Tracking the 'Murder Hornet': A Deadly Pest Has Reached North America:
In his decades of beekeeping, Ted McFall had never seen anything like it.
As he pulled his truck up to check on a group of hives near Custer, Wash., in November, he could spot from the window a mess of bee carcasses on the ground. As he looked closer, he saw a pile of dead members of the colony in front of a hive and more carnage inside — thousands and thousands of bees with their heads torn from their bodies and no sign of a culprit.
"I couldn't wrap my head around what could have done that," Mr. McFall said.
Only later did he come to suspect that the killer was what some researchers simply call the "murder hornet."
With queens that can grow to two inches long, Asian giant hornets can use mandibles shaped like spiked shark fins to wipe out a honeybee hive in a matter of hours, decapitating the bees and flying away with the thoraxes to feed their young. For larger targets, the hornet's potent venom and stinger — long enough to puncture a beekeeping suit — make for an excruciating combination that victims have likened to hot metal driving into their skin.
In Japan, the hornets kill up to 50 people a year. Now, for the first time, they have arrived in the United States.
Related Stories
Murder hornet munchies: The horrifying insect makes a tasty treat:
News of insects nicknamed murder hornets invading the US might feel like the plot to a horror film, but maybe you'll feel better knowing the pests make for a tasty snack.
The Asian giant hornet (Vespa mandarinia) is described as 1.5 inches to 2 inches long with an orange-yellow head and black stripes on its abdomen. The stinger is long enough to poke through protective beekeeper suits, and kills up to 50 people a year in Japan alone.
Yes, the large hornets have been spotted in the Pacific Northwest, most notably Washington State, but that doesn't mean residents of the area are doomed. The Asian giant hornet is apparently considered a delicacy in its native Japan.
[...] While foodies in Japan might enjoy seeking out murder hornet nests for snacks and cocktails, it's worth noting that the Washington State Department of Agriculture (WSDA) doesn't advocate approaching these deadly pests, which were officially spotted in Washington in December.
The WSDA warns to "use extreme caution near Asian giant hornets. The stinger of the Asian giant hornet is longer than that of a honeybee and the venom is more toxic than any local bee or wasp. If you find a colony, do not attempt to remove or eradicate it. Report it to WSDA (or your local state's department of agriculture) immediately."
Previously:
Tracking the "Murder Hornet": a Deadly Pest Has Reached North America
(Score: -1, Offtopic) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 03 2020, @04:08PM (4 children)
How much do you pay and where do I sign up?
(Score: -1, Offtopic) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 03 2020, @04:36PM (2 children)
You no good, You can't handle the mutant ninja murder hornets.
(Score: -1, Offtopic) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 03 2020, @08:00PM (1 child)
You have to social distance and shelter at home until the vaccine is available (or you starve).
(Score: 1, Funny) by Ethanol-fueled on Sunday May 03 2020, @08:30PM
I dont know why you two were modded down, I can already read the headlines and hear the interviews, when American media finally gets ahold of this:
...It's mandibles can cut off a finger!
...The stinger's the size of a nail, and is known for impaling beekeepers! Rips right through those bee-suits like a hot knife through butter!
...Venom from one sting can kill small people and put large ones in a coma instantly! You will drop on the spot!
...If you see a nest, it's already too late! You will be murdered and then eaten by hundreds! Bones are all that will be left of you!
...Their buzzing sounds like a formation of Chinook helicopters!
...They were born angrier than Black men, look at the anger in those onery faces! Their frowns will be the last thing you see before you die!
(Score: -1, Offtopic) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 03 2020, @05:38PM
You may PayPal us the nominal fee of $12,000US to be enrolled in our group of murder hornet specialists. You may supply your own protective gear, or PayPal us an additional $7,000US for us to supply PPE. Transportation to the site is at your own expense of course. PayPal charliesnakeoil@yaywhooo.com
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Sunday May 03 2020, @04:50PM (10 children)
What we've got in the yard instead are bullet ants. It took me literally 5 years and about 4 stings before I figured out that's what they were. They usually don't bother people, they're not too numerous, not too active, but they're around, and if you accidentally put your hand on one (for me this almost always happened in the dark), they sting with a super fast acting extremely painful venom that leaves relatively little trace, it doesn't puss-ball up the way a fire ant sting does. I thought they must be some kind of wasp until I finally saw one when it stung me. Now, if I can only figure out how to ensure they don't hang out in the garbage can lid handle anymore...
Hornets nests are really impressive things when you stumble upon them in the woods, there's an instinctual dread when you begin to realize what the basketball sized paper layered gently buzzing thing on that tree branch is... back away... slowly... carefully...
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 2) by Barenflimski on Sunday May 03 2020, @05:19PM (4 children)
You've got Bullet ants? I don't know where you live, but those things are native to the rain-forests of South America. From what I can tell, there has never been a nest found in the United States or the U.K. These things are so painful that your hand would be swollen for two days. The intense pain will last 3-4 hours. They use them in initiation rituals in some groups to prove that you're a man. They are also fairly large as they can grow up to an inch long. You positive you got bullet ants? (Again, as far as I know you might live in a tree house in Honduras)
As far as these hornets go, it seems like its simply a matter of time and all flying bugs will have migrated around the world. What took planet earth millions of years to move species around can now be done in decades with commercial aircraft.
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Sunday May 03 2020, @05:43PM (3 children)
We're in North Florida. When I finally I.D.'ed the things stinging me and looked them up as black 1cm highly painful ants, the sources that identified them called them bullet ants - this was about 2 years ago... the description / pictures of the body shape and nesting habits matched what I've got. Now when I search for bullet ants I get what you refer to, and the body shape and size is slightly different.
That's an accurate description of the experience- but I've only had single stings, and the ants that deliver them around here have a total body length of just under 1cm - there's no after effect from the sting, other than a numb/dull pain for about a day.
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 03 2020, @07:35PM
>> there's no after effect from the sting, other than a numb/dull pain for about a day.
And your pecker falls off in about 2.5 years.
(Score: 2) by Barenflimski on Sunday May 03 2020, @08:58PM (1 child)
Interesting. I was kinda hoping you were going to tell me you lived in a tree house in Honduras though.
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Sunday May 03 2020, @10:05PM
Had a job offer on a beach-commune in Costa Rica once, couldn't quite convince my 5 months pregnant wife that it was a good opportunity...
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Sunday May 03 2020, @05:34PM (4 children)
I got hit with something once. It was hidden in a log, and I never saw it. It sounds like what you're describing. Felt like I was hit hard with something, possibly a bullet. No swelling, no sting mark, nothing. With Barenflimski's post in mind, I don't guess it was a bullet ant, but geeez, I'd like to know what it was. Hand, wrist, forearm, and half of the upper arm were all numb for at least an hour, and feeling only returned slowly, working out toward the fingers.
I suppose I got revenge though. That stack of wood was destined for the stove. If the little nasty didn't evacuate, he was incinerated eventually.
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Sunday May 03 2020, @05:52PM (1 child)
My first sting came from the gate post, at night. Then about a year later one was hiding in the garbage can lid when I went to lift it. There were a couple of others that I don't remember as specifically, but, finally, one hit me in the daytime and I'm 99% sure it was a member of a small colony of solid black ants that was living in some mulch that I was pulling weeds from. They're not the most common ants in the yard. The sting description matches "Twig Ants" but the body coloration doesn't (unless a twig ant was just mixed in with those other ants... it's not like I picked up a black ant to be stung again just to be sure...)
Every time I get hit it's super intense, jump backwards and shake your hand vigorously kind of pain, followed by a sort of shock-like "oh, that's not so bad" and then a numb/dull ache for about a day. My numb areas don't usually expand more than about 2cm from the sting site.
I'm pretty shocked at how quickly the description of ants has changed in Google searches, last time I pretty quickly came up with two or three articles describing bullet ant invasions in North Florida, I guess that's the sort of thing you might want to suppress if it's not exactly true (or even if it is...)
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 05 2020, @05:42AM
Insert Viagra joke here
(Score: 2) by captain normal on Sunday May 03 2020, @08:26PM
That sounds a lot like a Scorpion sting. When thy pop you with tail, it feels like sharp blow, and they can exit really fast.
Everyone is entitled to his own opinion, but not to his own facts"- --Daniel Patrick Moynihan--
(Score: 4, Funny) by driverless on Monday May 04 2020, @02:55AM
A Møøse once bit my sister... No realli! Møøse bites Kan be pretti nasti...
(Score: 2) by srobert on Sunday May 03 2020, @05:37PM (2 children)
Finally, a way to get control over those pesky killer bees.
Here's a video that covers a related concept.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FSVTIXpUvv8 [youtube.com]
(Score: 2) by istartedi on Sunday May 03 2020, @06:51PM
At least the plank was complementary. I'd just stay at the hotel for $0.10 and walk out with that. Stay there often enough, and you can build your own house.
Appended to the end of comments you post. Max: 120 chars.
(Score: 2) by driverless on Monday May 04 2020, @02:57AM
You set them up in cage fights with NZ sheep-eating wetas [auckland.ac.nz].
(Score: 3, Interesting) by legont on Sunday May 03 2020, @05:38PM (9 children)
Once upon a time hornets built a nest right in front of my kitchen window. At first I thought about killing them, but then decided to see what happens. They turned out to be reasonable. When I went outside, a guard would follow me, but they never bothered me at all. This same fall we had a powerful storm and the nest fell - right in front of my eyes. It was rather cold already. They immediately started building a replacement and evacuating youngsters. The new nest came out misshaped, but they made it through the winter. In summer they built an outer shell so everything became normal again.
This second fall weather hit again. It was that infamous storm that flooded downtown NY. I was away. When I came back there was an empty hornet nest on the ground and no hornets. I felt so sorry for them. Since then, no single hornet in the area.
"Wealth is the relentless enemy of understanding" - John Kenneth Galbraith.
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Sunday May 03 2020, @05:56PM (7 children)
We had a wasp nest over the back door. At the time I had sort of "big fluffy" hair, important because a wasp from the nest would fly down and sting my hair, but I wouldn't feel it. They did this about 3 times before I realized what was happening and encouraged them to relocate (by removing the nest with a long stick). However, I went walking around the neighborhood afterwards (after the time I realized what was hitting my hair) and other wasps would smell me, come out and fly a box pattern around me while I passed through their territory - never came in to sting, but they were definitely highly interested.
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 2) by Mojibake Tengu on Sunday May 03 2020, @06:04PM (3 children)
Industrial cosmetics. Plenty of funny chemicals. A fruit scent on your hair, perhaps?
Respect Authorities. Know your social status. Woke responsibly.
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 03 2020, @06:06PM
Warm semen from a recent bukkake session? Freshly made santorum? Are you sure they weren't flies?
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Sunday May 03 2020, @06:32PM
I walked the neighborhood all the time, all seasons for 5+ years there; the only time I was ever "patrolled" by wasps was just after having been hit by the one from over the door.
The nest over the door was pretty simple territory invasion, I was passing maybe 18" under the nest and it was a big (4cm) wasp that was doing the defending.
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 2) by Bot on Sunday May 03 2020, @09:27PM
Wasps use pheromones to alarm the nest, so GP was tagged by the thankfully failed attack.
Account abandoned.
(Score: 2, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 03 2020, @09:19PM
Do you eat bananas? The chemical that gives them their banana taste is the same one that many insects use as their alert indicator.
(Score: 3, Funny) by Bot on Sunday May 03 2020, @09:20PM (1 child)
Happened to me too, some largish dark yellow wasp who homed directly on my head. Being metallic I didn't care. I thought it was bad navigation skills but then I noticed some others buzzing around a hole on a tree. They didn't stay long there though. Given that there were plenty woodpeckers and bats and magpies around, I think they relocated.
Account abandoned.
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Sunday May 03 2020, @10:08PM
Not wasps but some kind of crazy bug on a North Sea beach in Germany (summer, obviously I suppose...), I was wearing black & yellow shorts, the bugs had a thing for the yellow parts, hundreds collected on the yellow, but nowhere else...
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 03 2020, @06:04PM
That sounds exactly like what's happened to American workers in the past couple of decades. Come on, get up and keep building you brave little obese dumb-as-shit hornets.
(Score: 5, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 03 2020, @06:03PM (2 children)
This article states the same hornet exists in Japan. This is incorrect. The naming of these insects is very very confusing.
The "Asian Giant Hornet", despite its common name, does not exist anywhere in Japan. Japan has an even bigger, even more dangerous, venemous hornet, with the common name "Japanese Giant Hornet". It kills on average 45 people per year in Japan, mostly mountain hikers and forestry workers in rural areas. It is the most venemous hornet in the world, with the most toxic venom of any hornet. Adult insects of the species Vespa mandarina japonica have body lengths up to 2.4 inches (6cm) and stingers of 0.26 inch (7mm) that easily penetrate the thickness of professional beekeepers' protection suits, jeans, jackets, summer wetsuits, normal gloves.
I once met a wise, elderly forestry worker in Japan. He gave me the following advice. If you are in a rural area in Japan and you hear a loud, low-frequency sound of something like a helicopter approaching you, do not take any chances. assume it is a Japanese Giant Hornet which is angry with you and may call its co-worker hornets to attack you.
Plan your escape as follows:
1) immediately run away as fast as you can, do not try to collect any belongings or take anybody else,
2) try to make as little sound as possible
3) do not wave your arms or hands about or your clothing,
4) do not shout for help or raise your voice,
5) as quickly as you can, try to seek refuge inside a solid sealable structure such as a vehicle or a building,
6) otherwise try to find a lake or river and stay completely underwater for at least 1 minute and try to move away while underwater so you can emerge from the water in a different place as far away as you can.
7) otherwise, pray
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vespa_mandarinia_japonica [wikipedia.org]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asian_giant_hornet [wikipedia.org]
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 03 2020, @06:09PM
I vote we let the Africanized honey bees and the giant Asian hornets duke it out for most highest pitched dogwhistle before we die of China viruses made in China labs.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 03 2020, @08:35PM
Yet, they use the exact same picture in the wiki articles.
(Score: 2) by Bot on Sunday May 03 2020, @07:14PM
The dreamed borderless society with free recombination of goods and people reveals small issues...
Account abandoned.
(Score: -1, Spam) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 03 2020, @07:48PM (4 children)
They are nasty they smell like all kinda of wrong.
How women can carry these purses of vile stench around every day and feel that they're precious is sickening.
Just go and smell one today. It doesn't count if you have sex, you need to smell it up close and taste it.
Vaginas - never again!
(Score: 1) by Ethanol-fueled on Sunday May 03 2020, @08:22PM
[ That episode of The Simpsons where the kids acidentally turn to the porn channel on TV ]
Milhouse: "Eww, gross!"
Martin: "...Yet strangely compelling!"
(Score: -1, Offtopic) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 03 2020, @08:25PM (2 children)
That's no reason to fuck a girl in the ass. Do you know what happens? Do you know what happens when you fuck a girl in the ass?!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 03 2020, @11:35PM (1 child)
Yup, the kid grows up to be a lawyer.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 04 2020, @04:40AM
Rectal demons. [missionamerica.com]
(Score: 4, Interesting) by linkdude64 on Sunday May 03 2020, @10:35PM (3 children)
The bees don't need anything else working against them. Maybe the solution could be meshes that are large enough for bees to fit through, but just small enough so that the hornets can't? I can't imagine another defense.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 04 2020, @02:04AM (1 child)
Can't imagine another defense? Lasers man, lasers!
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 04 2020, @02:07AM
Me again. I remembered correctly:
https://hackaday.io/project/161581-ai-equiped-wasp-and-asian-hornet-sentry-gun [hackaday.io]
(Score: 3, Informative) by Webweasel on Monday May 04 2020, @10:48AM
That's possible. Bee Keepers already use a system in the hives to keep the queen in certain parts.
The bottom part of a hive is a brood chamber, for producing new bees.
The top half is called the Super. It's where the honey is stored.
A mesh is used to separate the layers large enough to allow the normal bees through, but too narrow to allow the queen through.
All so you don't get bee larvae in your honey!
Priyom.org Number stations, Russian Military radio. "You are a bad, bad man. Do you have any other virtues?"-Runaway1956
(Score: 2) by Username on Monday May 04 2020, @02:02AM (1 child)
While back the DNR brought in some moose. Dunno why, probably just for shits and giggles. Then they brought in wolves to kill the moose. Then they brought in rattle snakes. (Probably to kill the wolves?) Now they probably will bring these in the kill the rattle snakes.
Jokes aside, I remember a story while back about some guy keeping bees and his hives getting destroyed by a neighbors whose kid is allergic to bees. Something along those lines. It makes me think something similar might have happened. Like someone who's pissed about his neighbors bees not being removed so he goes out and buys some of these hornets and get a giant hive of them in his yard which then go and kills off his neighbor's bees, being their nominal prey. Also some farmer might have had a similar thought.
His farm having the type of crop not pollinated by honey bees, and the bees displacing the type of insects that does pollinate.
(Score: 2) by Osamabobama on Monday May 04 2020, @06:15PM
Was it this? [reddit.com]
Appended to the end of comments you post. Max: 120 chars.
(Score: 2) by Kalas on Monday May 04 2020, @05:41AM
https://youtu.be/IBw3C0cxwaQ?t=153 [youtu.be]
(Score: 1) by isocelated on Monday May 04 2020, @08:00PM (2 children)
We've literally had these things in my area of the country for over twenty years or more. Smack em out of the air with a broom, stomp on em. Then run inside, of course.
(Score: 2) by Taibhsear on Tuesday May 05 2020, @06:37PM (1 child)
What area are you in? Are you sure they aren't cicada killers [wikipedia.org]? Those are big scary looking bastards but they're basically harmless if you don't actively try to torment them.
(Score: 1) by isocelated on Tuesday May 05 2020, @07:02PM
Southeastern US, and I'm sure. Had a "close encounter" with one outside just the other day.