Murder Hornet

"Have you noticed these hornets?" Christine asked Liz, over coffee.

Liz hadn't. "I've seen people posting about them."

Christine nodded, with a mouthful of cake.

Liz continued: "They look awful, don't they?"

Christine swallowed. "Yes! I'm ever so worried about Harold. He loves to snap at wasps and I'm frightened he'll do it to one of these hornets and it will be the death of him." Harold was the name of Christine's husband and her dachshund. Liz assumed and hoped that she was talking about the dog. It was very confusing.

Christine went on. "We've had a couple. I've hit them with a shoe but you don't want to miss first time. Who knows what will happen if they're angry."

Liz had a surreal image of a green hornet with angry eyebrows and gritted teeth, like Lou Ferrigno as Hulk.

She shuddered, adding, "I hope I don't come across one."

"Just make sure you kill it."

Liz looked at Christine's earnest face and gulped.

*

A couple of days later, Liz was filling bird feeders in her garden. She loved the birds flitting in, pecking with their staccato head movements and then, rocketing out. A blue tit landed on some lavender and she laughed as the stalk bounced with the tiny bird perched on it. It was like Nature's own diddly bopper.

She could hear a loud buzzing and looked for a bumble bee. But it wasn't a bee. She stood still as she spied an enormous wasp hovering by a window.

Suddenly, it careered from there and zoomed directly towards her. She froze. It was huge, loud; an insect-shaped drone. She let out a cry. What could she do?

The decision was taken away from her a cluster of birds, the birds that she fed, dive-bombed the wasp, attacking it and just like they were at the feeder, they relentlessly pecked at the wasp, avoiding its sting until it sank to the ground.

Task done, the birds departed. Liz was shell-shocked: relieved, in disbelief but also surprised at feeling sorry for what was popularly known as a "murder hornet".

She also gained a respectful wariness of birds that day and made sure the feeders were full.

***

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I very much doubt that birds would do this but the idea came to me and I thought I'd go with it. I too had an encounter with a "murder hornet" this week and I'm not ashamed to say that I went "Eek!" and headed into the house, shutting the door firmly. I would have been quite happy had it not purposefully headed towards me. From previous incidents, I can confirm that if you don't have a shoe or insect spray handy, then furniture polish works just as well. Not that I like killing wasps but I don't want to scoop them up either.

And here's Lou Ferrigno, just in case you're not familiar with the reference:

Thanks for stopping by. If you do read this, please do leave a comment as I love to interact with my readers.

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