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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: 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.