I know bees are fundamental but I think we should adjust ourselves along with nature, and not try to always dictate things. We can live without honey, eat fruits instead (for which wasps and hornets participate also in pollination), they even provide better nutrients
Washington crews destroy first U.S. “murder hornet” nest
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Re: Washington crews destroy first U.S. “murder hornet” nest
#72Murder hornets are a real threat to honey bee hives. A handful of hornets can take out a hive of thousands. What's interesting is the way that honey bees defend against them. A bunch of bees surround each hornet, then they intensify the flapping of their wings, which then generates enough heat to kill the hornet. In other words, the hornets are cooked alive.
That's only an adaptation that some bees have. European ones, for example, do not have that adaptation so carnage ensues.
Re: Washington crews destroy first U.S. “murder hornet” nest
#73It makes me a little nauseous to think about all the resources going to tracking down these insects, but this is truly an area where an ounce of prevention is worth many pounds of cure. The scope of North America's invasive species problem is enormous. For many folks in urban areas, it's possible that you might go your whole day only encountering one native bird species (American Crow), but a whole host of invasive s…
‘All the resources’ make you nauseous? Seems like a weird reaction. Washington State department of agriculture’s budget is public information; they spend about a quarter of a billion dollars a year on all their programs. I can’t imagine this particular operation is making much of a dent in that overall spend. According to the captions of those photographs, they have entomologists and pest control specialists on staff…
>> I can’t imagine this particular operation is making much of a dent in that overall spend.
When I read the article I thought there are likely other nests nearby. Perhaps they should use some of the forestry budget to do a controlled burn in the area. It'll reduce severity of future fires and get any of any hornets nearby ;-)
Re: Washington crews destroy first U.S. “murder hornet” nest
#74Earlier quoted context omitted.
‘All the resources’ make you nauseous? Seems like a weird reaction. Washington State department of agriculture’s budget is public information; they spend about a quarter of a billion dollars a year on all their programs. I can’t imagine this particular operation is making much of a dent in that overall spend. According to the captions of those photographs, they have entomologists and pest control specialists on staff…
People are living, shitting, and dying en masse on the streets of LA who need food and basic sanitation but you really can't even imagine a non malicious interpretation of someone saying paying for teams of bubble suited wasp chasers seems like potentially a misallocation of resources? Or do you just generally like to bully anyone who challenges any form of government spending by attacking strawmen?
Personal attacks are not allowed on HN, regardless of how bad another comment is or you feel it is. If you wouldn't mind reviewing https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html and sticking to the rules when posting here, we'd be grateful.
Re: Washington crews destroy first U.S. “murder hornet” nest
#75Earlier quoted context omitted.
‘All the resources’ make you nauseous? Seems like a weird reaction. Washington State department of agriculture’s budget is public information; they spend about a quarter of a billion dollars a year on all their programs. I can’t imagine this particular operation is making much of a dent in that overall spend. According to the captions of those photographs, they have entomologists and pest control specialists on staff…
>> I can’t imagine this particular operation is making much of a dent in that overall spend. When I read the article I thought there are likely other nests nearby. Perhaps they should use some of the forestry budget to do a controlled burn in the area. It'll reduce severity of future fires and get any of any hornets nearby ;-)
Or the fire will cause them to spread out.
Re: Washington crews destroy first U.S. “murder hornet” nest
#76It makes me a little nauseous to think about all the resources going to tracking down these insects, but this is truly an area where an ounce of prevention is worth many pounds of cure. The scope of North America's invasive species problem is enormous. For many folks in urban areas, it's possible that you might go your whole day only encountering one native bird species (American Crow), but a whole host of invasive s…
‘All the resources’ make you nauseous? Seems like a weird reaction. Washington State department of agriculture’s budget is public information; they spend about a quarter of a billion dollars a year on all their programs. I can’t imagine this particular operation is making much of a dent in that overall spend. According to the captions of those photographs, they have entomologists and pest control specialists on staff…
Please omit personal swipes from your HN posts. You sparked a flamewar with that last bit, and your comment would have been just fine without it. The first bit too. The middle of the sandwich was good.
Re: Washington crews destroy first U.S. “murder hornet” nest
#77It makes me a little nauseous to think about all the resources going to tracking down these insects, but this is truly an area where an ounce of prevention is worth many pounds of cure. The scope of North America's invasive species problem is enormous. For many folks in urban areas, it's possible that you might go your whole day only encountering one native bird species (American Crow), but a whole host of invasive s…
I’mfrom Alberta. My favorite party trick when talking to non-native Albertans is to pull up the “world rat population” map: https://www.pinterest.ca/pin/657947826782505650/ I have no idea how accurate it is, of course.
That is astounding! For anyone on mobile who wants to avoid the Pinterest garbage, here's a direct link to the image:
https://www.vividmaps.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/rats-10...
Re: Washington crews destroy first U.S. “murder hornet” nest
#78Blaine Washington is right along the Canadian border and next to many islands. The islands are sparsely inhabited and infrequently visited by humans it makes me wonder if maybe there is still a colony out there. It seems like a difficult area to do containment so glad they tracked these down.
It looks like in 2019 Vancouver island (which is huge) had a colony get eradicated, but otherwise haven't seen much else reported.
Re: Washington crews destroy first U.S. “murder hornet” nest
#79Murder hornets are a real threat to honey bee hives. A handful of hornets can take out a hive of thousands. What's interesting is the way that honey bees defend against them. A bunch of bees surround each hornet, then they intensify the flapping of their wings, which then generates enough heat to kill the hornet. In other words, the hornets are cooked alive.
That's only an adaptation that some bees have. European ones, for example, do not have that adaptation so carnage ensues.
Yes, it's worthwhile to note that it's an adaptation that evolved regionally.
Re: Washington crews destroy first U.S. “murder hornet” nest
#80I've never had to deal with a murder hornet infestation, but I can approve of their 'vacuum' method for clearing yellowjacket nests in high-traffic areas. Partially fill a shop vac with soapy water, stick the nozzle as close to the nest entrance as possible, then turn on the vacuum and hear the wasps get sucked into the machine as they try to enter or exit the nest. It takes a few hours, and potentially a couple of s…
I'm no expert, but I've read a bit about Vespula vulgaris (the most common sort of wasp in the UK) and tackled a few nests in the past. My impression is that if you put a vacuum cleaner next to the entrance you may, if you're lucky, catch nearly all the wasps that leave the nest, but the queen never leaves the nest, and the eggs and larvae don't leave the nest, and I think there may also be some workers that stay in…
Won't you want to destroy the nest once the vacuuming is done?