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posted by Fnord666 on Sunday May 03 2020, @03:48PM   Printer-friendly
from the appropriately-named dept.

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.


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  • (Score: 2) by Mojibake Tengu on Sunday May 03 2020, @06:04PM (3 children)

    by Mojibake Tengu (8598) on Sunday May 03 2020, @06:04PM (#989852) Journal

    Industrial cosmetics. Plenty of funny chemicals. A fruit scent on your hair, perhaps?

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  • (Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 03 2020, @06:06PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 03 2020, @06:06PM (#989854)

    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

    by JoeMerchant (3937) on Sunday May 03 2020, @06:32PM (#989862)

    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.

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  • (Score: 2) by Bot on Sunday May 03 2020, @09:27PM

    by Bot (3902) on Sunday May 03 2020, @09:27PM (#989917) Journal

    Wasps use pheromones to alarm the nest, so GP was tagged by the thankfully failed attack.

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