Showing posts sorted by relevance for query MURDER HORNETS. Sort by date Show all posts
Showing posts sorted by relevance for query MURDER HORNETS. Sort by date Show all posts

Thursday, November 11, 2021

Listen to honey bees shriek a warning to their hive when murder hornets approach

Scientists have compared the calls, named 'antipredator pipes', to fear screams and panic calls

Author of the article:Devika Desai
Publishing date:Nov 10, 2021
Giant 'murder' hornets attack a honey bee hive in Vietnam 
PHOTO BY HEATHER MATTILA/WELLESLEY COLLEGE

Bees have developed their own version of a fire alarm to warn their hive of predatory murder hornets, a new study has found.

Once they’ve spotted a lurking giant or murder hornet, Asian honey worker bees will immediately string along series of panic calls — termed as “antipredator pipes” — which harsher and more irregular in their frequency.

Giant hornets or even Asian hornets which are closely related to the murder hornets recently discovered in North America are known to prey on bees and often send out scouting insects to search for hives to prey on. On finding one, the scout then returns to inform its nest, which then track the hive and often slaughter the entire colony.

“Antipredator pipes share acoustic traits with alarm shrieks, fear screams and panic calls of primates, birds and meerkats”, the study explains.

These pipes, scientists explain in their study published on Wednesday in the Royal Society Open Science journal, are actually vibroacoustic signals made by raising their abdomens, buzzing their wings and flying about “frantically.”

“These sophisticated defences require timely predator detection and swift activation of a defending workforce,” the authors wrote in the study

“Vibroacoustic signals likely play an important role in organizing these responses because they are transmitted quickly between senders and receivers within nests.”

Lead researcher Heather Mattila, professor of biological sciences at Wellesley College, Massachusetts and her team studied interactions between giant hornets and Asian honey bees in Vietnam for over seven years, by placing microphones in hives belonging to local beekeepers. The study collected almost 30,000 signals made by the bees over 1,300 minutes of monitoring.

“[Bees] are constantly communicating with each other, in both good times and in bad, but antipredator signal exchange is particularly important during dire moments when rallying workers for colony defense is imperative,” researchers wrote in their study.

In some cases, scientists observed that the signals prompted the worker bees at the hive’s entrance to go into defence mode, either attacking the scouting hornet by forming a ball around it to heat it to death or spreading animal dung on the hive to repel predators — the first document use of a tool by bees.

It’s unclear the signals do in fact indicate preparation for a specific type of defence, but as a whole, scientists suggest the the bee pipes are a “rallying call for collective defense.”

Scientists also found ‘striking differences’ in the way the bees responded to two types of predators – the giant hornet which attack in numbers and a smaller hornet species which hunts solitarily. The anti-predator pipes didn’t sound as much as for the latter, suggesting that the response may have been specifically developed for the larger, more dangerous predator.

“Colony soundscapes showcase the diversity of (the bees’) alarm signalling repertoire, including a novel antipredator pipe made by workers when (giant hornet) workers were present at nest entrances,” the study states.

“This research shows how amazingly complex signals produced by Asian hive bees can be,” behavioural ecologist Gard Otis was quoted by science website EurekaAlert! .

“We feel like we have only grazed the surface of understanding their communication. There’s a lot more to be learned.”



Captured on video: Bees pipe out alarms to warn of “murder hornet” attacks

When murder hornets approach an Asian beehive, everyone can hear the screams.


JENNIFER OUELLETTE - 11/9/2021, 

Wellesley College researchers have identified a sound that Asian honeybees use to warn the hive of a "murder hornet" attack.

Asian honeybees (Apis cerana) produce a unique alarm sound to alert hive members to an attack by giant "murder hornets," according to a new paper published in the journal Royal Society Open Science. For the first time, scientists at Wellesley College have documented these so-called "anti-predator pipes," which serve as clarion calls to the hive members to initiate defensive maneuvers. You can hear a sampling in the (rather disturbing) video, embedded above, of bees under a hornet attack.

“The [antipredator] pipes share traits in common with a lot of mammalian alarm signals, so as a mammal hearing them, there's something that is instantly recognizable as communicating danger,” said co-author Heather Mattila of Wellesley College, who said the alarm signals gave her chills when she first heard them. “It feels like a universal experience.”

As I've written previously, so-called murder hornets rocketed to infamy after November 2019, when a beekeeper in Blaine, Washington, named Ted McFall, was horrified to discover thousands of tiny mutilated bodies littering the ground—an entire colony of his honeybees had been brutally decapitated. The culprit: the Asian giant hornet species Vespa mandarinia, native to Southeast Asia and parts of the Russian Far East. Somehow, these so-called "murder hornets" had found their way to the Pacific Northwest, where they now pose a dire ecological threat to North American honeybee populations.

FURTHER READING Attack of the Murder Hornets is a nature doc shot through horror/sci-fi lens

There are other species of Asian giant hornets, too. They are apex predators and sport enormous mandibles that they use to rip the heads off their prey and remove the tasty thoraxes (which include muscles that power the bee's wings for flying and movement). A single hornet can decapitate 20 bees in one minute, and just a handful can wipe out 30,000 bees in 90 minutes. The hornet has a venomous, extremely painful sting—and its stinger is long enough to puncture traditional beekeeping suits. And while Asian honeybees have evolved defenses against the murder hornet, North American honeybees have not, as the slaughter of McFall's colony clearly demonstrated.

Mattila has been studying honeybees for 25 years, fascinated by their organization and ability to communicate, and she turned her attention to Asian bees in 2013. "They have evolved in a much scarier predator landscape," she told Ars, pointing to the 22 known species of hornets worldwide for whom Asia is a particular hot zone. Many of these species rely on insects like honeybees to grow their colonies, so they are among the bees' most relentless predators. The deadliest of all are the giant hornets (aka, "murder hornets") because they coordinate in groups to attack beehives.

"As humans, I think there is something fundamentally attractive about understanding predator-prey interactions," said Mattila. "Humans are both predators and prey, depending on the situation, so we've evolved under analogous circumstances as the bees. We can recognize their plight in the face of giant hornets."

Last year, Mattila and her team documented the first example of tool use by honeybees in Vietnam. The researchers discovered that Asian bees forage for animal dung and use it to line the entrances to their hives—a practice dubbed "fecal spotting." It serves as a kind of chemical weapon to ward off giant hornets. Mattila and her team found that hornets were far less likely to land on or chew their way into hives with entrances lined with animal dung.

How Honeybees use animal poop as a chemical weapon to protect hives from giant “murder hornets."

While Mattila and her team were in Vietnam for the dung study, they noticed that noise levels in the hives increased dramatically whenever the giant hornets approached. "We could hear the bees' sounds from several feet away," she said. "So we started popping microphones into colonies so that we could eavesdrop on them." They also took extensive video recordings of activity in the apiaries of local beekeepers.

Ultimately, they collected some 30,000 signals made by the bees over 1,300 minutes and then translated those sounds into spectrograms for analysis. Bees produce a surprisingly complex array of sounds, which they perceive either as air-particle movements they detect with their antennae or as vibrations they detect via special organs in their legs. So bee signals are "vibroacoustic" and are transmitted within colonies as both airborne sounds and vibrations.

There are hisses, for example, usually made by all the bees at once as they lower their bodies and move their wings in near-synchrony, Mattila said. They hiss constantly, but more so when hornets are present, and the exact purpose of the hissing is not yet fully understood.

"Hisses in other animals are often used to intimidate a predator, but that is not likely the case with bees, mostly because they hiss a lot without predators, too," said Mattila. "One idea that has been proposed (not by us) is that hissing helps to momentarily hush the colony because bees stand still for a beat after a hiss. It might help workers perceive other sounds in the nest if most bees stop moving for a second."


Enlarge / Giant murder hornets attack a honey bee hive in Vietnam.
Heather Mattila/Wellesley College

Piping signals accounted for the vast majority (about 95 percent) of the signals in the data set, but there was considerable variability, according to the authors. So-called "stop signals" were the most common (62 percent of the piping signals in the data set). These are produced when a worker vibrates its wings or thorax, typically in response to predator attacks, when fighting over a food source, and during swarming. "Stop signals are really short, [with a] relatively even frequency, and often delivered to other workers via a head butt," said Mattila. Asian honeybees produce more stop signals when hornets appear, and they will change the properties of those signals depending on the type of hornet that is attacking.

Although they are also produced by vibration of the wings or thorax, the newly discovered antipredator pipes are distinct from stop signals. They are harsher and more irregular, with abruptly shifting frequencies. Those colonies used in the study that were attacked by giant hornets were much noisier and frenetic, said Mattila, compared to the relative quiet and calm of the control colonies.

The bees under attack would run about frantically, often congregating at the hive entrance to form defensive "bee carpets." The mode of defense depends in part on the species of attacking hornets. Bees have also been known to form "bee balls" to kill attacking hornets collectively via overheating and suffocation. In fact, the authors wrote, "We observed workers attempt to bee ball a [hornet of the Vespa soror species] immediately after she killed a nest mate that was making antipredator pipes at the [hive] entrance." By contrast, the smaller Vespis velutina hornet attacks alone, targeting individual bees as it hovers in front of hives. The bees typically respond with coordinated "body shaking" as an intimidating visual display.


Enlarge / Biologist Heather Mattila of Wellesley College examines a group of honeybees.
Wellesley College

There was also a broad categorization of piping signals known as "long pipes" that accounted for 34 percent of all the piping signals in the data set. These lack the rapid and unpredictable frequency modulation of the antipredator pipes, according to the authors. "When frequency changed over the duration of these pipes, it did so in smooth sweeps," they wrote. Nor was the long pipe signaling affected by the type of hornet attack.

“[Bees] are constantly communicating with each other, in both good times and in bad, but antipredator signal exchange is particularly important during dire moments when rallying workers for colony defense is imperative,” the authors wrote. Furthermore, when they make those signals, the bees expose a pheromone-producing gland, suggesting they may employ multiple communication strategies to grab the attention of their nest mates. A future focus of Mattila's research will be investigating the role this gland might play in organizing the bees' response to hornet attacks.

The ongoing pandemic has limited field work for the time being, but Mattila says her team has been mailing giant hornets to their labs around the world and have even brought on some new collaborators. Currently, the researchers are re-analyzing the hornet attack videos from the perspective of the hornets rather than the bees. "We're trying to figure out how they disseminate pheromones to recruit their nest mates to a group attack," she said. "These hornet pheromones are key stimuli that bees would be paying attention to—in addition to the alarm signals they produce for each other—to determine what kind of hornet is attacking them."

DOI: Royal Society Open Science, 2021. 10.1098/rsos.211215 (About DOIs).

Thursday, October 29, 2020

Two ‘murder hornet’ queens captured in Washington state sting

By Josh K. Elliott Global News
Posted October 29, 2020 


WATCH: Washington State authorities captured two Asian giant hornet queens, known as "murder hornets," on Wednesday, four days after officials eradicated the first nest found in Blaine, just south of the Canadian border, on Oct. 24 
https://globalnews.ca/news/7429274/murder-hornet-queen-nest/

God save the queens — for research purposes.

Wildlife officials in Washington have captured two so-called “murder hornet” queens, following a major operation to wipe out the invasive species’ first known nest in the United States.

You might even call the operation a “sting,” as it took a bit of subterfuge to finally capture the Asian giant hornet queens. Entomologists trapped three hornet drones last week, then tagged them with radio trackers and followed them back to their nest.

The nest was located inside a tree in Blaine, Wash., just south of the border with British Columbia.

State wildlife officials wrapped the tree in plastic and vacuumed up the colony on Oct. 24, then toppled the tree on Wednesday to dig the queen out of hiding.
1:25 Scientists remove 98 murder hornets from Washington state nest near B.C. border
https://globalnews.ca/news/7429274/murder-hornet-queen-nest/

Entomologists actually found two queens inside the nest, the Washington State Department of Agriculture says. The queens were either two “virgins” preparing to strike out and found their own colonies, or one virgin and one old queen who may have spawned the nest.

Officials shared video of the captured queens on Wednesday. The video shows the two black-and-yellow, thumb-sized behemoths crawling around inside separate glass vials.

Two captive Asian giant hornet queens are shown in Washington state on Oct. 28, 2020. Washington State Department of Agriculture

Entomologists captured 13 live hornets in addition to the queens. They also killed 85 more by sucking them up with high-tech vacuums.

Asian giant hornets are native to China and Japan but they started spreading into North America last year, sparking fear that they might decimate vulnerable honey bee hives in the U.S. and Canada. The first ones were spotted near Nanaimo, B.C., in August 2019.

The insects were nicknamed “murder hornets” earlier this year, and that name is well-deserved. A handful of the armoured hornets can wipe out an entire honeybee colony in an afternoon, slaughtering the bees one by one while shrugging off hundreds of stings. The hornets then capture the honeybees’ young and bring them back to the nest for food.

READ MORE: Asian giant hornet is death on wings for bees in North America

Murder hornets are relatively huge when compared to the bees they prey upon. Each one measures four to five centimetres (1.5 to 2 inches) long, and has a toxic stinger that can cause excruciating pain for humans. One victim described the sting as a “red-hot thumbtack” earlier this year.

Their heads are completely yellow with two big, black eyes. Their bodies are black and their abdomens are striped black and yellow.

This handout chart shows the Asian giant hornet compared to other North American insects. Washington State Department of Agriculture

The hornets do not pose a major threat to humans, despite their threatening nickname. They are unlikely to sting unless they feel the nest is threatened; dozens of people die in Asia each year after stumbling upon a nest without protection

Washington entomologists wore state-of-the-art suits to deal with the hornets this week. Their puffy white outfits looked like a cross between a spacesuit and a hazmat suit, and were designed to protect them from swarms of stinging murder hornets.

Entomologists hold a canister containing dozens of Asian giant hornets after eradicating a nest in Washington state on Oct. 24, 2020. Washington State Department of Agriculture

Wildlife officials are hailing the operation as a good first step in the fight against the Asian giant hornet.

Officials in the U.S. and Canada have been setting traps for the hornets along the West Coast since last year.
1:27 Why arrival of ‘Murder hornet’ in North America could cause danger for bees, concerns for humans https://globalnews.ca/news/7429274/murder-hornet-queen-nest/

The first confirmed nest in Canada was wiped out last fall on Vancouver Island.

Anyone who sees one of the Asian giant hornets in B.C. is urged to immediately contact the Invasive Species Council of B.C. at 1-888-933-3722, or submit information through its website.

Friday, May 08, 2020

Bug experts dismiss worry about US ‘murder hornets’ as hype

yesterday

1 of 17
FILE - In this April 23, 2020, photo provided by the Washington State Department of Agriculture, a researcher holds a dead Asian giant hornet in Blaine, Wash. FILE - This Dec. 30, 2019 photo provided by the Washington State Department of Agriculture shows a dead Asian giant hornet in a lab in Olympia, Wash. It is the world's largest hornet, a 2-inch long killer with an appetite for honey bees. Dubbed the "Murder Hornet" by some, the insect has a sting that could be fatal to some humans. (Karla Salp/Washington State Department of Agriculture via AP)Insect experts say people should calm down about the big bug with the nickname “murder hornet” — unless you are a beekeeper or a honeybee.
The Asian giant hornets found in Washington state that grabbed headlines this week aren’t big killers of humans, although it does happen on rare occasions. But the world’s largest hornets do decapitate entire hives of honeybees, and that crucial food pollinator is already in big trouble.
Numerous bug experts told The Associated Press that what they call hornet “hype” reminds them of the 1970s public scare when Africanized honeybees, nicknamed “killer bees,” started moving north from South America. While these more aggressive bees did make it up to Texas and the Southwest, they didn’t live up to the horror-movie moniker. However, they also do kill people in rare situations.
This time it’s hornets with the homicidal nickname, which bug experts want to ditch.
“They are not ‘murder hornets.’ They are just hornets,” said Washington Agriculture Department entomologist Chris Looney, who is working on the state’s search for these large hornets.
The facts are, experts said, two dead hornets were found in Washington last December, a lone Canadian live nest was found and wiped out last September and no live hornets have yet been seen this year.
Looney has a message for Americans: These hornets are not coming to get you. “The number of people who are stung and have to seek medical attention is incredibly small,” he said in an interview.
While its nickname exaggerates the human health threat, experts said this hornet is especially big — two inches long — so it does carry more and stronger toxin.
“It’s a really nasty sting for humans,” said University of Georgia bee expert Keith Delaplane. “It’s like the Africanized bee ... A dozen (stings) you are OK; 100 not so much.”
University of Illinois entomologist May Berenbaum said of the worry: “People are afraid of the wrong thing. The scariest insect out there are mosquitoes. People don’t think twice about them. If anyone’s a murder insect, it would be a mosquito.”
Mosquitoes are responsible for millions of yearly deaths worldwide from malaria, dengue fever and other diseases, according to the World Health Organization. Asian giant hornets at most kill a few dozen people a year and some experts said it’s probably far less.
Hornet, wasp and bee stings kill on average 62 people a year in the United States, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
In Japan, Korea and China, “people have co-existed with this hornet for thousands of years,” said Doug Yanega, senior scientist at the University of California Riverside Entomology Research Museum.
Yet bug experts across the country are getting worried calls from people who wrongly think they saw the Asian hornet.
“This is 99% media hype and frankly I’m getting tired of it,” said University of Delaware entomologist Doug Tallamy. “Murder hornet? Please.”
Retired University of Montana bee expert Jerry Bromenshenk said in an email, “One nest, one individual hornet, hopefully, does not make an invasion. ... Do we want this hornet — surely not. But the media hype is turbo charged.”
For bees and the people who rely on them for a living this could be yet another massive problem, but it is not one yet.
The number of U.S. honeybees has been dropping for years, with the winter of 2018-19 one of the worst on record. That’s because of problems such as mites, diseases, pesticides and loss of food.
The new hornets would be different. If they get into a hive, they tear the heads off worker bees and the hive pretty much dies. Asian honeybees have defenses — they start buzzing, raising the temperature and cook the invading hornet to death — but honeybees in America don’t.
The worry for beekeeping in Washington is based on a worst-case scenario that officials have to take seriously, Looney said.
Yet even for bees, the invasive hornets are far down on the list of real threats, not as big a worry as the parasitic “zombie fly” because more of those have been seen in several states, Berenbaum said.
For people, the hornets are scary because the world is already frightened by coronavirus and our innate fight-or-flight mechanisms are activated, putting people on edge, said risk expert David Ropeik, author of “How Risky Is It, Really?”
“This year is unbelievable in a horrible, horrible way. Why shouldn’t there be murder hornets?” Berenbaum said.

___
Follow Seth Borenstein on Twitter: @borenbears
___
The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

Saturday, February 27, 2021

Attack of the Murder Hornets is a nature doc shot through horror/sci-fi lens | Ars Technica

Director Michael Paul Stephenson brings his unique sensibility to documentary genre.


JENNIFER OUELLETTE - 2/23/2021, 1:59 PM

Enlarge / "What are you looking at?" The Asian Giant Hornet, aka a "murder hornet," is not to be trifled with.

Gary Alpert

In November 2019, a beekeeper in Blaine, Washington, named Ted McFall was horrified to discover thousands of tiny mutilated bodies littering the ground—an entire colony of his honeybees had been brutally decapitated. The culprit: the Asian giant hornet (Vespa mandarinia), a species native to southeast Asia and parts of the Russian far East. Somehow, these so-called "murder hornets" had found their way to the Pacific Northwest, where they were posing a dire ecological threat to North American honeybee populations.

The story of the quest to track and eradicate the hornets before their numbers became overwhelming is the subject of a new documentary: Attack of the Murder Hornets, now streaming on Discovery+. Featuring genuine suspense, a colorful cast of characters crossing socioeconomic lines, and a tone that draws on classic horror and science fiction movies, it's one of the best nature documentaries you're likely to see this year.

Asian giant hornets are what's known as apex predators, sporting enormous mandibles that they use to rip the heads off their prey and remove the tasty thoraxes (which include muscles that power the bee's wings for flying and movement). A single hornet can decapitate 20 bees in one minute, and just a handful can wipe out 30,000 bees in 90 minutes. The hornet has a venomous, extremely painful sting—and its stinger is long enough to puncture traditional beekeeping suits. Conrad Berube, a beekeeper and entomologist who had the misfortune to be stung seven times while exterminating a murder hornet nest, told The New York Times, "It was like having red-hot thumbtacks being driven into my flesh." And while Japanese honeybees, for example, have evolved defenses against the murder hornet, North American honeybees have not, as the slaughter of McFall's colony aptly demonstrated.

Director Michael Paul Stephenson's credits include two documentaries: Best Worst Movie—about his experience co-starring in the 1990 cult comedy/horror film Troll 2—and The American Scream. So when he pitched his idea for a documentary about the murder hornets to Discovery, some of that horror sensibility crept in, including B-movie-inspired artwork showing a gigantic hornet menacing beekeepers and scientists.

"I've watched a lot of documentaries, and a lot of them, it's interview, B-roll, interview, B-roll, political statement, theme," he told Ars. Stephenson wanted to do something different and shoot his murder hornet documentary through a horror/sci-fi lens.


Enlarge / Attack of the Murder Hornets is a nature documentary viewed through the lens of science fiction and horror. 
Discovery Plus

Among those featured in Attack of the Murder Hornets: Chris Looney, an entomologist with the Washington State Department of Agriculture (WSDA); McFall and fellow beekeeper Ruthie Danielson; a government scientist and insect expert named Sven-Erik Spichiger; and Berube, who was the first to find and destroy a murder hornet nest in Vancouver Island, Canada. Stephenson's team chronicled the race against the breeding clock to find and destroy a similar hornet nest in Washington state.

CLICK ON TITLE TO GO TO INTERVIEW WITH PAUL STEPHENSON
LONG READ.

Thursday, May 07, 2020

WATCH: Praying mantis eats a murder hornet’s face, becomes Twitter’s new hero
The giant hornets can kill mantises and entire bee hives — but not this time. Not this time.

T
urns out, the praying mantis can prey on murder hornets. imv/iStock

Published: May 7, 2020 By Nicole Lyn Pesce
https://www.marketwatch.com/story/watch-praying-mantis-eats-a-murder-hornets-face-becomes-twitters-new-hero-2020-05-07?mod=MW_article_top_stories

Say your prayers, murder hornets.

As if the coronavirus pandemic weren’t enough to give people nightmares this year, headlines about giant Asian “murder hornets” landing in the U.S. for the first time have had some people musing that the end is nigh.

The flying, meat-eating insects that grow more than 2 inches long can kill up to 50 people a year in Japan, and are known to decimate bee hives.

But all hope is not yet lost: tales of plucky bugs fighting back have been gaining a lot of buzz on social media.
A pretty gory video of a praying mantis grabbing a murder hornet from behind, and then chewing its face off and eating its brain, has gone viral across Twitter TWTR, +3.93%, Facebook FB, +1.33% and reddit, leading “praying mantis” to trend on Twitter on Thursday. Watch it here, but be warned that it’s pretty graphic.

It’s gruesome stuff, but many viewers cheered the mantis for taking down the Asian giant hornet notorious for decapitating bees and wiping out entire honeybee hives in a matter of hours. The hornets also produce a potent venom in their long stingers that reportedly feels like a hot nail being driven into one’s flesh when people get stung by them. A grisly 2018 video shows a murder hornet killing a mouse in seconds.

This is really more of an underdog story, however, as National Geographic warned in 2002 that “bees, other hornet species, and larger insects such as praying mantises are no match for the giant hornets, which often stalk their prey in relentless armies.” (The same article notes that murder hornet venom is strong enough to “disintegrate human flesh.”)

Related:Giant ‘murder hornet’ is in U.S. to stay, will eventually reach East Coast, experts say

Of course, the praying mantis is also known for being a cunning hunter in its own right, eating everything from bees, moths, beetles and crickets to even small birds, like hummingbirds.

And the female mantis is notorious for occasionally cannibalizing her male partner after mating.

A photograph of Japanese honeybees fighting back against a murder hornet is also making the rounds online. Turns out, these honeybees can form “hot defensive bee balls” by swarming a giant hornet and vibrating their flight muscles all at once, which “cooks the hornet to death.”



AS A JUNIOR SCIENTIST (WHAT CITIZEN SCIENTISTS WERE CALLED BACK THEN)
I WAS FASCINATED BY THE PREYING MANTIS, AS WELL AS THE ARACHNAE FAMILY

SEE https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/search?q=HORNET

Wednesday, October 07, 2020

Search underway for murder hornets nest in Washington state (Update)

by Nicholas K. Geranios
In this May 7, 2020, file photo, Washington State Department of Agriculture entomologist Chris Looney displays a dead Asian giant hornet, a sample brought in from Japan for research in Blaine, Wash. Washington state agriculture workers have trapped their first Asian giant hornet. The hornet was found July 14 in a bottle trap set north of Seattle near the Canadian border, and state entomologists confirmed its identity Wednesday, July 29, 2020. (AP Photo/Elaine Thompson, Pool, File)

Agricultural officials in Washington state said Friday they are trying to find and destroy a nest of Asian giant hornets—also known as murder hornets—amid concerns they could kill honey bees crucial for pollinating raspberry and blueberry crops.


Evidence of six of the hornets were found over the last week near the town of Blaine in Whatcom County, the Washington state Department of Agriculture told reporters.

The number of hornets found—nearly double the previous number discovered in the state—would indicate a nest has been established in the area, the agency said. One of the hornets was trapped alive, a first for the agency, spokeswoman Karla Salp said.

"We believe we are dealing with a nest,'' said Sven-Erik Spichiger, a department entomologist. "We hope to locate the nest in a couple of weeks and eradicate it."

The Asian giant hornet—the world's largest at 2 inches (5 centimeters)—can decimate entire hives of honeybees and deliver painful stings to humans. Farmers in the northwestern U.S. depend on those honey bees to pollinate many crops.

The invasive insect found in China, Japan, Thailand, South Korea, Vietnam and other Asian countries was first documented in Washington state late last year. Officials have said it's not known how it arrived. Washington and the Canadian province of British Columbia are the only places the hornets have been found in North America.
In this Sept. 30, 2020, photo provided by the Washington State Department of Agriculture, a researcher holds a live Asian giant hornet with a tracking device affixed to it near Blaine, Wash. Agricultural officials in Washington state said Friday they are trying to find and destroy a nest of Asian giant hornets believed to be near the small town amid concerns the hornets could kill honey bees crucial for pollinating raspberry and blueberry crops. (Karla Salp/Washington State Department of Agriculture via AP)

There have been reports from Asia of the hornets stinging people so often they have died.

Despite their name, the hornets kill at most a few dozen people a year in Asia, and experts say it is probably far less. Hornets, wasps and bees typically found in the United States kill an average of 62 people a year, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has said.

The real threat from the hornets is their devastating attacks on honeybee hives, and the time of year when they attack those hives is nearing, Spichiger said. He called it the "slaughter phase."

A state scientist managed to trap one live Asian giant hornet near Blaine in recent days and officials tried to glue a radio tag to it so they could follow the hornet back to its nest, Spichiger said.

But the glue did not dry fast enough, the radio tag fell off and the hornet ultimately could not fly, Spichiger said. Scientists hope to capture another live hornet and try again.

In this Sept. 30, 2020, photo provided by the Washington State Department of Agriculture, a researcher holds a live Asian giant hornet with a tracking device affixed to it near Blaine, Wash. Agricultural officials in Washington state said Friday, Oct. 2, 2020 they are trying to find and destroy a nest of Asian giant hornets believed to be near the small town amid concerns the hornets could kill honey bees crucial for pollinating raspberry and blueberry crops. (Karla Salp/Washington State Department of Agriculture via AP)
In this Sept. 30, 2020, photo provided by the Washington State Department of Agriculture, a researcher works to attach a tracking device to a live Asian giant hornet near Blaine, Wash. Agricultural officials in Washington state said Friday, Oct 2, 2020 they are trying to find and destroy a nest of Asian giant hornets believed to be near the small town amid concerns the hornets could kill honey bees crucial for pollinating raspberry and blueberry crops. (Karla Salp/Washington State Department of Agriculture via AP)
In this Sept. 30, 2020, photo provided by the Washington State Department of Agriculture, a live Asian giant hornet flutters but is unable to fly away as a tracking device placed by a researcher dangles behind near Blaine, Wash. Agricultural officials in Washington state said Friday, Oct. 2, 2020 they are trying to find and destroy a nest of Asian giant hornets believed to be near the small town amid concerns the hornets could kill honey bees crucial for pollinating raspberry and blueberry crops. (Karla Salp/Washington State Department of Agriculture via AP)
In this Sept. 30, 2020, photo provided by the Washington State Department of Agriculture, a researcher holds a live Asian giant hornet with a tracking device affixed to it near Blaine, Wash. Agricultural officials in Washington state said Friday, Oct. 2, 2020 they are trying to find and destroy a nest of Asian giant hornets believed to be near the small town amid concerns the hornets could kill honey bees crucial for pollinating raspberry and blueberry crops. (Karla Salp/Washington State Department of Agriculture via AP)
In this Sept. 30, 2020, photo provided by the Washington State Department of Agriculture, a researcher works to attach a tracking device to a live Asian giant hornet near Blaine, Wash. Agricultural officials in Washington state said Friday, Oct 2, 2020 they are trying to find and destroy a nest of Asian giant hornets believed to be near the small town amid concerns the hornets could kill honey bees crucial for pollinating raspberry and blueberry crops. (Karla Salp/Washington State Department of Agriculture via AP)


People living in the Blaine area have been reporting sightings of the hornets to agricultural officials.

There is also evidence that the giant hornets are also attacking native wasps and hornets, Spichiger said.

Fifteen of the hornets have been found since they were first seen in the state in 2019, the agriculture department said.


Explore further Another Asian giant hornet found in northwestern Washington

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Thursday, March 18, 2021

 

US and Canada setting up for showdown with 'murder hornets' as 2021 nesting season starts

Dustin Barnes
USA TODAY 3/18/2021

2020 is over, but many of the nightmares it brought upon us still remain. Exhibit A: The "murder hornet."

Scientists from Washington, British Columbia and U.S. federal agencies joined forces in a virtual press conference Wednesday to declare open season on the Asian giant hornet, an invasive species that was first found in the U.S. and Canada in 2019.

The agencies are collaborating on their plans to track, trap and eradicate any Asian giant hornets they find in 2021. 

The joint announcement comes as the predatory insects are setting up nests this spring.

"They start to emerge as early this time of year. And any queen that's detected by the public and taken out of commission takes out a potential nest,"  said Sven-Erik Spichiger, an entomologist for the Washington State Department of Agriculture. "This is not a species, the (Asian giant hornet), that we want to tolerate here in the United States."

There were 31 confirmed sightings of the hornets last year in Washington, half of which came from public tips, Spichiger said. "That does not count the some 500 specimens involved in the first nest eradication" in October 2020.

'Got there just in the nick of time':200 queens were in first 'murder hornet' nest. But there could be more out there

In British Columbia, Canada, six hornet sightings were confirmed in 2020, all coming from public reports, said Paul van Westendorp, with the province's Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Fisheries.

"There are three major issues here," van Westendorp said. "The first one is public health and public exposure," including potential exposure to pets, wildlife and livestock animals. 

These hornets are also recognized as a "serious honeybee predator," van Westendorp said. And they can impose ecological pressure on local habitats since they go after prey of all kinds. 

Asian giant hornets can destroy entire hives of honeybees, critical to crops like raspberries and blueberries because they provide needed pollination.

'Got 'em':Nest of 'murder hornets' taken down in Washington state to protect honeybees

The insects are the world's largest hornet and can grow up to 2 inches long. Terrifying in appearance, their stings could also deliver a potentially deadly venom, especially for those who are allergic or if someone were to stumble upon a nest and sustain multiple stings, Spichiger said in 2020. The stings can cause necrosis and lead to organ failure, he added.

Times this year when nature was all 2020:Murder hornets, infected mink, curious penguins

John Bacon and Ryan W. Miller contributed to this report.

VIDEO Murder hornets in US and Canada tracked by scientists (usatoday.com)


Tuesday, May 05, 2020

IT CAME FROM CANADA

'Murder Hornets,’ with sting that can kill, land in US

4 of 6
In this Dec. 30, 2019, photo provided by the Washington State Department of Agriculture, a dead Asian giant hornet is photographed in a lab in Olympia, Wash. The world's largest hornet, a 2-inch long killer with an appetite for honey bees, has been found in Washington state and entomologists are making plans to wipe it out. Dubbed the "Murder Hornet" by some, the Asian giant hornet has a sting that could be fatal to some humans. It is just now starting to emerge from hibernation. (Quinlyn Baine/Washington State Department of Agriculture via AP)

SPOKANE, Wash. (AP) — The world’s largest hornet, a 2-inch killer dubbed the “Murder Hornet” with an appetite for honey bees, has been found in Washington state, where entomologists were making plans to wipe it out.

The giant Asian insect, with a sting that could be fatal to some people, is just now starting to emerge from winter hibernation.

“They’re like something out of a monster cartoon with this huge yellow-orange face,” said Susan Cobey, a bee breeder at Washington State University.

“It’s a shockingly large hornet,” said Todd Murray, a WSU Extension entomologist and invasive species specialist. “It’s a health hazard, and more importantly, a significant predator of honey bees.”

The hornet was sighted for the first time in the U.S. last December, when the state Department of Agriculture verified two reports near Blaine, Washington, close to the Canadian border. It also received two probable, but unconfirmed reports from sites in Custer, Washington, south of Blaine.



In this Dec. 30, 2019, photo provided by the Washington State Department of Agriculture, the stinger of a dead Asian giant hornet is photographed in a lab in Olympia, Wash. The world's largest hornet, a 2-inch long killer with an appetite for honey bees, has been found in Washington state and entomologists are making plans to wipe it out. Dubbed the "Murder Hornet" by some, the Asian giant hornet has a sting that could be fatal to some humans. It is just now starting to emerge from hibernation. (Karla Salp/Washington State Department of Agriculture via AP)


The hornet can sting through most beekeeper suits, deliver nearly seven times the amount of venom as a honey bee, and sting multiple times, the department said, adding that it ordered special reinforced suits from China.

The university said it isn’t known how or where the hornets arrived in North America. It normally lives in the forests and low mountains of eastern and southeast Asia and feeds on large insects, including wasps and bees. It was dubbed the “Murder Hornet” in Japan, where it is known to kill people.

The hornet’s life cycle begins in April, when queens emerge from hibernation, feed on plant sap and fruit, and look for underground dens to build their nests. Hornets are most destructive in the late summer and early fall. Like a marauding army, they attack honey bee hives, killing adult bees and devouring larvae and pupae, WSU said.

BFH!

In this April 23, 2020, photo provided by the Washington State Department of Agriculture, dead Asian giant hornets sit on a researcher's field notebook in Blaine, Wash. The world's largest hornet, a 2-inch long killer with an appetite for honey bees, has been found in Washington state and entomologists are making plans to wipe it out. Dubbed the "Murder Hornet" by some, the Asian giant hornet has a sting that could be fatal to some humans. It is just now starting to emerge from hibernation. (Karla Salp/Washington State Department of Agriculture via AP)

Their stings are big and painful, with a potent neurotoxin. Multiple stings can kill humans, even if they are not allergic, the university said.

Farmers depend on honey bees to pollinate many important northwest crops such as apples, blueberries and cherries. With the threat from giant hornets, “beekeepers may be reluctant to bring their hives here,” said Island County Extension scientist Tim Lawrence.

An invasive species can dramatically change growing conditions, Murray said, adding that now is the time to deal with the predators.


In this April 23, 2020, photo provided by the Washington State Department of Agriculture, a researcher holds a dead Asian giant hornet in Blaine, Wash. The world's largest hornet, a 2-inch long killer with an appetite for honey bees, has been found in Washington state and entomologists are making plans to wipe it out. Dubbed the "Murder Hornet" by some, the Asian giant hornet has a sting that could be fatal to some humans. It is just now starting to emerge from hibernation. (Karla Salp/Washington State Department of Agriculture via AP)

“We need to teach people how to recognize and identify this hornet while populations are small, so that we can eradicate it while we still have a chance,″ Murray said.

The state Department of Agriculture will begin trapping queens this spring, with a focus on Whatcom, Skagit, San Juan, and Island counties.


Hunting the hornets is no job for ordinary people.

“Don’t try to take them out yourself if you see them,” Looney said. “If you get into them, run away, then call us!″


In this April 23, 2020, photo provided by the Washington State Department of Agriculture, Chris Looney, a Washington State entomologist, places a trap used to search for the Asian giant hornet in Blaine, Wash. The world's largest hornet, a 2-inch long killer with an appetite for honey bees, has been found in Washington state and entomologists are making plans to wipe it out. Dubbed the "Murder Hornet" by some, the Asian giant hornet has a sting that could be fatal to some humans. It is just now starting to emerge from hibernation. (Karla Salp/Washington State Department of Agriculture via AP)


Invasive Asian giant hornet discovered in Washington state


Invasive Asian giant hornets, a honeybee-killing wasp with a dangerous sting, have been discovered in Washington. Photo courtesy of the Washington State Department of Agriculture

DENVER, May 2 (UPI) -- Washington agriculture authorities are asking residents to be on the lookout for an invasive giant wasp with an "excruciating" sting that attacks honeybee colonies, leaving thousands of bees without heads.

"The Asian giant hornet been called the most venomous, intimidating insect in the world, and it even scares away other hornets," said Timothy Lawrence, director of the Island County extension office at Washington State University.

Asian giant hornets originating in South Korea were first reported last fall near Vancouver Island in British Columbia. Then, residents in Blaine, Wash., near the Canadian border, used an invasive species app to report wasps that were confirmed to be Asian giant hornets from Japan, the state agriculture department said.



An infestation of the new giant wasps could be devastating for beekeepers who bring their hives to the state to pollinate Northwest Pacific crops like cherries, blueberries and apples.

"Commercial beekeepers have 300 to 400 hives in the area. They may not want to go to certain counties if this infestation takes hold," Lawrence said.

In Europe, the invasive yellow-legged Asian hornets, which also kill honeybees and other pollinators, has caused millions of dollars' worth of damage to crops in France and elsewhere after they gained a foothold.

The Asian giant hornets, also called "yak-killer hornets," measure about 2 inches long and have an orangeish-yellow face with large black eyes.


"They're like something out of a monster cartoon," Susan Cobey, a bee breeder with WSU's Department of Entomology, said in a statement.

The Asian giant hornet's sting is described as excruciating, and they can sting repeatedly. Their quarter-inch stinger can penetrate beekeeping protective clothing, a state agriculture department warning said.

The wasps are dangerous if their underground nests are disturbed, or if a food source is threatened. Their venom, seven-times stronger than that of honeybees, can cause anaphylactic shock, but also can be lethal to people who are not allergic if victims are stung repeatedly.



"They give a warning before they sting. They snap their mandibles and make a clicking sound," Lawrence said. "But if you stick around to notice that, you're probably already in a world of hurt."

The wasps might have hitched a ride to the Pacific Coast in a container ship, but also could have been imported intentionally as an ingredient for a folk recipe for wasp venom in alcohol, made popular by Internet bodybuilders, entomologists think.

The life cycle of the Asian giant hornet begins when a queen emerges from hibernation in April and feeds on plant sap and fruit, looking for a spot to build an underground nest, according to state fact sheets. By summer, queens have created a colony of worker wasps that spread out to seek food.

RELATED Invasive Asian hornet could cost Europe millions in damages

At the end of the summer, the hornets enter a "high-protein demand" phase when they attack honeybee colonies, killing off the adults to feast on the immature brood of pupa and larva, scientists say.

The hornets will leave piles of dead bees, most of them headless, outside their beehive. A few dozen hornets can kill an entire colony of 30,000 bees in a few hours.

Scientists will be hunting for queens this spring, wearing special reinforced suits from China, said Rian Wojahn, eradication coordinator for the pest program at the Washington State Department of Agriculture.

"The suits are made out of thick foam material with everything -- boots, gloves, hat -- attached," Wojahn said.

Trappers have set out bait bottles, filled with orange juice and rice wine, in coordination with state beekeeper clubs.

The trappers will use heat cameras to find underground nests, Wojahn said. Wasps will be sedated with carbon dioxide fire extinguishers, and pest workers will dig out the nests.

Local entomologists worry about native bees and other pollinators that also might be threatened if the Asian giant hornet gets established, said Todd
differences between bees, wasps & hornets. good to know! | Bee ...
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The major difference between wasp and hornets is size and colour. ... Hornets (right) are larger. Wasps have black and yellow rings, while hornets have black and white rings. Bees are beneficial to humans because they pollinate plants, whereas wasps and hornets help out by eating other insects
If you are on this page, you most likely have found a swarm of ...
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https://kottke.org/18/08/a-comprehensive-guide-to-yellow-stripey-things


In Japan, the ‘Murder Hornet’ Is Both a Lethal Threat and a Tasty Treat

© Ted S. Warren/Associated Press Asian giant hornets from Japan in a display case at the Washington State Department of Agriculture.

TOKYO — Long before the Asian giant hornet began terrorizing the honeybees of Washington State, the ferocious insects posed a sometimes lethal threat to hikers and farmers in the mountains of rural Japan.

But in the central Chubu region, these insects — sometimes called “murder hornets” — are known for more than their aggression and excruciating sting. They are seen as a pleasant snack and an invigorating ingredient in drinks.

The giant hornet, along with other varieties of wasps, has traditionally been considered a delicacy in this rugged part of the country. The grubs are often preserved in jars, pan-fried or steamed with rice to make a savory dish called hebo-gohan. The adults, which can be two inches long, are fried on skewers, stinger and all, until the carapace becomes light and crunchy. They leave a warming, tingling sensation when eaten.

The hornets can also give liquor an extra kick. Live specimens are drowned in shochu, a clear distilled beverage. In their death throes, the insects release their venom into the liquid, and it is stored until it turns a dark shade of amber.

The real thrill, however, is not in the eating or drinking of the giant hornet, but in the hunt.

Setting out in the early summer months, intrepid hunters track the insects to their huge nests, which can house as many as a thousand hornets and their larvae, in the boles of rotting trees or underground. They lure a hornet with a streamer attached to a piece of fish, and when it grabs the morsel and takes off, the hunting party goes on a steeplechase through the woods. Upon finding the nest, the hunters stun the insects with smoke, then use chain saws and shovels to extract it.

In other cases, the nests are rooted out by professional exterminators. Torao Suzuki, 75, said he removed 40 to 50 nests a year, getting stung as many as 30 times each season. “It hurts, it swells and it turns red, but that’s about it,” he said about the stings. “I guess I’m immune.”

He does not eat the bugs himself. “Even when I tell people, they’re going to sting you, they still eat them. They say it makes them potent,” he said.

Mr. Suzuki said he also sold the nests, which are popular trophies throughout the region. Lacquered brown hives, sometimes cut open to expose their complex lattice work, adorn vestibules and reception rooms in homes, schools and public offices.

Historians say the insects, which range throughout Asia but are found most commonly in Japan, were once valued along with other wasps as a cheap source of protein in poverty-stricken rural areas.

The cuisine is celebrated each November in Gifu Prefecture at a festival, known as the Kushihara Hebo Matsuri, where prizes are handed out for the largest nests, and gourmands bid for the privilege of taking one home with them.

Even at this insect jubilee, the danger posed by the giant hornet, which has killed dozens of people in Japan in recent years, is evident. A flyer for the 2018 event warned participants to be on the lookout for hornets on the loose near the fairgrounds, advising attendees to “please take ample care to avoid being stung.” Organizers, it added, “bear absolutely no responsibility” for the consequences of ignoring the warnings.

The admonitions go well beyond this single event. Every spring, government offices across the country issue advisories about the bugs, known in Japan as “giant sparrow hornets” because of their size. People venturing into the wild have learned to avoid hair spray and perfume, which can attract the frightening pests.

So it may be no surprise that the practice of hunting and eating the insects, as with many traditions in aging rural Japan, is less common than it used to be.

The Oomachi Wasp Appreciation Society in Nagano once achieved some measure of national fame for making rice crackers with the insects baked in. Production has since stopped, as the group’s members have died or become too old to make the snacks, said Sachiko Murayama, 70, who is on the board of a local business cooperative.

In Japanese cities, however, there has been a small resurgence in interest in eating bugs. Some young people are attracted to the novelty, and to the idea that insects are an environmentally friendly source of protein.

In Tokyo, the giant hornet is on the menu at more than 30 restaurants.

Shota Toguchida, who owns a Chinese restaurant in the city, said he sold shots of homemade hornet liquor for 2,000 yen, or about $19, mostly to middle-aged men.

He keeps a few bottles on the bar. “It looks surprising, but tastes great,” he said.

In the United States, where the first Asian giant hornets were spotted last fall in northwestern Washington State and scientists are urgently trying to hunt them down, no one is thinking about the insects’ culinary potential. The focus is solely on eradicating them before they can spread and wipe out bee populations.

Takatoshi Ueno, an entomologist at Kyushu University, said he was mystified by the hornet’s appearance on the American West Coast.

“It’s impossible for them to fly over from Asia,” he said, adding that they most likely came over in a shipping container. Even that, though, would be extraordinarily unlikely, he said, given their extreme aggression, which would have almost certainly drawn the attention of a ship’s crew.

They might not have come from Japan, Dr. Ueno said; they could have arrived from another country in the region. But regardless of how they arrived in Washington State, he added, it is critical that they be dealt with before they have a chance to establish themselves.

“When dealing with invasive species, whether a virus or an insect, it’s the same,” he said. “Moving quickly to completely destroy them is the best. Ultimately, it’s the cheapest and least damaging.”

For any adventurous eaters in the Pacific Northwest who might be tempted to track down and sample the species, Dr. Ueno strongly warns against it. Encounters with the insect are not for the faint of heart, he said.

“Americans have probably never seen such a large hornet,” he said, adding that “some of them might faint dead away.”

Hisako Ueno and Makiko Inoue contributed reporting.