Murder hornets

[Tulpa 3,191]

As if 2020 hasn't cockpunched humanity enough, they toss another apocalypse our way.

https://www.bbc.com/news/amp/52533585

 

On the plus side, Japanese bees have a defense mechanism that is pure metal.

 

[darkchylde28 1,546]

I read about this a couple of days ago.  Fingers crossed it's just a couple of random stowaways that they found or, if it's not, they find the first nest and burn it out before they can breed and take root.  I want to say there's something like 50 human deaths a year from those things, not counting however many bees they murder.  Our guys are already in trouble, so they really don't need this on top of Monsanto trying to exterminate them all.

[a3quit4s 3,655]

I read an article somewhere this morning that says the honeybees can actually fight back against these by landing on it and raising their temperature. 
 

https://www.google.com/amp/s/nypost.com/2020/05/04/japanese-honeybees-learned-how-to-cook-asias-murder-hornets-to-death/amp/

[RH 4,438]

Ok, so here's the thing.  I don't pay much attention to the news.  My wife, yesterday, showed me a picture of one of these and just asked.  "Have you heard of the 'murder hornet'?"  I replied nope, but when she showed me a couple pictures from a Google Image search, I just non-chalantly threw out "oh, I've seen those.  Since we moved here, I've seen 1 or 2 massive hornets."

She didn't believe me.  The article she had just read was that one had been found in the use, specifically in Columbia, SC.  Columbia is probably a straight-shot 150 miles from where we live.  Not close, but for a flying insect, not far.  I told her that if these have been found in the wild, then they are in other places.  I have no clue where they've come from, and I'm not saying that I have seen these but within the last summer or so, I distinctly seeing a freakishly large hornet.  It flew around me and I thought it was like a hurclean sized, normal one.  Maybe it was, or maybe these have been around a little while and it's just now getting noticed. I don't know.

[Tulpa 3,191]

Someone actually blogged about that.

http://ncsupdicblog.blogspot.com/2015/08/are-asian-or-japanese-giant-hornets-in.html

Apparently everything is on the Internet.

[Strange 1,656]

My reaction as an entomologist primarily interested in bees/hornets/wasps:

 

[Tabonga 2,088]

 

[arch_8ngel 1,597]

22 minutes ago, RH said:

Ok, so here's the thing.  I don't pay much attention to the news.  My wife, yesterday, showed me a picture of one of these and just asked.  "Have you heard of the 'murder hornet'?"  I replied nope, but when she showed me a couple pictures from a Google Image search, I just non-chalantly threw out "oh, I've seen those.  Since we moved here, I've seen 1 or 2 massive hornets."

She didn't believe me.  The article she had just read was that one had been found in the use, specifically in Columbia, SC.  Columbia is probably a straight-shot 150 miles from where we live.  Not close, but for a flying insect, not far.  I told her that if these have been found in the wild, then they are in other places.  I have no clue where they've come from, and I'm not saying that I have seen these but within the last summer or so, I distinctly seeing a freakishly large hornet.  It flew around me and I thought it was like a hurclean sized, normal one.  Maybe it was, or maybe these have been around a little while and it's just now getting noticed. I don't know.

I've seen a couple of giant hornets in our coastal VA area over the last 15 years, but they were more yellow than the "murder hornets" and probably 50% the size.

But still HUGE compared to wasps and obviously "hornets" of some kind given their bulk.

[BeaglePuss 80]

19 minutes ago, Tulpa said:

Someone actually blogged about that.

http://ncsupdicblog.blogspot.com/2015/08/are-asian-or-japanese-giant-hornets-in.html

Apparently everything is on the Internet.

I worked at a day camp while in college, and they had these fucking MASSIVE ground wasp. You could hear them flying from many feet away. They had a nest right by the pool. They were Cicada Killers, noted in the article you linked. In the few years I worked there, I never hear of them stinging or biting anyone, but they sure were scary. It’s the only place I’d ever seen them, and they were there every year. 

[Strange 1,656]

23 minutes ago, BeaglePuss said:

I worked at a day camp while in college, and they had these fucking MASSIVE ground wasp. You could hear them flying from many feet away. They had a nest right by the pool. They were Cicada Killers, noted in the article you linked. In the few years I worked there, I never hear of them stinging or biting anyone, but they sure were scary. It’s the only place I’d ever seen them, and they were there every year. 

Cicada killers aren’t aggressive towards humans. In fact, many wasps/bees/hornets aren’t unless you provoke them.

[arch_8ngel 1,597]

11 minutes ago, The Strangest said:

Cicada killers aren’t aggressive towards humans. In fact, many wasps/bees/hornets aren’t unless you provoke them.

Most will leave you alone.  Yellow jackets are pretty territorial... though to be fair, once you've encountered them it's because you've stomped on their nest and stirred them up, so they are rightfully pissed.

[Chuppa 60]

I live in Ohio and the bees we have here are already interesting:

honeybees - you can pretty much touch them and they don't do anything, friendly bees

wasps - these things are nasty, super long legs and creepy looking, don't really mess with you unless you mess with their nest

yellow jackets - look just like honeybees but are real a holes, similar to wasps, you mess or swing at them you better run, my dad is allergic to these so I probably am too lol

carpenter bees - had these at my old house, burrowed holes into my pressure treated deck, annoying but they are harmless, big though

bumble bees - pretty much harmless, similar to honey bees, just big

[Daniel_Doyce 403]

1 hour ago, a3quit4s said:

I read an article somewhere this morning that says the honeybees can actually fight back against these by landing on it and raising their temperature. 
 

https://www.google.com/amp/s/nypost.com/2020/05/04/japanese-honeybees-learned-how-to-cook-asias-murder-hornets-to-death/amp/

They can fight off a scout hornet with some difficulty, but a raiding party can clear out a hive (40-80K honeybees) within hours. Even regular hornets can destroy a hive.

[arch_8ngel 1,597]

22 minutes ago, Chuppa said:

carpenter bees - had these at my old house, burrowed holes into my pressure treated deck, annoying but they are harmless, big though

bumble bees - pretty much harmless, similar to honey bees, just big

Carpenter bees are pretty annoying.  Every time I go out to my garage there is sawdust everywhere from these guys.

[Tabonga 2,088]

You haven't lived until a hornet has crawled up your shorts and gotten you in the nads.

We have a low wall made of railroad ties and I was mowing next to it.  Unbeknownst to me some hornets had started a nest there and when they came out one stung me on the arm.  I backed off and a minute or so after I left one of the little bastards nabbed me you know where.  Sure hurt like all hell - the only saving grace was that they seemed fairly small so I don't think they were full grown.  I zapped their nest that night with raid.

We also have some hanging ornaments that they love to start nests in.  I have found that the best way to deal with those is to wait till night, put a bucket of water under the ornament, put some dish soap in the water and drop the ornament in.  Water doesn't phase them but the detergent coats them and suffocates them - they generally can only fly a few inches before dropping.  

[ThePhleo 2,035]

No joke, 2020 is legitimately a game of Jumanji.

• Australia caught on fire
• Taal Volcano Erupts
• Anak Krakatoa Erupts
• 5.7 magnitude earthquake strikes Salt Lake City
• 7.7 magnitude earthquake strikes Jamaica
• Locusts plague eating the crops of East Africa.
• Near miss of a meteor just a few days ago
• The U.S. assassinated an Iranian General in an airstrike at an airport.
• Erdogan sent out troops to Libya
• Ukraine has a plane shot out of the sky
• The President of the United States, Donald Trump is impeached (and aquitted)
• The United Kingdom formally withdraws from the European Union

...OH AND CORONAVIUS AND NOW KILLER MURDER BEES.

 

 

 

....

OH, and P.S. The 2020 Hurricane season is expected to be REALLY rough.

Someone please roll a 5, or an 8.

[Kguillemette 1,312]

Fuck murder hornets

[Strange 1,656]

3 hours ago, arch_8ngel said:

Most will leave you alone.  Yellow jackets are pretty territorial... though to be fair, once you've encountered them it's because you've stomped on their nest and stirred them up, so they are rightfully pissed.

It’s pretty much from generations and generations of us screwing with their nests. You know how deer are instinctively scared of humans? It’s the same with aggressive wasps/hornets. They’ve constantly dealt with bigger creatures coming and taking out their colonies.

[arch_8ngel 1,597]

9 minutes ago, The Strangest said:

It’s pretty much from generations and generations of us screwing with their nests. You know how deer are instinctively scared of humans? It’s the same with aggressive wasps/hornets. They’ve constantly dealt with bigger creatures coming and taking out their colonies.

My dad used to spray their nests when he'd encounter them in his yard -- and some other animal learned to associated the scent of the spray with a snack, because he would come by the next day and the nests would be completely dug up.

[Reed Rothchild 8,516]

2 hours ago, Tabonga said:

You haven't lived until a hornet has crawled up your shorts and gotten you in the nads.

We have a low wall made of railroad ties and I was mowing next to it.  Unbeknownst to me some hornets had started a nest there and when they came out one stung me on the arm.  I backed off and a minute or so after I left one of the little bastards nabbed me you know where.  Sure hurt like all hell - the only saving grace was that they seemed fairly small so I don't think they were full grown.  I zapped their nest that night with raid.

We also have some hanging ornaments that they love to start nests in.  I have found that the best way to deal with those is to wait till night, put a bucket of water under the ornament, put some dish soap in the water and drop the ornament in.  Water doesn't phase them but the detergent coats them and suffocates them - they generally can only fly a few inches before dropping.  

Consider me to have lived...

[Strange 1,656]

Do we know if these things prey on native North American pollinators in the same way? I know they haven’t been here yet but Japan likely has bees in the same genera who act the same.

EDIT: I mean that in that many bees here in North America are solitary and don’t exist in colonies or hives

Native North American pollinators (aka bumblebees, sweat bees, etc.) are more efficient pollinators/more crucial to North America’s ecosystem than honeybees are, so the real tragedy would be if they started wiping those guys out more-so than honeybees.

4 hours ago, darkchylde28 said:

Our guys are already in trouble, so they really don't need this on top of Monsanto trying to exterminate them all.

Monsanto isn’t responsible for the varroa mite, which is the primary cause of colony collapse disorder.

Edited May 5, 2020 by The Strangest

[Tabonga 2,088]

1 minute ago, Reed Rothchild said:

Consider me to have lived...

We will have to start our own group in the clubs.   All we have to do it think of a clever and appropriate name. Like "r u tuff enuff?".

[Strange 1,656]

5 minutes ago, Tabonga said:

We will have to start our own group in the clubs.   All we have to do it think of a clever and appropriate name. Like "r u tuff enuff?".

 

[Gloves 10,905]

Them: Murder hornets

Me: 

[Tulpa 3,191]

30 minutes ago, The Strangest said:

Do we know if these things prey on native North American pollinators in the same way? I know they haven’t been here yet but Japan likely has bees in the same genera who act the same.

 

To the best of my knowledge, they seek out stores of honey and when the scouts find one, they call in their friends and proceed to conduct a murderstorm. I don't know if bumblebees and others have enough honey or whatever stored to attract their attention.