A picture of a bald-faced hornet

Bald-Faced Hornet Facts

  • Kingdom: Animalia
  • Phylum: Arthropoda
  • Class: Insecta
  • Order: Hymenoptera
  • Family: Vespidae
  • Genus: Dolichovespula
  • Species: Dolichovespula maculata

14 Bald-Faced Hornet Facts for Kids

  1. The bald-faced hornet is a social wasp that is a member of the genus Dolichovespula.
  2. The binomial name for the bald-faced hornet is Dolichovespula maculate.
  3. The bald-faced hornet was described by Carl Linnaeus in 1763.
  4. Bald-faced hornets are also known as the bald hornets, blackjackets, bull wasps, spruce wasps, white-faced hornets and white-tailed hornets.
  5. Bald-faced hornets are not hornets, unlike their name would imply, they are a type of yellowjacket wasp.
  6. Bald-face hornets are native to North America, and no other populations have been established anywhere else in the world.
  7. The bald-faced hornet is a social wasp and they live together in a nest.
  8. Bald-faced hornets build large paper nests that can reach up to 23 inches in length.
  9. On average, a colony of bald-faced hornets will be between 400 and 700 individuals.
  10. Bald-faced hornets are very aggressive and will sting things that threaten their nest multiple times.
  11. Bald-faced hornets have a very painful sting, additionally they can spray venom from their stingers in the eyes of something threatening their nest.
  12. The average length of an adult bald-faced hornet is 0.75 inches.
  13. Bald-faced hornets aren’t officially pests and can be beneficial because their prey includes species of flies and caterpillars that are considered pest.
  14. Bald-faced hornet nests are commonly removed when they are on or near manmade structures. This is due to their aggressive nature, so the removal is to protect people from being attacked.

Additional Resources with Bald-Faced Hornet Facts