Flippin' 'eck!

[merciasounds]

I've just had a wasp that was at least two inches long and instead of yellow, it was more an orangey red colour with the black on the bottom - still the waspie waist and head the same - it was like a small bloomin' helicopter - sounded like a garden strimmer too the buzzing it was making - are there any entomologists studying waspology out there could tell me what type of wasp it was?

[merciasounds]

...and how the heck it got into my bathroom?

[mike11111]

Hornet?

[ChuckFickens]

Agree ^

[LoftyLottie]

Yep, definitely a hornet. They can give really nasty stings.

[LoftyLottie]

You may have a hornets nest in the loft? Was the bathroom window open.

[steg]

could it of been some kind of wood wasp?
http://www.google.co....b=wi&biw=1800&bih=955

[milly143]

In an effort to let a wasp out of the office safely, causing it no harm, I accidently just squashed it in the window. Everyone spare a thought please.

And yeah, I hear hornet stings are terrible.

[merciasounds]

Well what ever it was, i wadded up some loo roll, grabbed it against the window and flushed it...

[ChuckFickens]

"And yeah, I hear hornet stings are terrible."

I can confirm this from personal experience.

[Answerprancer]

BTW, please don't call the exterminators in. Hornets -despite their fearsome appearance- are generally pretty docile. They are relatively rare too.

[LoftyLottie]

Oh you cruel thing Mercia. They are lovely creatures as long as they are not riled.

[Answerprancer]

One flew past me at Glastonbury last year, it was massive ..like a gherkin with wings !

[merciasounds]

I can't afford to be stung by a wasp I'm allergic - I don't kill anything but bluebottles usually - never kill spiders or bees or anything like that - I had a wasp fly down my neck when I was on my motorbike back in the late 1970's - I had to pull in at the side of the road and do an impromptu strip - much to the honking of horns as drivers grinned at e as they drove past...

[LoftyLottie]

I'm the same 2shortplanks. I hate killing anything, but must admit to swatting flies. I have a silly habit of apologising if I tread on something by accident. Even more silly, because they are dead!!

[mousemac]

hornet

[chrissa1]

IMO the only good wasp is a dead wasp.

[Prudie]

All seem sure it was a hornet but I'm confused. All pics show hornets with the normal yellow/black wasp pattern but mercia says orange/red with the black at the bottom?

[merciasounds]

correct Prudie!

[boxtops]

I'm sure we had an early wasp in the living room today - it was wasp-shaped - I persuadedit out of the window.
Has any one else noticed HUGE bees this year?, a great thing an inch long flew by me this morning!