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Washington crews destroy first U.S. “murder hornet” nest

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Re: Washington crews destroy first U.S. “murder hornet” nest

#361

Post by bregma »

saalweachter wrote: post #245
chmod775 wrote: post #217

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>FWIW honeybees are not part of the native US ecosystem Well, neither are most of the crops the Europeans started growing in America. They brought everything from apple species to wheat. Not all of these are self-pollinating, so they had to bring bees too.

It's worth noting there are wild pollinators, some more efficient than others. Orchard bees are like 200x more efficient than honeybees on an individual basis when pollinating apple trees, for instance. The main advantage of honeybees is that they are domesticated, and we can take them where we want. If your orchard has a healthy population of orchard bees, great, and there are ways to promote orchard bees, but the h…

The main advantage of European honeybees is that they can pollinate introduced European crops efficiently, and native pollinators can't.

The flip side is that European honeybees can not pollinate native crops very well. For that, the native pollinators are very efficient. Native pollinators are threatened by the feral colonies of European honeybees and their introduced diseases like nosema, varroa, mites, and foulbrood. It's like smallpox blankets all over again as infected honeybee colonies are trucked all over the country to spread pollen and disease on various introduced European cops.

Re: Washington crews destroy first U.S. “murder hornet” nest

#362

Post by lm28469 »

honkycat wrote: post #156

I always find the anti-environmentalist position that pops up on HN interesting. For a technical audience, they are amazingly unaware of "Systems Thinking". Saying "MEH, there are other pollinators" is lazy thinking. Our ecosystem is a vast web of interconnections. You cannot predict how one HUGELY important species being destroyed will affect the rest of our ecosystem. Furthermore: People use honey bees for honey (…

I'd recommend this book, it explains a few interactions between species of animals / insects / plants and shows how everything is more of less connected in ways we can't imagine

https://www.amazon.com/Hidden-Life-Trees-Communicate_Discove...

Re: Washington crews destroy first U.S. “murder hornet” nest

#363

Post by JohnBooty »

wl wrote: post #14
samcheng wrote: post #5

I'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…

In my experience, just vacuuming up yellowjackets in a shop vac kills them. No soapy water needed.

I don't understand how that kills them. Blunt trauma?

Seems like you'd just have a huge pile of mostly-alive wasps in your shop-vac.

Re: Washington crews destroy first U.S. “murder hornet” nest

#365

Post by racl101 »

DoofusOfDeath wrote: post #33
samcheng wrote: post #5

I'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…

> No fancy beekeeper suit necessary Does that perhaps depend on the species of wasp, or maybe the reach of the wand? IIRC, there was one youtube video where the little bastards went straight for the dude's face during shop-vac'ing. He could smell the venom they were trying to spray in his eyes. When one of the wasps (or hornets?) went straight for his GoPro sensor, its face filled my large monitor and I nearly had a…

Works for everyone I know who has tried it.

Re: Washington crews destroy first U.S. “murder hornet” nest

#366

Post by xerox13ster »

Carioca wrote: post #261
masklinn wrote: post #178

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I always find the anti-environmentalist position that pops up on HN interesting. For a technical audience, they are amazingly unaware of "Systems Thinking". Saying "MEH, there are other pollinators" is lazy thinking. Our ecosystem is a vast web of interconnections. You cannot predict how one HUGELY important species being destroyed will affect the rest of our ecosystem. FWIW honeybees are not part of the native US…

As an example, passion fruit has to be pollinated by hand (with swabs or special gloves) even in most of its natural range (South America) because only certain species of Uruçu bees can be pollinate it, and they have become rare

I'm sorry, but could you provide a source on this? I know for a fact I grew up eating wild passion fruit from our property in the Ozarks.

Re: Washington crews destroy first U.S. “murder hornet” nest

#367

Post by raxxorrax »

Aeolun wrote: post #276
honkycat wrote: post #156

I always find the anti-environmentalist position that pops up on HN interesting. For a technical audience, they are amazingly unaware of "Systems Thinking". Saying "MEH, there are other pollinators" is lazy thinking. Our ecosystem is a vast web of interconnections. You cannot predict how one HUGELY important species being destroyed will affect the rest of our ecosystem. Furthermore: People use honey bees for honey (…

> Honey bees are uniquely industrialized and failure to eliminate the Murder Hornet threat to honey bees will have HUGE implications. We have honey bees in Japan. While I agree it will have huge implications, it’ll hardly be the last of them. That said, I’d rather murder hornets go away everywhere.

I think those bees learned how to fight them, which is probably untrue for the rest of the bee population elsewhere. There might also be birds that eat them.

I love having hornets on my property if their nest isn't located in a path I have to cross. They also eat wasps and you won't have any problems with them throughout the summer. They don't try to eat your cake or drink you lemonade and you can peacefully chill in your garden.

They always leave their nest after a season and it can make quite a mess. But nothing is better than having them in a remote location in your garden. It is better than any insect spray.

But you still might seriously want to get rid of them because they could indeed do a lot of damage in another ecosystem that needs to sacrifice several species until it adapts.

Re: Washington crews destroy first U.S. “murder hornet” nest

#368

Post by chrisgd »

jonplackett wrote: post #161
i2shar wrote: post #135

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Also fascinating, a related video on bees killing a hornet: https://youtu.be/UNroEwFxh6I

Yeah I saw this too - I guess those bees must have evolved with hornets as a predator and have developed that defence. But the bees in the west haven't and so they don't have any behaviour to help them.

European bees being destroyed, Asian bees killing the hornet.

Re: Washington crews destroy first U.S. “murder hornet” nest

#369

Post by AlexandrB »

JohnBooty wrote: post #363
wl wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In my experience, just vacuuming up yellowjackets in a shop vac kills them. No soapy water needed.

I don't understand how that kills them. Blunt trauma? Seems like you'd just have a huge pile of mostly-alive wasps in your shop-vac.

Most insects are very prone to dying of dehydration if their exoskeleton is pierced - it's how diatomaceous earth works. My best guess with how vacuums kill insects is small nicks to the exoskeleton from flying debris causing eventual death. I've never vacuumed up an insect or spider and seen it come out alive.

Re: Washington crews destroy first U.S. “murder hornet” nest

#370

Post by davexunit »

Humans create a problem, try to solve it with human effort, and either prolong the problem or create a bigger one. We try to kill starlings and yet they are still here, all we've done is waste time and resources murdering them. We try to kill japanese knotweed by pulling them out of the soil or by applying herbicide and the knotweed spreads further because it thrives in a disturbed environment. Asian longhorned beetle, gyspy moths, garlic mustard, etc. Whether plant or animal, it's all the same. All wasted efforts because we're collectively unable to think on the same timescale that nature does as it works to achieve equilibrium again after the disturbance.
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