I was curious about this and found this YouTube video.
30,000 bees killed by just 30 hornets in an hour or so. The bees just have no defence against them at all.
Brutal.
Washington crews destroy first U.S. “murder hornet” nest
111–120 of 398 posts
Re: Washington crews destroy first U.S. “murder hornet” nest
#112Earlier 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?
> 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?
Are you suggesting the government of the State of Washington is responsible for providing food and basic sanitation in Los Angeles?
Re: Washington crews destroy first U.S. “murder hornet” nest
#113It 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…
The department may very well need more significant resources to continue this fight, as will surrounding states if Washington isn't effective in fighting this.
I'm not against government spending. I think there are plenty of problems that market forces alone cannot solve. I think the government should provide a solid safety net for its citizens. That is precisely why I lament the resources required for this. They are absolutely necessary, and at the same time it means there are fewer resources to go to other absolutely necessary needs.
Re: Washington crews destroy first U.S. “murder hornet” nest
#114This is a good step and we should take this seriously, it can be done.
Did you know that the province of Alberta has no rats?
Literally. No. Rats.
It takes a serious, concerted and systematic effort but it can be done. [1]
Much like we're still not doing a very good job at COVID (i.e. still applying crude measures because it's all we can do right now whereas we could be taking cues from Taiwan etc.), we can 'get good' at these things with good leadership.
[1] https://www.alberta.ca/history-of-rat-control-in-alberta.asp...
Re: Washington crews destroy first U.S. “murder hornet” nest
#115I’m a beekeeper and every passing year it becomes harder to keep my colonies alive. I’m really glad that we’re taking this threat seriously, because we don’t need one more problem on our list of things that kill our bees. While I’m at it, please allow me to remind everyone that there are thousands of solitary bee species in the world. They are the ones that go extinct or in real danger compared to our honey bees. The…
What will happen when bees go extinct?
Edit: I don’t understand the vicious pointless downvotes over this question.
Re: Washington crews destroy first U.S. “murder hornet” nest
#116I’m a beekeeper and every passing year it becomes harder to keep my colonies alive. I’m really glad that we’re taking this threat seriously, because we don’t need one more problem on our list of things that kill our bees. While I’m at it, please allow me to remind everyone that there are thousands of solitary bee species in the world. They are the ones that go extinct or in real danger compared to our honey bees. The…
It seems to me that beekeeping results in direct competition with solitary bees and other pollinating insects as well.
Re: Washington crews destroy first U.S. “murder hornet” nest
#117It 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…
Is there any evidence of such attempts to neuter Mother Nature actually working? Unless, global trade ceases, can this effort be maintained and successful over the long haul? I'm not suggesting it's bad or wrong to try, only whether there's evidence that the odds favor doing so.
There are some success stories, like the European Grapevine Moth in CA [1]. The key seems to be aggressive action when the threat is still in it’s infancy and contained. Given that murder hornets weren’t reported in the US until this year, I’m hopeful. For something like the invasive ice plant already covering the West Coast there seems little hope.
[1] https://entomologytoday.org/2019/03/08/invasive-species-succ...
Re: Washington crews destroy first U.S. “murder hornet” nest
#118I wonder why they didn't use an insecticide on the nest. The exterminator I hired used a powder on the entry to our attic and the Yellowjackets carried it into the nest and it wiped out the whole thing brilliantly (and we sealed the hole). A targeted application would require very little product. With a powder, it would also kill any insects that got away, and it could trace/damage other nests if the hornet moved to…
It seems most likely that they wanted to avoid killing the hornets. Perhaps to study them and find out which native Japanese population of hornets they came from in order to stem the flow of this invasive species. Could even be simply to preserve life.
The hornets in that tube look very dead to me.
Re: Washington crews destroy first U.S. “murder hornet” nest
#119So they really think the infestation is small enough that it's feasible to find and destroy all the nests by hand?
Doubt it. I’m two states (about 8 hr drive) in Montana and my wife and I think we saw one. I tried to get a pic but was too slow.
Re: Washington crews destroy first U.S. “murder hornet” nest
#120Earlier 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 ;-)
It's thought that these came south from Canada. That's a fairly significant distance. They can fly miles in a single day [0] and specimens in Washington have been found 50 miles apart.
If there's evidence of multiple other hives in the area, a controlled burn may get some of them, but the scope of the fire necessary could also be massive.
I'm not saying the option shouldn't be part of our arsenal. And if this is an area prone to wild-fires, then as you said it could assist there as well. However, I'm not sure it's a good option at this time, especially considering the side effects on other local indigenous species.