Bald-faced hornet / White-faced hornet
guêpe à taches blanches
Dolichovespula maculata (Linnaeus, 1763)

Herausgeber und Webmaster
Dieter Kosmeier
Foto - und Videogalerien
Dr. Elmar Billig
Wissenschaftliche Beratung
Thomas Rickinger

Ihr besonderes Kennzeichen ist ihre kontrastreiche schwarz-weiße Gesichtsmaske. Aber auch der restliche Körper ist vorwiegend schwarz-weiß gezeichnet - sie unterscheidet sich daher bereits auf den ersten Blick von den sonst doch meistens schwarz-gelb gezeichneten anderen sozialen Faltenwespen deutlich.

Wie die Mittlere Wespe ist auch Dolichovespula maculata ein ausgesprochener Freinister. Ihre grauen, manchmal mehr als fußballgroßen Nester baut diese Art meist hoch in Bäumen, aber auch unter Dachüberhängen, Fensternischen oder Telegrafenmasten. Sie nistet gerne im menschlichen Siedlungsbereich, wo ihre Völker nicht selten erst im Spätsommer von den Anwohnern bemerkt werden. Oft wird dann deren Vernichtung gefordert, wie in unseren Breiten auch häufig ungerechtfertigt. Dolichovespula maculata ist keine aggressive Art und verteidigt ihr Nest lediglich bei massiven Störungen. Sie wird auch abseits des Nestes nicht lästig, da sie nicht an menschliche Lebensmittel geht.

D. maculata erbeutet vorzugsweise verschiedene Fliegenarten, verschmäht jedoch auch die kleineren Wespenarten ("yellow jackets") nicht. Sie ist damit zusammen mit "unserer" in Nordamerika ebenfalls vorkommenden Hornisse ("European hornet", Vespa crabro), die einzige Wespenart, die regelmäßig auch ihre kleineren Verwandten erbeutet. Mit dieser wird sie aufgrund ihrer Größe auch gelegentlich verwechselt, doch handelt es sich bei D. maculata - wie bereits erwähnt - nicht um eine echte Hornissenart.

 Foto: Kurt Jaeger

Im Gegensatz zu den meisten anderen Wespenarten verlassen sich die Altköniginnen von D. maculata noch in hohem Maße auf "physische Gewalt", um die Arbeiterinnen steril zu halten und am Eierlegen zu hindern. Wenn im Hochsommer die Geschlechtstiere erzeugt werden, übernimmt die Altkönigin das Entfernen der Seidenreste der Puppenkokons ("cap trimming"), sobald eine junge Wespe geschlüpft ist, um anschließend unverzüglich erneut ein Ei in die nunmehr frei gewordene Zelle zu legen. Auch sieht man sie häufig an den Wabenrändern - wo neue Zellen gebaut werden - patrouillieren. Bei der Eiablage ertappte Arbeiterinnen werden unverzüglich von der Altkönigin angegriffen und vertrieben, ihre Eier aufgefressen.

Orginal E-Mail von David Bishop:
This nest was located in a heavily wooded area near our home and is the larger by half again from any we'd ever seen before.

This was located in a nearby wooded area by our home in San Rafael, California just last week. Making a capture net from an old pool strainer and plastic garbage bag and using an extendable pruner we were able to detach it from it's support branches without any damage. What makes this feat even more impressive is that we( my wife and I) did this at night with two daughters running around with the flashlight like yellowjackets themselves It was about fifteen feet in the air over a steep hillside between two bay laurel trees. The color is strikingly different from the ones displayed in your site. It may be that the source of their pulp is the local madrone and eucalyptus, both of which are deep brown and reddish in their outer bark. Perhaps it may also be that the wood pulp hasn't bleached to grey since it was in such a heavily wooded area. SInce finding this one we've become aware of two others and are quite pleased to be able to provide them to our local schools' science rooms. It's been a great pleasure introducing children to this aspect of the natural world that otherwise strikes fear.

Orginal E-Mail von M Seymour:
I first learned about them when I worked on a farm where we raised two open barns full of veal calves each summer. I was nervous about working in the barns because there were bald-faced hornets flying around in there and I thought they must have a nest nearby. After I expressed my concern, the farm manager observed them one afternoon to try to find the nest and when I came to work the next day, he had me come watch them with him. They were catching flies! The nest was in a pumphouse 40 feet away from the barns and for two summers I fed in those outside barns twice a day and was never stung. I WAS occasionally dive bombed for a tempting-looking mole on my cheek that apparently looks like a fly to a bald-faced hornet....... I know this alone would panic people with a bee phobia, but I got used to it. In fact, this nearsighted optimism made me like them even better! And I was thrilled to see those irritating flies ending up as someone's dinner!

Since then I've watched them carefully. They hunt around my white car that flies love to land on in the late summer and fall. They harvest cedar from the rail fence near my front door and I can hear them chewing the fibers off. They love the small sweet flowers of a wild vine called squirting cucumber that grows here, and they (as the pictures at your site show) make the most beautiful and amazing nests. All in all a most interesting, helpful and wonderful insect.

Orginal E-Mail von Garland J. Hoops
Hello, I walked out my door the other morning at 5:30 AM on my way to work,on the short walk from my door & my jeep I was stung on the arm by a Bald Faced Hornet, OUCH. Well I have been looking for ways to kill the Hornets in there nest since then UNTIL I happened to run across your web site, Now I don't think I want to kill them. I'm still not sure why it stung me as it's nest is across the street from my house attached to a cable box close to a telephone pole. I figure maybe they were disoriented by my outside light & one was sitting on my screen door & when I came out it was startled so it attacked. I am attaching a couple pic's I took of the nest with my digital camera, I will be taking photo's of the nest with my 35mm camera & if you like I will send you the pic's. I am located in Newark, Delaware USA. Thanks for all the Great info on your website.

Sincerely,
Garland J. Hoops

Orginal E-Mail von Mark Laws
"Actually I was going to a cellular site here in St.Louis Missouri to do some maintenance work. I looked up and noticed a large nest of white faced hornets and I stoped took some pictures. I thought it was interesting so I found your website and sent you the picture. Also I noticed that the migration of these's HornetsWest Coast and South East, I found then In the Mid-West??? Go ahead and use my pictures on your website.... "