Bald Faced Hornet

November 6th, 2008 Posted in Stinging Insects




The bald faced hornet—it’s black and white and might leave you with painful red bumps all over. What you may know is this stinging insect won’t hesitate to sting multiple times to defend its colony. What you may not know is that the bald faced “hornet” is not a hornet at all.

This article will discuss:

  • Bald faced hornet identification

  • Life cycle of bald faced hornets

  • Habits of bald faced hornets

  • EcoSMART: an organic insecticide


Bald Faced Hornet Identification

The bald faced hornet, sometimes called the white-faced hornet, is actually a type of yellow jacket. The term “hornet” is used to describe aerial nesting wasps.

This insect is easy to recognize because of its unique color pattern.

Bald faced hornet description:

  • About 5/8″ to 3/4″ in length

  • Black all over with white accents on the tip of the abdomen and face

  • Dark wings

Predators of this insect include:

  • Birds

  • Spiders

  • Frogs

  • Mantids

  • Other insect predators

Raccoons, foxes, and skunks prey upon nests to eat larvae, pupae and adults in the fall when colony is not as active.


Life Cycle of Bald Faced Hornets

The life cycle of this insect is like any other yellow jacket’s:

  1. Queen emerges in the spring after overwintering and builds a small golf ball-sized nest.

  2. One egg is laid in each cell within the nest.

  3. Queen hunts other insects to feed hatched larvae .

  4. Larvae spin silk cocoons and pupate into adult wasps.

  5. 200-400 sterile adult female workers emerge and take over nest building and hunting duties.

  6. Queen lays eggs which develop into male wasps.

  7. Some female larvae develop into queens near the end of summer.

  8. Male and fertile new queens mate.

  9. Colony disperses in fall.

  10. New queens overwinter and the rest die.


Habits of Bald Faced Hornets

Where they live:

Found in North America, bald faced hornets are common in both wooded and urban areas. They usually live in meadows, forests, parks, gardens, houses, and barns.

They suspend nests from stable objects like tree limbs, bushes, or overhangs. This means they could be living on or near your home, making insecticide a must!

How they build their nests:

After leaves fall from trees in the autumn, many people notice bald faced hornet nests for the first time, though they’ve been present since the spring. If this is the case, it is most likely that the nest is high up enough in the tree and need not be destroyed; however, marking out the area as a caution zone for others may be helpful to prevent avoidable encounters.

Workers construct pear- or football-shaped nests out of chewed, weathered wood with their mouthparts. This wood may have been extracted from old boards, fences or siding.

These aerial nests are gray with a paper-like envelope encasing multiple layers of combs. There is one entrance hole near the bottom of the nest.





What they eat:

  • Adults feed larvae sugary nectar and juices of over-ripe fruit, as well as insects, like flies and caterpillars.

  • Adults eat nectar, fruit juice, sap and insects.

  • Larvae feed adults sweet secretions from their mouths.

Other habits:

Bald faced hornets are usually more docile than other yellow jackets. They do sting in order to protect their nest if it is disturbed or threatened.

Also, they are attracted to light; so, if one gets into a room in your home, shut off the light and open the window of the room so the hornet can exit.




  1. 20 Comments | The First 1,000 to Comment (Starting 12/21/2009) Will Become EcoSMART Product Testers!

  2. By Susan Smoaks on Mar 27, 2009

    This is a very interesting article. I’ve never seen the bald faced hornet before. My husband the nature lover, was very intrigued by it.

  3. By EcoSMART Kara on Mar 30, 2009

    Thanks, Susan Smoaks! They’re very interesting creatures – and you gotta love the close up shot of one in this article.

  4. By Doug Eckert on Jul 9, 2009

    Very fascinating. We have a nest outside the window under the eaves. They’re in mid-build now and we’re enjoying watching their progress – from INSIDE the window, of course!

  5. By Danielle Maruna on Jul 10, 2009

    I saw the picture of the nest and habits of the Bald Faced Hornets and thought that these were one of the hornets infesting our barn and house eaves. So what products work that are organic would help so much. Plus we have yellow jackets and hate to use so much commercial poisons. Any Suggestions?

    Thanks,
    Danielle Maruna

  6. By James Wilson on Jul 28, 2009

    We have a nest about the size of a basketball in our hedge in the driveway. Our son just got stung today and we never knew it was there. We have to take care of it right away since it’s in the driveway very close to the cars where the kids are getting in and out all the time.

    We have just started looking for a non-toxic solution and came across this site.

  7. By Chris Talbot on Aug 6, 2009

    Hi there. I am SO glad to see this article. My family and I just returned home from a camping trip near Long Point Ontario Canada. While there we were swamped with flies (picked a camp site a little TO close to the dumpster). A few days into the trip, we started seeing this “Black and White BEE” flying around. Of course we Tried to squash it. But he turned out to be Very Fast. The more we watched him, we noticed that he was Grabbing the flies right out of the air and finding a place to land (or hang) and would proceed to EAT the flies! we thought this was the Oddest thing. But hating the flies, he Soon became our best friend. And we let him go about his business for the rest of the week. He was a great help in our quest for a “fly-free” campsite.

  8. By scott mahaffey on Aug 13, 2009

    i had no idea what they were called, but today i was cutting some tree limbs and i got stung twice by them. one on the face and one on the leg. and let me tell you it hurts more than any other bee i’ve been bitten by before.

  9. By Marilyn Mueller on Aug 20, 2009

    I was stung twice in the back
    It was in my vehicle and i leaned on it i guess. Wow did this hurt. I am allergic to Yellow Jackets and Honey bees so i was very nervous. I ended up only swelling the size of a large baseball. Wish me luck in the future

  10. By shannon something on Sep 1, 2009

    I don’t know where the nest was residing, or if it was even on our property for sure, but a couple of years ago, I had encountered wasps of the same description, and they were very “in your face.” They were aggressive, and very territorial, like the article states, however, what the article did not state, was we had issues of them flying around at night time.

  11. By rahshiwoods on Dec 1, 2009

    i love the that person looks

  12. By Jon Gustafson on Jul 12, 2010

    I have never seen this wasp. I was walking through the solarium door that was propped open because of the heat. I was stung on the neck. It was pretty painful. As I looked around this critter was inside the solarium. I am sorry but after getting “nailed” like that, this “girl” was history on the first swat.

    Jon Gustafson

  13. By Rachael on Jul 18, 2010

    Wow! I just got stung today four times by a group of bald-faced hornets. It really hurt. I was just trimming the bushes with my hedge trimmer and WHAM! Turns out I cut down their nest which was filled with their little babies!

  14. By charmaine on Jul 19, 2010

    ok it seems as everyone is fascinated by theses insects but what about us people who are allergic. I have incountered one of these in my backyard in Taylor, mi. It chased me all over the back yard. the next day it chased mt neighbor. These things are very aggresive. They sting numerous times. They can kill people who are allergic. They are very aggresive. So if your allergic stay away.

  15. By gail on Jul 30, 2010

    I have a huge nest of these and have found a gentleman that collects the nest at no fee and sends the females out to be used for antivenom. What a great use!

  16. By Diane on Aug 11, 2010

    I have this flying around my house all the time. Then it turns out that the molding of the side door the wasps were climbing into a drill hole and was harvesting wood or making a nest who knows which. I made my husband spray it and found that it was the bald headed hornet. Should I worry that they are building a colony in there or close to the house?

  17. By Ken on Aug 24, 2010

    Very helpful article, and comments. I have an active, basketball-sized nest of Bald-faced Hornets in a bush right outside my front door, here in a wooded part of NJ. I have walked within 4 feet of the nest many times before and after discovering it a week ago, and they have not bothered me. I don’t want to kill or poison them, and would like to figure out a way to detach the nest (at night, wearing gloves & headnet, of course), and deposit the entire thing way up in the woods, away from the house. Either that, or have someone come and take it, like the man who takes the antivenom in the above post. Any professional suggestions? Thanks.

  18. By Annemarie on Jul 15, 2011

    I have been finding the bald faced hornet in my back yard this year. We have a small pear tree and this is the 1st year of 7 that is has actually bloomed with a ton of fruit on it. In addition to seeing them flying around the fruit, I see them around my dogs droppings (gross I know). Anyway, I have looked high and low in all the trees around my house and can’t find a nest anywhere. I am petrified to go in the backyard because they seem to be everywhere, and I am afraid to let my boys go out there as well. Any suggestions on how to get rid of them if i can’t find the nest?

  19. By Rick on Sep 3, 2011

    Nice articles. I live in the great northwest.Have had a black hornets nest
    around for 6-7 years. We have pine trees they seem to like to build there nest. For several years I would wait until late fall
    to collect there abandoned nest they are a marvel. This year I had one in the apple tree
    but they were smaller than usaul must have been the cooler weather.
    anyway I checked on the nest every day to see how it was comming along and hoping the bees would get larger. Went to check on it a
    few days ago and it was destroyed to shreads.
    Was very disapointing. to a walk thru the old garden area looking for some grapes. On the way back as I looked at the path there were the bees combs on the ground spread along the trail. Looks like it may have been the raccons in the area. As I had spoken to my neighbors about the nest and there response was to get rid of the nest I thought maybe they had something to do with it. The evidence proved otherwise. The racoons must be having a hard time off it.
    must be the recesion i guess we all suffer a little. Best with bees let them do there work
    don’t observe them with sugar on you. and don’t panic and start swatting at them they are quick to show there stuff if needed

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