Hornets are protected and therefore must not be fought or even killed. They may only be gently driven away from their own area, for example the terrace, but under no circumstances should the hornet's nest or the colony be harmed. If it is recognized early in the year that the hornet queen is looking for a nesting place, then measures for gentle expulsion can also be taken before a nest is built.
Observe nature conservation
Hornets are protected, which means nothing can be harmed to the animals. They must not be fought; their nests must remain where they were built throughout the summer. Only in individual cases does the nature conservation authority of a community agree to the relocation, which must be carried out by experts. But the individual hornets can be driven out of the apartment or terrace gently with a scent. These animals are actually not aggressive and only attack when they see themselves, their colony or their queen in the nest threatened. Above all, the insects are also capable of learning and do not even fly to places that indicate to them through a smell that they are not wanted.
Prevent nest building
In order to avoid having hornets in the garden or on the house, it can be very effective to start building the nest right from the start, when the young queen is looking for a suitable nesting place, to intervene here, because a single hornet is allowed to come along gently a smell or scent. Of course, the hornet queen must not be harmed during this action. The queens usually start looking for a suitable place in the first warm days. If there is nothing to offer you in nature, then they will come near the houses or in the garden. Therefore, after winter, the house and garden should be searched for places where a colony of hornets could nest. These include:
- old tree trunks
- Bird nesting boxes
- stacked wood
- Roll boxes
- Roof truss
- Wood paneling on terraces or entrance doors
These places should be inspected, especially if hornet colonies have already settled on the house or in the garden in previous years. However, not all gaps can be closed, for example with a wire mesh. Here it helps to sprinkle clove oil on any entrances where the young queen could fly to build a nest. Hornets don't like this smell at all and don't fly to these places. It is helpful to do this several times in the spring until the danger of another hornet queen getting lost after May has been averted.
Tip:
If the possible hiding places are smeared with clove oil in advance, the hornets will not nest in the first place and will be gently driven away to another place, further away from your own house or garden.
Scents for Expulsion
These insects don't like certain scents and smells and these can be used well if individual animals keep getting lost in the apartment or on the terrace. If it is known that there is a nest in the garden or on the house that will remain there over the summer, then the entrances to the house as well as the terrace or balcony can be prepared with different smells so that the individual hornet does not even come here uses. The following scents can be used against the animals:
- hot coffee, just right for a coffee table on the terrace
- alternatively, light coffee powder and let it smolder
- Lemons, place cut lemons around the terrace
- Crush cloves so they exude more scent
- Clove oil in scented bowls on windowsill or terrace
- Hairspray, spray around the seat
- Light incense sticks on the terrace or in the apartment
- Cut the garlic and distribute it
Tip:
These remedies are not a guarantee that a hornet won't get lost on the set table because the sweet cake or the grilled meat will then smell much more intense. However, the animals are generally not attracted to our food like wasps. If it does happen, you should react calmly in such a case, as the hornets generally do not attack people in these cases.
Food for distraction
If a nest has been found, for example under the roof ridge or a roller box, but is not removed, the animals can often be found on the terrace. However, this can be annoying, especially when you are having a cozy get-together. The remedy here is to place food that the animals like in another place to distract them. Then the insects no longer fly directly to the terrace and the seat, but directly to the food source. The following can be used for the distraction food:
- ripe fruits
- Grapes, ripe apples or stone fruit are included
- cut this open so the scent will be released better
- place in bowls and set up
Tip:
If food is placed as a distraction, make sure that it is not placed in the immediate vicinity of a favorite place for children to play in the garden. Then the terrace is free of the animals, but the meadow where ball is played is not. Therefore the place for this must be chosen carefully.
Plants for displacement
In some cases, plants can also be used to drive away the hornets or to prevent them from finding their way into the home or garden. If these plants are placed in strategic locations, the animals will give the house and garden a wide berth, unless the nest is right next to the house. But even then, these plants can be used to intervene in the flight path; the animals will then avoid flying through windows into the apartment or onto the terrace if the plants are in their way. These plants include:
- Tomatoes
- Basil
- Lavender
- Mint
- Lemon balm
- Frankincense plant
Tip:
All of these plants, which generally exude an intense scent that is pleasant to humans, can therefore be cultivated in pots around the terrace, in various places in the garden as well as on the window sills of the open windows.
Dispel with fire and smoke
If individual animals get lost in the garden while looking for food, i.e. there is no nest in your own garden, then they can easily be driven away by fire and, above all, the smoke that this creates. The grill can be lit on the meadow and the animals immediately disappear from the environment in which the smoke rises. However, caution is advised if the hornet's nest is in close proximity to the fire source and the smoke is moving over there. The animals then feel attacked and will defend their nest by attacking, which in such a case can lead to many puncture injuries.
Eliminate food sources
Hornets can be attracted to certain plants in the garden. If a new colony has settled in your own garden or house every year, then these food sources, which are very attractive to the animals, should be removed from the garden. These include trees that have a very succulent trunk, such as lilacs or birches. But even if the fruit is not harvested in autumn but ends up on the meadow as fallen fruit, this can result in many hornets finding their way into the garden. It is therefore advisable to harvest apples, grapes or stone fruit beforehand. However, the only way to prevent flying towards the juicy trunks is to fell the trees. But the animals often get lost in the apartment, here too the following should be taken into account:
- Store fruit or other fragrant foods under glass
- so the animals don't recognize the scent
- they don't even fly into the apartment through an open window
- once they have been attracted by the smell, they will come back
Tip:
If hornets are in the garden every year, it is better to protect the places in which the young queens build their nests in spring, for example with clove oil as described, making them unusable for the animals close. This means you don't have to cut down beautiful trees to keep the hornets away.
Conclusion
If you find a hornet's nest in your garden or on your house, you are not allowed to destroy it or drive the entire hornet population out of their nest. Only individual hornets that should not get into the apartment or onto the terrace may be gently driven away using various measures and smells. Plants or bowls with one or another smell can be placed on window sills or around the terrace so that a natural scent barrier prevents the hornets from flying there in the first place. Otherwise it means living with the animals for a summer and taking measures against nest building next spring.
