Posted: 6/16/04

Bald-Faced Hornet

One of the most interesting finds in the north is the gray nest of the bald-faced hornet. You may find it hung from a branch or suspended under an eave. This feather-light structure is made entirely of wood chewings and saliva of the female workers, who also build the comb-like structures within. Some nests are big as basketballs. All have sweeping external smudge linesñlike the brushwork of an artistic mason.
If you open the basket-like shell of the nest (do not try this at homeñat least not until after freeze-up in the fall!) you find horizontal rows of cells. Each layer of cells has an exit leading to the main exit, usually at the bottom. If the nest were active, and you came too near, an angry air force would quickly launch through this exit.

Disturbing such a nest is no laughing matter. Woe to the hapless person caught on a ladder, where there is no quick retreat. The nest contains hundreds of worker bees, each capable of inflicting multiple painful stings.

The social organization is rigid, with castes of individuals created for specific purposes. There is no obvious self-interest in any hornetís behavior. Every separate act advances the interests of the community. Studying them, it is helpful at times to consider the nest the organismñnot the individual. If the queen is killed or removed, the ëcivilizationí is destroyed. Workers lose track of what they are supposed to be doing. Scavengers fail to go out for more food. Eventually, all members fall into anarchy, and they die.
We judge these natural societies harshly, referring to some roles as slavery, and discounting the genius of the organization as mindless instinct. I do not suggest that hornets have a model that humans should emulate. These nests, however, provide striking evidence that not just bodies evolve, but organizations and behaviors as well.

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