Giant Hornet

Today a giant bee-like creature was in my house. Presumably it came in with my son when he returned from the upper barn after tending the goats this morning. I was walking down the hall past the living room on my way upstairs when I heard this banging sound in there. I looked over and a giant something was beating itself against the lights and windows. It was HUGE! It seemed nearly the size of small hummingbird. 

On closer inspection is appeared to be a bee, wasp, or hornet. It buzzed, and loudly. It was at least 1.5 inches long, but seemed longer- pinky sized! It had brown wings and a brown head and thorax. It had a thick yellow and brown striped, hairy abdomen that was about as big around as my index finger. It looked like it could take down a bird, and one of substantial size at that!

I'm no fan of snakes. They move so creepily. And I dislike spiders, despite their benefits, because they are a bit intimidating. Bees, wasps, and hornets have never bothered me before, but this thing beat out the spiders and snakes! I mean, it flew, and fast! And it was LOUD, and seemingly mad.

I don't like to kill bugs. That exoskeleton crunch gives me the shivers. And most wasps and bees are very important for things like pollination and bothersome insect control. So I tried turning off lights and propping open the nearby door- no luck. I tried opening a window that it finally landed on. (That took bravery, by the way.) Slowly it crawled to the top of the frame. Slowly it crept over the edge of it and out of view. I waited. 

I wanted to see it fly away. It didn't. Then I started to worry that it would fly or crawl BACK IN. That was not desirable. I had a vision of my 10 week old getting stung and that made up my mind. I raised the window, hoping that the ugly thing was completely on the outside of the frame. CRUNCH! Nope. Shiver. Now I have that mess to look forward to when I next clean the windows- yuck.

Later today I wanted to find out what that creature was. Based on its size, it has to be either a European Hornet or a Cicada Killer Wasp. I looked through pictures of each, and neither is really striped, and neither seemed hairy enough. I think bees are hairy, not wasps. Perhaps bee-things are hairier in the spring than in the summer? 

Part of me wants to lower that window and take a closer look to satisfy my curiosity. Part of me is afraid that the armored creature will still be alive and angry and I should just leave it alone for a few days. Given my busyness lately, I'm thinking it will be the latter by default. Plus, it will be squashed (gross!) so probably not very helpful for identification purposes. But my curiosity will fester.

By the way, I tried to take some pictures of it, but as I was ducking the thing and with back light. Unfortunately, I left my camera in the baby's room, so I can't see if any of them turned out right now. If one did, I'll post it later for all of you amateur entomologists. :)