"murder hornets"

media fueled panic porn

whatre ya gonna do they just keep goin with this kinda shit

I assumed the "murder hornet" was some species I'd never heard of, but it appears that it's actually the Asian Giant Hornet (Vespa mandarinia). Since I'm a beekeeper in the UK, I am very aware of that species and know a bit about it's behaviour.

The AGH has been established in mainland Europe for a few years now, and a few colonies have recently been found in southern Britain. It would be a grossly sensational exaggeration to say that it's been killing lots of people, but I wouldn't be surprised if a few people might have been killed by it. But then a few people who are hypersensitive die after being stung by a honeybee, wasp or non-Asian hornet every year.

It's of interest to beekeepers here because it considers any beehive it comes across to be an all you can eat buffet. Normally, the hornets must spend a lot of time flying around hunting for single insects, but once they've located a beehive, they systematically attack it.

As insects go, it's pretty intelligent, and they work together to snatch out of the air bees flying in and out of the hive. Eventually, the bees recognise the threat outside and go into lockdown mode, which in itself causes huge problems of all sorts for the hive. The hornets then move into the hive as a gang, and start attacking the bees. A really strong hornet colony can slaughter the thousands of adult bees in a hive and remove all the larvae in just a few hours.

European honeybees have no defence against the Giant Hornet, since their stings can't penetrate them. (Asian honeybees have an instinct to immediately "ball" any hornet they come across near their colony: a mass of bees clump around the hornet, bite it to hold themselves in place, work their wing muscles to produce heat and cook the hornet until it's dead.)

As far as I know, the AGH nests only in paper nests that are much like those built by native American hornets and wasps, and these are normally positioned high in trees. In fact, one of the problems with eradicating the AGH in Europe is that the nests are very difficult to find. It would be highly unusual for an AGH colony to build its nest in a place that a person is likely to blunder in to in unawares, and the hornets aren't so defensive that they're likely to attack someone walking near their tree.

By all accounts, they do have a very painful sting and the stinger is long enough that it's able to penetrate normal clothing (and normal bee-suits). But they've evolved to prey is other insects, not humans or other large animals, so it's not like they're constantly out looking for people to kill or that they have an instinctive drive to sting any person they ever see.

You sound like one of those people who'd complain about them calling it the Wuhan virus, with the only reasoning being "that's not what it's called".

Be sure to keep watching news 24/7 so you can stay informed on this issue.

Since people are tired of being afraid of covid-19, I mean people just don't give a shit at this point, it is the next big scare.

I thought about this time of year they were suppose to invent a new mosquito disease, why have they foregone that?

I don't think it matters what something is called as long as it's not offensive and people know what they're talking about

But have you heard of the Spider Assassin Hawk Wasp?

I hate them. They look like demons. Like they were birthed by satan himself.

Nooooo no no, those bloody things aren't in Canada, yet. They're just near the BC border, eh? I watched a video a few days ago of one attacking a mouse. Wanna see?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zoSrowxmy5w