Calabrone, known in English as Hornets are not the nicest of insects. Recently some calabrone had taken up residence in a large cherry tree, ok not really a cherry orchard, vacated this spring by a colony of ants (thanks Marius!).
The calabrone had stung the builders twice, so they had to go. Emilio the bee-keeper was summoned, he donned his kit and proceeded to smoke them out.
After ten minutes he thought he had done all he could to eradicate the calabrone. However…..
An urgent cry from the builders had me hurrying outside. Smoke was exiting from all the branches of the tree. It seems that the inside of the tree is very hollow, and whilst spectacular to see as smoke exited from many limbs an branches, we still had calabrone and now a fire too!
Hosepipes to the rescue, two of us doused the tree from a safe distance. It took a good half an hour to quell the smoke, but sadly there are still calabrone flying into the nest,other remedies are being explored.
