Scott Mortimer said:
did some searching...these guys are Bald-Faced hornets. They eat other bugs, mostly flies. I'm glad I stayed 10 feet away and used the zoom lens, some of the web pages said they usually attack anyone that comes within 3 feet of the hive!
-Scott
Yep, they're Bald Faced Hornets. I've been finding a few of them in my back yard here in Idaho lately, hanging around the area where I've got several Yellow Jacket traps. The hornets won't go in the traps, so I've been whacking them with a fly swatter. They're bigger and fly a lot slower than Yellow Jackets and are easy to knock out of the air.
I got nailed again by a Yellow Jacket earlier early in the summer while mowing the lawn and have been at war with the dang things ever since.
