European Hornet

Vespa crabro is Europe's largest native social wasp and one of seven Vespa hornet species worldwide. Workers measure 25 mm; queens reach 35 mm. The species is striking but considerably less aggressive than the smaller, more familiar yellowjacket (Vespula spp.); the hornet's sting is similar in pain intensity to a honey bee's. The most distinctive behavior of V. crabro is her tendency to forage at night — she is the only Vespa hornet that hunts after dark, and she is readily attracted to artificial lights, which she uses to ambush moths and beetles. Colonies are typically founded in spring by a single overwintered queen who builds a small initial paper nest in a tree cavity, attic, or wall void; by late summer the colony reaches 200-400 workers (modest by Vespula yellowjacket standards). Colonies die at the end of the season; only newly mated queens overwinter. V. crabro was introduced to North America in the 1840s and is now established across the eastern US — without becoming the kind of devastating invasive that the more recent Asian giant hornet (V. mandarinia) became after 2019.