• 25 - 35mm long. The colour of the head and thorax is dark reddish brown. The abdomen is deep yellow to orange striped with brown to black.
• Markings on the abdomen are similar to those found on yellow jackets.
• Eyes are deeply indented, shaped like a C. Wings are reddish-orange.
• Males - antennae have 13 segments and the abdomen has 7 segments.
• Females - antennae have 12 segments and the abdomen has 6 segments. Females also have an egg-laying tubular structure at the end of the abdomen called an ovipositor.
• European hornets have a large stinger as well as a large poison sac.

• Nests are built in protected areas such as in hollow trees, balconies or attics. Mature nests consist of 6- 8 horizontal combs, up to 2-3 feet in length, 20 inches in diameter and may contain 800-1000 workers.
• The queen first makes a small pedicel (stalk) from which the nest will be suspended.
• Eggs develop into larva in 5 - 8 days.
• They will pass through five larval stages in the following 12 - 14 days.
• When fully grown, the larva metamorphose into young hornets during the next 13 - 15 days.
• Young hornets then emerge from their cells.
• Between mid August and mid September, the hornet colony achieves its developmental peak.
• The appearance of the first sexuals (queens and males) indicates the decline of the colony.
• The old queen leaves the nest and dies.
• Workers now feed the sexuals with protein and carbohydrates needed for the long hibernation phase.
• With a short lifesspan (3-4 weeks), the last female workers die at the beginning of November.
• Old nests are never resettled the following year.
• A new nest is built in the spring.

• Feed on insects and the sap from trees and shrubs and on the juce from ripe fruit.
• Hornets dismember captured insects with their powerful mandibles removing head, legs, wings and abdomen. Only the thorax, with the flight muscules are fed the larvae.
• Damaged trees and shrubs are highly attractive to other foragers, such as flies and sap beetles which collect the sap, sometimes in great numbers.
• Hornets forage in both daytime and nighttime.
• A large hornet colony can feed up to a half Kilo of insects to its brood in one day. Flies represent aproximately 90% of this.