Hi Tweet,s
Well, this is getting into a serious bug thread, but it IS
interesting. Peggi, I think what you have may be Bald-faced Hornets- I
don't know the scientific name. They are yellow-jacket sized, with dull
black bodies and a few cream-colored stripes. We had some in our yard
recently, attracted to the plums we let fall and rot on the lawn. I was
sitting out in the sun, watching from a safe distance, enjoying a
peaceful pastoral scene, with the bald-faced hornets buzzing happily away
at the fruit, when suddenly I heard a lot more LOUD buzzing and saw 2 of
them grappling with each other, stinging away. The victor flew off with
the corpse of the other one,probably to the nest or to carve it up and
eat it privately. SO much for the blissful nature scene!
Janet Partlow
partlowj at elwha.evergreen.edu

On Wed, 21 Aug 1996, Peggi Rodgers wrote:

> Here's another one. We have bee-like creatures about the size of a queen
> yellow jacket. They don't seem to bother people but they do hunt other
> bees. We've watched them take down a flying yellow jacket. They're black
> and white striped.
>
> Any ideas?
>
> Peggi
>
>
>
> Peggi Rodgers
> Oregon Research Institute
> Eugene, OR
> peggir at ori.org
> prodgers at efn.org
> "A bird does not sing because it has an
> answer, It sings because it has a song"
>
>