What Does the Inside of a Hornet’s Nest Look Like?

I’ve always wondered what the inside of a hornet’s next looks like, but I never knew until now! A friend of mine works in pest control and gave me an entire intact hornet’s nest to take a part. Dive in with me and find out!

This hornets nest was removed and exterminated by a professional. If you see one of these nests I HIGHLY recommend calling a professional. Hornets are aggressive and territorial wee devils. They’re also capable of stinging more than once, so their vengeance is limitless. Avoid these nests, please!

This hornets nest was massive but felt like it weighed nothing at all. I didn’t measure, but I would guess it was about 50% larger than a basketball.

At the bottom of the nest there was an entrance and exit for the hornets. Some nests have more than one entrance/exit. But this was the only one I could identify.

This nest had 8 beautiful walls that act as a protective layer to the hive. The paper of these nests are made up of chewed wood the hornets forage for and their saliva.

This is the inner most part of the hive. These hornets will construct multi tiered nests for the Queen to lay eggs. Although this view would be upside for them. To avoid damaging the nest, I placed it with the largest comb on the bottom, facing up (ya know, gravity). But the hornets construct this the other way around. The largest comb is at the top and faces down with the second, smaller comb suspended below it.

Here are some interesting facts I learned about bald faces hornets:

🐝 the nest is made of wood fiber and saliva
🐝 the Queen is the only member of the colony to survive the winter
🐝 nests only last for one year then a new one must be built
🐝 the queen usually dies of old age or frost bite
🐝 hornets will defend their colony, so watch out!
🐝 balled faced hornets can sting more than once ‼️
🐝 hornets eat smaller soft body bugs and insects like caterpillars
🐝 the worker population at its height is usually 200-400 hornets by the end of summer
🐝 hornets are a species in the yellow jacket family
🐝 abandoned nests are usually destroyed by birds searching for food