Just when we thought 2020 couldn’t get any worse, we received news that North America was seeing an “invasion” of so-called “murder hornets.” Needless to say, the news spread on social media like a plague-bearing wildfire.
However, social media has a way of warping perceptions and overhyping things, and we’re not just talking about the Fyre Festival. So, do murder hornets live up to their well-publicized nickname? The truth is, unless you’re a bee, probably not – although they’re certainly no treats, either.
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Murder hornets were first spotted in North America in late 2019, in the Pacific Northwest.
Only one hive was known to exist, on Vancouver Island in British Columbia, and it was destroyed, according to a CBS News report.
However, two other specimens were later spotted in Blaine, Washington – one was dead but the other flew off. Experts say that there are most likely more of them about, but that an “invasion” across North America remains unlikely.
To be fair, it’s perfectly understandable how the giant Asian hornet got its nickname.
These things are no joke. Measuring up to two inches in length, these hornets are the world’s largest and look like they were engineered specifically to be menacing.
To honey bees, murder hornets are an absolute nightmare. They’re famous for decapitating bees by the dozens after invading a hive, and videos posted on the internet have shown that decapitation doesn’t completely stop the hornets. Just 30 murder hornets can kill 30,000 honey bees, Oklahoma State entomologist Wyatt Hoback told KOKH .
Asian beekeepers have had to deal with murder hornets for a long time.
To keep their hives safe, they use methods like structuring entryways that are too small for the hornets to enter, but still large enough for bees to come and go.
In some cases, the beekeepers will go to further lengths, too. “labor is often cheap, so some use mechanical means—most often tennis rackets, really—to swat the large hornets as they come to the hives,” apiculturist and former bee researcher with the USDA Jeff Pettis told Scientific American .
That’s right. They swat hornets with tennis rackets.
As much as murder hornets pose a threat to hives, they’re bad for humans, but not exactly murderous.
Japan has reports up to 50 deaths from murder hornet stings per year. In the U.S., an average of 62 people die from bee stings each year, according to the CDC , so it’s not unlikely that allergies play a role in those deaths.
However, even if it doesn’t kill you, a murder hornet’s sting will still be a memorable experience.
Being so much larger, the giant hornets carry much more venom than the wasps and bees we’re used to.
And unlike bees, they can sting and deliver their toxin many times, and their extra-large stingers have been known to punch through through multiple layers of clothing and protective gear.
As Scientific American reported, people have likened a sting to being jabbed by a hot metal pin.
YouTuber Coyote Peterson decided to undergo a sting from a murder hornet for his show, *Brave Wilderness*.
“It will put you in momentous amounts of pain for close to six hours,” he said of the sting. “My arm kind of ballooned up to twice its normal size, so it was intense. Now, a single sting is not likely to kill a human unless you have an allergic reaction to the venom, but 30 or 40 stings could kill you.”
The good news, however, is that it’s highly unlikely any of us will get stung.
“As long as you don’t step in a nest or approach a beehive they have taken over, there is a fairly low risk that you will be stung,” Washington State Department of Agriculture spokesperson Karla Salp told CBS News.
And nests are unlikely to be in any kind of abundance, and even if the hornets have managed to build another one, it would still be in a tiny corner of the Pacific Northwest.
Better still, the hornets are not likely to be able to establish a presence in the area.
“There’s not really an awful lot that’s out there for them to feed on except for honeybees,” UC entomologist Doug Yanega told Business Insider, so only beekeepers need to be on the lookout for hornet attacks.
“If that doesn’t happen, well, number one, that’s a good thing in the general sense, and number two, those wasps are going to starve even if they’re out there,” he said. “There’s just not enough other big insects for them to feed on to propagate a colony.”
h/t: Scientific American , CBS News , Business Insider
