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Dealing with hornet hive firefighters’ way
East Jakarta Fire and Rescue Agency handles the highest case of hornet nests removal this year.
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The nest of paper wasp (Vespa affinis) (Shutterstock/meesilpa sornsing)
When people think about firefighters, they immediately picture men in orange uniforms putting out fires.
However, many also turn to them for animal rescues, medical emergencies and wild-animal control: from a snake slithering on dirt or hiding in a pipe to a hornets’ nest that needs removal from one’s house.
For the firefighter and rescue team in East Jakarta, hornet control is a part of their daily tasks.
“I got stung so many times, I might become The Wasp,” said Suradi, an East Jakarta rescue team member referring to a fictional American superhero.
He recalled being stung eight times by hornets last year, which resulted in fever and swollen skin. However, he considered himself to be lucky because some of his friends needed to be hospitalized for days.
In 2018, he helped a resident in Halim Perdanakusuma, East Jakarta to dispose of hornets that had nested in a parabolic antenna.
"We had to close all hive openings with gasoline-drenched cotton balls," he said explaining the method to get the hornets immobile. Suradi then had to remove the one-meter-wide nest, while two other men sprayed the hornets that were outside with insect repellent.
