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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.
(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]