Attempting to Keep a Pet Hornet 

"Do not try this at home" Oh don't worry, I WOULD NEVER.

“Like any normal person. I reached in, grabbed it, and made a run for it” Probably the only robbery the neighbors are okay with.

In my experience, yellow jackets are so kind if you are kind to them. There was a yellow jacket infestation in my college dorm bathroom (that my school refused to take care of), and one day while I was showering, one got stuck in the water and started to drown. I saved it from drowning, and for the rest of the year the whole colony would leave me alone or friendly stop close by to say hi and then fly off somewhere else. They’re cool creatures

Fun fact, hornets can remember not only faces, but what those individuals have done to them. If they only associate positivity, they are very unlikely to harm you, some even show up specifically if they know something good for them is coming, such as good or provisions. Smart little things, sadly unjustly hated. They eat pests that destroy our crops, and help in reducing the need for harsher pesticides.

As someone with a massive phobia of wasps, that shot of the hornet drinking from your finger did slightly warm my heart. Slightly.

"They're not _always_ out to kill you." That's not as comforting as you might think that is.

I had a pet bald faced hornet for a winter once. Found her all frozen on my doorstep. She was more chill than most paper wasps I’ve seen. She always seemed kinda sad without her nest but she wasn’t a queen. She 10/10 would recommend strawberries though. Liked them more than honey for some reason.

this man is the only person in the world who could get me to be sad about a dead wasp

Wish we could get a bit more regular updates on your older projects but i know these videos take a long time to make, youre doing a great job theyre very good quality.

Oh sure, like any normal person, I would totally grab a hornets nest without gloves, face protection, groin protection, eye protection, etc.😆

5:20 "I didn't want to resort to this but..." *Performs necromancy*

I never thought the death of a hornet, of all things, would make me sad. May her Highness rest in peace.

I'm just curious but where does your confidence regarding potentially harmful animals come from? Not many people would hand feed a yellow jacket or grab a hornet nest with their bare hands.

Never before did the disclaimer "Do not try this at home" seem so arbitrary.

You actually managed to make me feel sad about a hornet dying. I'm impressed.

Wasps are super chill when you get to know them. I worked on a farm during the pandemic and recognized 5 different species buzzing around the purple long beans. They never stung me and its great to see them represented in a positive light here. Wasps could use the kind of positive marketing honey bees get as they do a lot of important work in agriculture. They are highly effective predators of crop damaging insects like aphids and tomato hornworms; a free service worth at least $416 Billion every year.

“Like any normal person, I reached in, grabbed it, and made a run for it.” Bruh, not too many “normal” people do this so I must say, to pull this off without getting stung a million times, makes you a rare specimen of man.

When I was little I had a pet wasp. He couldn't fly, and I fed him honey. 10 years later I have a tattoo of him. 💕

In 20 years I haven't once been stung by something unless I was doing something stupid. Wasps especially liked to find their way into my house via the old ass windows having a huge gap in the sides of the frames, and every single time I saw one, I managed to either convince it to crawl onto my hand willingly (those exhausted ones trying to walk in the window frame rather than fly up against the window), or "caught" it by cupping my hands around it, with the window pane it was trying to fly through "beneath" the wasp. Once they were on my hand I could safely escort them outside. I was nervous when I first started trying this because their abdomens would wobble a little, but once I realized that they weren't revving up to sting the heck out of me, I stopped worrying about it. I lived in that building for 10 years and escorted wasps outside in most seasons, and not a single sting. Also, once I had them on my hand, they were remarkably docile. I can't remember any that flew off between wherever I gathered them and the door outside. I'm sure it happened, but so little that I can't recall it. My typical interaction was get the wasp on my hand, walk slowly and calmly toward the door, beg it to stay on my hand as I open the door and then screen door, then hold my hand outside next to this wooden railing on our porch. Sometimes they flew off my hand when they felt the free wind, and pretty often it seemed like they were tired and needed some rest on the wooden rail before taking off. It's weird but I really valued those interactions. Anyway, super long way to say that I had all these fears and stuff programmed into me as a child, but once I started to challenge those ideas in my teen years, so many assumptions were way different from reality. If I ever own my own yard I'm going to start beekeeping for sure!

Unlike many other insects close up - these sorts are actually rather nice looking. Very smooth and nicely colored.

i have 2 beehives in my backyard, and i know a guy who kept multiple hornet colonies for conservation purposes. i think i can say with confidence that if you manage to keep them alive in this box it's going to get out of your hands real quick. i think you'd have to give them acces to the outside world once the workers hatch because opening these boxes will be a nightmare...

My dad was an bee keeper. Bees, wasps and hornets were always in the neighborhood. Got stang a few times, but now I'm used to seeing them fly around. Great video. ❤️

I’ve been feeding some native wasps and bees on my university campus and people always look at me as if I’m crazy. It’s really refreshing seeing someone care so much about such a tiny life. They are important for our ecosystem and very intelligent! I’m jealous u got to keep this beauty :D

Your love for animals of all kinds is truly an inspiration. Thank you for sharing and demonstrating how it is possible to coexist and love all living beings

This guy deserves way more subscribers he picked up a hornet for RU-vid

Just knowing you're attempting to tame a hornet sends chills down my spine. I have an intense fear of bees, wasps, and hornets (and anything else related to them). I can handle regular bees and bumblebees. Wasps are a little iffy but I can handle them. Yellow Jackets put me on edge but I can somewhat handle them as long as I can avoid them. But fucking hornets I cannot handle. The moment i hear one and/or see one, I will leave the room/area. I dont care if I have to step out into the hot ass sun, I will leave my room or house to escape the hornet.

"You're probably wondering how I ended up with a pet hornet-" "No I'm wondering WHYMS'T THE FUCK"

I had a paper wasp nest in an insect house on my porch last year.... learned a lot about them and they helped with pest control in my garden. They do get rather angry at the end of summer when they begin to mate. There was one or two left in the nest and they hibernated all winter there and flew away once spring hit. I was super awesome!

Interesting how you raised hornets. I've actually raised wasps when I was younger. I would keep them in a jar with the nest and kill bugs for them so they can eat. I even successfully raised a few of them. It was so cool and I do think fondly of the babies I raised.

Please do not attempt anything done in this video. Yellow jackets and hornets are dangerous, and this video is for educational purposes only. I also apologize for the delay in uploads! I have a lot of cool stuff planned for the future…

Such a fantastic video! I was completely engaged from start to finish. So happy to find your channel. 🙂

These videos are very well put together. Great work, you earned my sub. Much love from Tampa, FL 🌴

What happens to the nest without the queen? I mean, I assume the larva will not make it without being fed by her, but what about the adults that will emerge from their cocoons sooner or later? Do they have some method of replacing the queen from a worker like bullet ants or do they just die out from lack of young without any queen like most the other ants?

I'm so happy I found your channel, I'm such a insect/animal fan! It's amazing seeing how you care and create habitats perfect for them!

This is incredibly interesting. As someone that admires and loves to watch wasps build nests and goes out of their way to protect them from people, I've often wondered if something like this was possible. You sir gained a new subscriber.

I was sent this by a friend because I picked one up earlier to save it from getting run over. I wish I had the supplies to keep it - it was so sweet!

I just struck gold on youtube! I've been enjoying your content so much and it's easy to see how much dedication you put into taking care of these animals/insects in your videos.

just discovered this channel and i’m on an absolute binge! fantastic projects you have going on.

Thank you for keeping this reasonably short, i miss out on a lot of similar videos because i simply dont have time to watch the >20min videos some people make

Your videos are amazing. Such great quality.More please!

It's amazing how you can see the different stages of life for these animals from a one small nest. And the fact that this video was recommended by RU-vid the day I got stung.

I did this a couple years ago and had some minor success with the cage design where you access through the bottom. This should be a really fascinating series I think Paper wasp make better pets than most people would think due to their boldness.

1:10 look at the hornet in the other container, she was probably like: HEY, GET OFF MY NEST YOU *the following words cannot be said on youtube*.

@2:09 The forbidden tic tac

Well done doc really unique animals to keep, you’ve really done your research, the content is more than worth the roughly monthly wait per video, I also usually find assembly of enclosures boring but you keep it stimulating and don’t drag it out. Well done and also very fitting sponsor, simply fantastic Doc, Onwards and Upwards

Just stumbled upon this channel and I'm in LOVE with your builds. I really appreciate the quality of these videos and the work put in. Keep it up! I look forward to seeing this channel grow :)

Im kinda fearful of bugs, but u give me inspiration to change and show how much these insects and animals mean to the world, as fearful as i am. Thank you and keep it up man. ❤️

I randomly came across this videos, man you are great! But I was soon disappointed to see that these videos are short, just some background music and videos of the insects, animals, flies are so good to watch. This is so stress relieving. Make the videos long!! Love from India💙

The bit where he feeds the yellow jacket from his finger is just so wholesome and heartwarming.

I love it. I've kept old fall paper wasp nests before, when they are starting to die off for the year, and I've had outside nests that I watch closely, but I've never kept a growing nest inside. They are cool animals.

This dude: Reaches into bush Grabs hornet nest RUNNNN The wasps are unbelievably cute! Especially the round wriggly babies. I can clearly see your love for them it’s heartwarming

Congrats! On 100k you deserve it and much more keep it up!

Sorry but I am an artist whom happens to LOVE insects. and it's my first time seeing a thing Like the abdominal movement in 5:04 ????Like, It looks crazy, I'm guessing it's the ovipositor or the rectal channel moving??? but it looks SO ALIEN. like if the wasp had a second mouth on the tip of it's abdomen.....and even more interestingly, this is a surprisingly rare footage, since, the only similar thing I've ever seen like this on a invertebrate has probably only been on parasitoid wasps using their ovopositors. @Dr.Plants great footage!!

Keep it up my man!! Great content....

you are one of the coolest people in the internet (albeit in real life) keep up with the high quality content!

This video got me so empathetically involved with the nest that I felt TERRIBLE once I found out the queen didn't make it.

5:25, I definitely didn't scream and jump off my chair......

Seeing the yellow jacket eating honey off of your finger was one of the most wholesome things I've seen in a while.

1:11 I can practically hear it yelling "my children!"

1:51 that’s actually kind of cute like humming bird.

I hope to be as confident with wasps one day as you are! I've re-entered college with a passion for entomology and I've been interested in interacting with wasps after seeing how gentle the paper wasps in our doorway were and how patient an angry yellow jacket was with me after I disturbed the area its nest was in.

This is very cool! They definitely get a bad rap. I had a blast filming a nest and they weren't aggressive toward me. Thanks for sharing this. And kudos on the honey and hornet!

5:12 why is the abdomen opening up like that if shes dead?

This is a dope ass channel. I am a bug fan. Just found you and will be looking at all your content.

Wasps and hornets are so underrated. They’re great for pest control I love seeing them in my garden even if they can be kinda scary.

I like this video and that you’re educating people about wasps. They’re very beneficial and really not aggressive; they are actually defensive because they’re prey for larger animals (birds, mostly). So of course if one sees a huge shadow coming at it it’s going to get it’s guard up and may buzz around you or even land on you. What many people don’t know is these insects have excellent vision and can even recognize each other, as well as humans. When they buzz around you they’re literally just checking you out and seeing if you’re a threat. Every time I’ve seen one do this to a person it illicit a panicked reaction. Just stand still, let the wasp check you out, and it will fly off in a minute.However, if you’re near a nest, use caution; they may be trying to ask you to leave their area and might sting to protect their family if you aren’t careful or irritate them.

The courage in this man honestly is amazing I see a bee and I’m scared. Lol

Bro probably got stung SO MANY TIMES when grabbing that nest. I admire that courage.

This is absolutely fascinating - especially the insight of the larvae using their mandables to make noise. I've never seen that documented in video. I actually had the opposite of the expected reaction. I'm more wary of bald faced hornets than yellow jackets just based on reading of their aggression. Meanwhile, I have personal experience with yellow jackets eating out of my hand while picking apples. Just goes to show how inaccurate common knowledge can be.

"for that, we have to go back a couple days" for that, i have to introduce you to my make shift flamethrower i call the "spray n' lighter"