How do you know they are Asian Giant Hornets? Tennessee is a bit out of their normal habitat, what I think you have is regular old Yellow Jackets or another type of wasp.
Some people suggested some vary dangerous ways of dealing with them regardless of what species they are.
Unless they are close to your house or along a regularly used path I suggest let them be.(No pun intended)
Little over a month they will be gone for the year and you can knock down the hive.
Why not just wait? The winter is coming and they will be dead except perhaps the queen in a matter of weeks. I'm not sure whether they come back each year as we had them here one year, but thank goodness I have never seen one again. I'll bet getting stung by a number of those could kill you rather quickly. I wouldn't mess around with them.
Basically besides dissolving your flesh like a recluse bite it is also a neurotoxin and will kill even those not allergic in the right quantities. Someone likened the sting to having a nail driven into you. If that isn't enough they can sting you multiple times and if that isn't enough they can also bite the heck out of you.
i sincerely hope these guys are not serious about shooting it with a shotgun. Surely they are joking...if not:
first shot: wow
second shot: you are not getting it off and your ass is gonna get tore up.
the only real option is to ladder up to it at night ... cool night with a pressurized sprayer full of gas (be sure to have the nozzle on a solid stream because the mist is extremely combustible and even explosive). dont over-pressurize as gas will kill any bug on contact.
while climbing the ladder spray a solid stream of gas up the tree leading to the nest which you are going to spray. spray nest.
walk down ladder while carefully keeping your cool (youll probably hear the humming from the nest by now). Dont panic ...hornets can sense fear, noise, and carbon dioxide you breathe out.
light gas stream going up tree.
have a hose nearby to spray out fire... bye bye hornets.
I had a Bull Nosed Hornet nest that i refused to take down. Had an exterminator out doing other stuff aroudn the house and he insisted he wanted to take it down. By this point it was double the size of a basketball, and they were aggressive. Guy went out, didnt put his Bee suit on, and they attacked the crap out of him. He then went after them 3 more times. Persistance paid off, but he was hurting. Before going out there, he told my wife, have your phone ready incase we need to call 911. LOL Pay someone
Well I called around and got some quotes ranging from $95-$375. The $95 guy said he had a truck that could spray that high while most of the others said they would have to use a ladder... Guess I'll go with the $95 guy.
Anyway, here's a picture of one of the buggers. It's about 2-2.5" long... Whatever it is (hornet, yellow jacket), it will soon be gone. I hope to start raising honeybees next year and I don't want these things around. Especially considering that I have 2 outside dogs...
Yea there's these things called legs. You use them to run. Also, it's not like you'd stand directly under the tree and shoot, I'd be 20+ yards away at least with a full choke tube. But you insist on climbing a ladder and spraying it only a few feet away? LOL
European Brown Hornet. They will laugh in your face if you try consumer hornet spray. I had a huge nest and a couple came out at night around a garage light. Sprayed them and they came right at me. Being in Ohio, they froze to death.
"SECONDS LATER THE BACK OF MY HEAD FEEL LIKE SOMEONE STUCK ME WITH A RED HOT ICEPICK. THE PAIN LASTED FOR HOURS AND SWELLED UP AS BIG AS A GOLF BALL. ALSO HAD A QUEEN END UP N THE BEDROOM. THE WIFE YELLED SHE THOUGHT A BIG MOTH WAS IN THERE. USED A VACUUM CLEANER TO SUCK IT UP AND AS I GOT CLOSE IT TURNED AS TO STING THE HOSE. ITS STILL IN THE VACUUM. I USE JET SPRAY GUM OUT,IT DROPS EM DEAD."
The master bee killer in the comments. FOLLOW HIS ADVICE
Here's a few more pictures. I think this is the best I'm going to get of the nest. I don't really want to get any closer. There are bees flying around everywhere...
Maybe it's not an Asian Hornet... They kind of shrivel up when you kill them. They are attracted to light and I see them in the garage when I'm in there working at night. I keep some dairy spray which seems to work very well.
If you can wait, and it gets cold enough, they might die off. I had a yellow jacket nest that died off during the winter. Haven't had one since. I left the hornets alone, because from what I read about them, they hunt all types of bugs. So they are sort of beneficial. But if they are in area where they might get riled up and attack someone, then of course you should do something. My hornets nest migrated. It started out right by the garage door. I guess the opening and closing of the door annoyed them, so they moved to a maple tree, about 30 feet off the ground. Their nest plopped into the bed of my pickup truck during the winter.
all ill say.... german hornets will tear your ass up. you won't get 2 chances. They will come at you with the ferocity of a million jihaadists. All jokes aside ... anything alive within a 100 yards of an angry swarm of hornets will get jacked.
That's what they said to me when they showed up... As he stood there grinning he then said, "last thing you want to do is spray one of these while wearing dark clothing in the middle of the day". Tee shirts and jeans and they had to borrow my ladder because they had theirs loaned out. Nice guys though. I kept the cell phone handy in case I had to dial 911...
Anyway, $95 and 10 gallons of pesticide later, the nest is gone. They stood there pumping it full of poison and they were washed out of the tree in streams of dying hornets. He said that the sheer volume of spray is what kept them from being stung. The hornets simply couldn't overcome it.
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