I didn't notice the hornets' nest until a friend's toddler was exploring my backyard and wandered over toward my compost pile behind the garage.

For some reason, my eyes drifted up and there, just above the back door of the garage, was this terrifying thing.

This was no little honeycomb wasp nest like the ones we get once in a while around the deck. This was a smooth, gray bulb plastered against the vinyl siding just below the garage roof overhang. Gigantic black wasps hovered around the hole at the bottom and zipped in and out toward the yard.

With a chill, I pointed it out to the child's mother, and we quickly got out of there.

Later, I showed the nest to my husband and he did some Internet sleuthing to figure out exactly what it was. He identified the species as the bald-faced hornet, and our neighbor later came to the same diagnosis through his own, independent Web search.

The charming thing about this hornet, we learned, is that it eats other insects and caterpillars, including garden pests.

What's not so charming is that if you disturb the nest, hundreds of wasps swarm you and sting repeatedly. Not good.

There are many options for taking down a hornets' nest, some of them straightforward and some a little unconventional. One Web site recommended plugging the hole with some sort of construction foam. While this doesn't work with certain species that eat their dead relatives to get out of the nest, that's not the case for bald-faced hornets. Eww!

Most of the methods seemed to involve at least some form of risk - namely, anger the hornets and they attack.

The alternative is to wait for cold weather when the hornets all die naturally and abandon the nest. Here, too, you risk inadvertently disturbing the nest, sending the angry hornets into attack mode.

After mulling it over and talking to our neighbors who have small children, we settled on waiting it out. I've stopped using the garage door and I'm no longer weeding the flowers and mowing the lawn under the nest.

In the meantime, several gigantic sunflowers have grown to eye level and there are some rogue tomato plants growing among them. But I can't get close enough to inspect anything. I tip-toe in to drop banana peels on the compost pile and then carefully back away. I keep my eyes on the nest and freeze any time something moves in my peripheral vision.

It wasn't until this week when I was again reading about bald-faced hornets that I learned they eat fruit, as well as insects. I was stricken with guilt. Could my compost pile be what attracted them?

I suppose it's possible. And I suppose I should embrace the hornets' presence as a part of the natural cycle that I am encouraging in the lawn by composting. These are, after all, beneficial insects. Swarms? Aggressive attacks? Maybe they're just misunderstood.

And maybe next year, I'll locate my compost pile farther from the house.

nnn

Julie Kirkwood's "Yard Dirt" appears weekly in the Home North section. Reach her by calling 978-946-2251 or via e-mail at jkirkwood@eagletribune.com.