A nest of Vespa bicolor built in an abandoned farmhouse (one of two nests in this place, the other being the one built inside an empty oil container!). The defensive capability of this species is put to the test - I film the nest while my friend bangs on the beam connected directly to the beam and the ceiling to which the nest is attached! In response the envelope is suddenly covered with wasps ready to defend the nest, while a number of individuals fly out and frenziedly circle the nest, trying to find the source of disturbance. But the defended radius is relatively small (I was standing below, quite near the nest, but not one wasp came near me) and they calm down quite quickly. We repeated the same thing, and obtained a similar response. By the third try (not on video - we stopped filming after the second), they merely gathered on the surface of the nest, and by the fifth, they totally ignored all banging, even when my friend and I slammed on the beams together. This shows that while Vespa bicolor will ferociously defend its nest when disturbed, it is not among the more aggressive species, the defended radius is small and the colony calms down quite quickly once the disturbance is gone. (In comparison, earlier this year my friend disturbed a colony of Vespa velutina, located on a roadside tree and the wasps actually chased trucks travelling down the road! Also, the colony took more than twenty minutes to calm down.)
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