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Unwanted Stand/Saddle Friends

D

DedicatedShooter

New Member
Joined
Aug 25, 2022
Messages
31
Location
VA
So yesterday I learned about European Hornets. Never had them in Ohio (I’m in VA now) but I noticed some gigantic hornets sucking sap off an oak in the backyard (see picture), googled it, and yea they’re European Hornets. Watched a few videos about them and cringed the entire time. The whole gigantic stinging insect nesting in voids of trees got me thinking about early season saddle hunting and what it would be like to climb a tree and come face to face with a nest of these damn things.

Fast forward to today, I was out pulling cards on a piece of property nearby and noticed an extremely old tree. While admiring it, I thought that this would probably be a great place for European Hornets to nest and that it would also be a great tree for a stand since it’s on a well-used trail. So I start inspecting the higher parts of it and sure as ****, I found a European Hornet nest (2nd pic).

I tell you, I’d cut my tether and let Jesus take the wheel if I was 20’ up and stirred up a nest of these big bastards.

What have you encountered up in the tree?


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DedicatedShooter said:
So yesterday I learned about European Hornets. Never had them in Ohio (I’m in VA now) but I noticed some gigantic hornets sucking sap off an oak in the backyard (see picture), googled it, and yea they’re European Hornets. Watched a few videos about them and cringed the entire time. The whole gigantic wasp nesting in voids of trees got me thinking about early season saddle hunting and what it would be like to climb a tree and come face to face with a nest of these damn things.

Fast forward to today, I was out pulling cards on a piece of property nearby and noticed an extremely old tree. While admiring it, I thought that this would probably be a great place for European Hornets to nest and that it would also be a great tree for a stand since it’s on a well-used trail. So I start inspecting the higher parts of it and sure as ****, I found a European Hornet nest (2nd pic).

I tell you, I’d cut my tether and let Jesus take the wheel if I was 20’ up and stirred up a nest of these big bastards.

What have you encountered up in the tree?


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Spiders. Had a snake fall on me once..that sucked.

But hornets, heck no. My FIL played 3 varsity sports at UNC and he left a tractor circling a field until it ran out of gas after running over a hornet's nest.
 
Plebe said:
Spiders. Had a snake fall on me once..that sucked.

But hornets, heck no. My FIL played 3 varsity sports at UNC and he left a tractor circling a field until it ran out of gas after running over a hornet's nest.
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Snakes and spiders I’m ok with, except the rattler variety.

Your FIL is a smart man, I’d do the same. These hornets are massive, never seen anything that big before and when standing under the tree it sounds like a bunch of hummingbirds zipping around up there. It’s a hard pass on that tree for me.
 
MattMan81 said:
On a tree once upon a time I placed a stand in. Climbing up I found a void between the limbs where a raccoon I think liked to sleep. I cut a log and jammed it into the hole so we didn't have to meet face to face on my way up the tree.
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Classic. lol.

My cousin invited me to hunt a property he had permission on. I climbed a tree. In the gray light I could just barely see raccoons climbing up trees all around me, like ninjas. I spent more time looking for coons than deer. They can be NASTY!

But it was a really good spot. Risk v Reward. I feel pretty good about not having rabies.
 
Four years ago in NE Ohio I was doing some work, it got dark but the temps felt good so I put a headlamp on and decided to go check an easy access treestand to inspect before season. I walked up to the tree, clicked to a carabiner on a safety line and gave it a couple twists to lock, made some clickety clanks as I checked the old ladder up the tree. Heard a hum, looked in front of me and there was a european hornets nest at face level 18” away. I had to unlock that dang carabiner before I could jog away. I am one lucky SOB they didn’t attack my headlamp. They are freaking huge and scary.

Edit: sometime check youtube for people disturbing yellow jackets nest, they might be smaller, but more aggressive and pretty dangerous. Your post a great reminder to check trees.
 
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I had a flying squirrel in my tree . His nest was right above my head. I don't think he like me there because he keep looking out of his nest until it was daylight and he settled down and went to sleep.
 
Thankfully I've never disturbed a hornet's nest while climbing, that would really suck. I have on three separate occasions climbed trees in the dark trapping porcupines in them above me and one of those times it was two porkies in the tree. One other time I was hunting a cluster of oak trees and when I walked in there in the dark I bumped something and heard the scurrying as I assumed it was running away. I picked a likely tree and climbed. It wasn't until it got light that I realized there was a bear cub up in the tree right next to me. Luckily I never saw mama.
 
I was on my way to a preset tree one morning when I heard a weird sound I couldn't place ahead of me. I stopped and finally honed in on it in the gray light and it was a fisher growling at me from a tree ahead of me. I chose to hunt a different area that morning...
 
Climbed a tree years ago with a climber in the dark early one morning. Got about 15ft up and heard a hissing noise like air is being let out of something. When I picked up my top it would stop. It was really weird…. Well on the way down later that day, it did it again at the same spot. The cable on the summit had pinned a bat to the tree and it was pissed off. When I looked around the tree all I saw was bat wings sticking out.


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All I've ever had was red squirrels messing with me. Unwanted tree companions, and storms, are the reason I still like a way to rappel out of a tree when I climb. I've never had an animal issue yet to cause me to bail, but I did have a storm come in quicker than expected and I had to get out of there quick. Luckily it was just a practice sit inn my backyard, but still!

I did have an owl hang out with me towards the end of the day once, that was cool and I felt like we were kindred spirits, both out on the hunt.
 
Weldabeast said:
I climbed up into a tree and the neighboring tree ended up having a large bold faced hornets nest. I didn't know until the sun came up. They never messed with me and I kinda enjoyed watching them
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This reminds me of a hunt I made in MD a couple of years ago. It was evening in mid-Oct and hot and the mosquitoes were insane. I had Thermacell running and it was keeping them at bay, like a force field.

Then this bat showed up, coming right at me. I was bracing for impact, for real. (I've been swooped by owls). Right at the edge of that Thermacell buffer, the bat reversed course. I was really thankful.

Then for the rest of the hunt, like an hour, that bat continuously flew at me picking mosquitoes off that were stacked up just beyond me. It was super interesting to watch, although I was pretty distracted from my hunting by the constant rush of a bat towards my face.
 
by the time hunting season comes to my hood all the things that sting are hibernating. But my huge pet peeve is when a squirrel gets 10 feet away and starts sounding the alarm - every creature in a half mile hears that ruckus and goes on high alert.
 
I’ve jumped off a tractor in the middle of the woods, because Yellow Jackets got after me. The tractor ran into a tree and made two really huge ruts, lol. I’ve ran over wasps nests, and had to let the tractor head out on its own. But, I can’t say I’ve ever been stung by a hornet. I see them, and I know where a nest is behind my house. I’ve just been lucky with the hornets I guess.


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Stopped right under this nest. It wasn’t more than 20” above my head. Luckily it was cold as crap that morning.


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Weldabeast said:
I climbed up into a tree and the neighboring tree ended up having a large bold faced hornets nest. I didn't know until the sun came up. They never messed with me and I kinda enjoyed watching them
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Exactly, you don’t bother them, they don’t bother you… wasp and yellow jackets are a bit more aggressive.
 
I have a nest somewhere near my house. They are eating the crap out of my pears right now. I was trying to pick some this past weekend for my kid and was super nervous the whole time about them suddenly turning on me. They don't appear to be agressive away from the nest. My kid seems to be a yellow jacket magnet and I worry he'll be the one to eventually find this hornet nest.
 
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