We stood back and watched. The hornets were circling giddily. Their bodies, coated in poison, had turned white. "They're looking for another way in," he said. "But they're stupid creatures; they only ever build one. No escape routes or nothing".
He told me about a case he'd been called to where some chap who was cutting a hedge had put his blade through a nest and had to be stretchered off to hospital. "His face was out here," he said, holding his hand about a foot away from his cheek.