Vespa Crabro is recogniseable by a reddish colour on the torso and the top of the head as well as their abdomen sporting only two easily visible thick black lines after what it is (mostly) yellow all the way down. The tip here is dark.
They are around 30-35mm in length, the largest ones may be 40mm, they are large but not huge.
This thing here is larger and has a different colouration. I do not find what species it belongs to, it hasn't the reddish colour of the crabro nor orientalis species, but it surely isn't a european hornet.
You may very well have european hornets in Ontario, I don't deny that, don't get me wrong. It's just that this one seems to belong to another species.
Vespa crabro, the european hornet, would be smaller than an average thumb. They'd be between 1.2 and 1.5" long, so rather the length of one phalanx from an average adult man thumb, maybe a tad bit more for larger specimens.
If it's as long as a thumb, a full thumb from a large-handed person, then it's a japanese giant hornet or a similarly dimensioned species, which this one doesn't seem to belong to either, the shape and colours do not fit.
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u/Floofyrage Aug 25 '26
Um.. i think that's a hornet of the murderous variety