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US and Canada gear up for another Asian 'murder hornet' season:
The Asian giant hornet – officially called Vespa mandarinia, the species is native to East Asia – first prompted concern in the US and Canada in 2019, when the first specimens were reported in both countries.
[...] The Asian giant hornet typically measures an inch-and-a-half in length and it is distinguished by a large head that is a mix of yellow and orange. US authorities said its sting is much more dangerous than that of bees or wasps and can cause "severe pain, swelling, necrosis and, in rare cases, even death" in some humans.
They can pose a risk to livestock and other insects, as well as honeybees, which are already facing dwindling numbers and for which the hornets "have a voracious appetite", according to Washington state authorities. "A small group of Asian giant hornets can kill an entire honeybee hive in a matter of hours," the Washington State Department of Agriculture (WSDA) said.
That is why experts have said it is important for the invasive species, which is not native to North America, to be eradicated.
[...] Sven Spichiger, managing entomologist at WSDA, said in a news briefing last month that more than 1,200 people across Washington state hung homemade traps last year as part of the state's efforts to track the Asian giant hornets.
This year, Spichiger said the WSDA hopes to have one trap for every square kilometre in its target areas – or approximately 1,500 traps total. People can use a mixture of orange juice and rice wine, or another mixture of water and brown sugar, as bait, he added – and they are most likely to trap a hornet beginning in July.
"To me, hanging a trap actually protects you. It lets you know that there's something in the area and it contains it in such a way that you can then call [the authorities] and we can do something about it," Spichiger told reporters last month."To me, hanging a trap actually protects you. It lets you know that there's something in the area and it contains it in such a way that you can then call [the authorities] and we can do something about it," Spichiger told reporters last month.
What can be dangerous, he said, is not knowing the hornets are around and inadvertently getting too close. "You get your lawnmower maybe a little too close and you're overwhelmed before you even know what's happening, that's to me what the real danger is."
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 10 2021, @02:59AM (2 children)
Nobody here in the USA has the authority and the balls to stop this problem.
Because we're so afraid of a little minor and temporary ecological damage, we're going to get permanent ecological damage. We could solve this really easily, but the longer we wait the worse the problem gets. It's easy.
When I was a kid living in San Jose in the early 1980s, there was some trouble with invasive fruit flies. Those don't even sting. At night, helicopters would fly over us dumping orange poison indiscriminately. There would be about 10 across in the sky, flying in formation. They'd go back and forth all night. In the morning, our car was covered in orange speckles.
That is what you have to do. Don't bitch about killing ants or bees. We're trying to save 6 million square miles, not even counting our neighbors Canada and Mexico and even all the way down to the tip of Chile. That's probably 50 million square miles. For this, it is justified to temporarily sacrifice tens of thousands of square miles. Poison everything within 100 miles of a nest. Leave no insect surviving. We can douse the place with modern neonicinitoids, which are quite harmless to mammals. Sure, the bees all die, but they can be reintroduced next year.
Short-sighted thinking has us sitting with our thumbs up our asses while Chinese insects colonize our nation. That's really fucking stupid.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 11 2021, @01:47AM (1 child)
Fuckin' morons.
Stupid United States assholes think THEY are America, totally oblivious to the OTHER FUCKING HALF OF THE AMERICAS, then they wanna lecture the world on the origin of bees, but they can't distinguish between a CONTINENTAL MASS and a CULTURAL MASS.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 11 2021, @02:56PM