete
  15. such a wonderful find Jeri!
    thank you for taking me on a walk with you and your lovely flowers.
    i recently found a paper nest on the ground, it might have fallen out of the tree, but the bees were still using it. I hope it stays in good shape when they move out and that you share it with us again.

    ReplyDelete
  16. Thank you all for your input, I believe you are all correct, I found this information online: It is the nest of a bald face hornet ( sounds scary!) and they vacate the nest before the first frost. They will never again use it, but will build a new one next year. The article wasn't quite clear as to where they head for the winter??!! But I believe Donna is right in that the queen goes underground.

    ReplyDelete
  17. David stepped on one of those nests when he was a child. He got stung and stung and stung as he ran back to his house. It was awful.

    ReplyDelete

Please do leave a word or two, we SO like to hear from you!