Giant Hornets Reported in PNW

over here in Japan, they attach a white slim-long cut of plastic bag, and release it, it usually goes straight home after. a team will follow them visually until they find the hive. It is a simple method, but sometimes they lost the wasp though.

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good source for the trap instruction!

“Instead of stinging the intruder, the honeybees swarm the hornet and begin vibrating, raising their collective temperature to 117 degrees Fahrenheit (47.2 ºC) and turning their crush of bodies into somewhat of a convection oven. While the honeybees can tolerate temperatures of 118 degrees Fahrenheit (47.8 ºC), Japanese giant hornets can only tolerate 115 degrees (46.1 ºC).”

Nature is amazing, y’all! The next big trend may be Japanese genetics.

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And you just can’t make this stuff up, lol. Got to love those oven bees.

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African bees are nice compared to Japanese bees. If Y’all are afraid of paper wasps and treat them like yellow jackets just wait.

These hornets are not even in the top 10 on the list of threats to honeybees

Wow. Those Japanese Giant Hornets are crazy.

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Someone is crazier!

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I just found this, after seeing them mentioned on Colbert (Youtube version).

That is exactly what the story says they do in Asia:

Additionally, 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.

Talk about the worst job to get…

Also, I gotta imagine that a badminton racket would be better- lighter and more maneuverable than a tennis racket. And it wouldn’t get you tired as fast.

It doesn’t talk about armor, but I already do that when when battling yellow jackets. I’m terrified of stinging insects, so when I need to take care of them, I go out with a 2-3" thick jacket, with the hood tightly fastened, a complete face-mask/respirator, and a couple pairs of pants (one of which is pretty thick). And that can be pretty hot in summer. But, if I was facing “murder hornets”, I might need a spacesuit!

Apparently these bad boys can sting right through a bee suit layered with sweatpants underneath.

I saw a comment from a resident of Japan that some professional exterminators there wear a smooth, heavy rubber suit or kevlar against these things. They’ll sting right through porous material.

Found this advertised as protective against Asian Giants:

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I bet they would have trouble getting through a 3" thick jacket, but it sounds like the rest of the outfit might not be sufficient. I hope they stop them in the PNW, so I don’t need to find out. :slight_smile:

Actually, my wife has suggested that I take up beekeeping. For someone afraid of bees, that could be tough, but if I do decide to, I’d want to get a suit like the one you linked.

Hey at least there is a pollinator that is sturdy against pesticides!

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I wonder if these hornets will fight the other hornets and yellow jackets, and if so, who will win.

Being bigger isn’t an automatic win. (just look at fire ants…)

Not sure if we have Apis cerana honeybees(asian/japanese honeybees) here in usa. Also curious if the european or africanized honeybees practice the hornet-killing strategy that the asian honeybee has mastered.
It is a catch 22 of sorts. We imported mellifera bees to usa which will be under threat by recent “imports” of murder hornets. Local melliferas are already under siege and at risk of extinction prior to these hornets. Now we may have to import asian honeybees, to ensure honey production should these hornet monsters hammer in the last nail into mellifera bees’ coffin.
Just need to get varroa-free asian honeybees, if those actually exist

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The apis cerana definitely do a much longer brood break in the summer and mess up the varoa life cycle as well as naturally exhibit a anti parasitic cleaning behavior. However south korean bees vs japanese bees the south korean bees are much nicer and better at handling varroa and japanese bees are kind of famous about being pretty bad ass compared to some other asian honeybees.

Probably good to breed korean ceranas with japanese ceranas. What i do know is that honey from asian honeybees command a higher price compared to european honeybees, so not only will ceranas be an alternative, but also an economic option should european honeybees in usa go the way of dodos

European honeybees have no defense. The bees that got revenge on the hornets are Japanese bees. We might have to start using them here instead of the European bees.

I read some material from the WA Dept of Agriculture that very strongly stated that introducing Japanese honeybees here is not an option. Can someone who knows bees (I do not) explain why that might be?

This paper says the Native Japanese bees have evolved a dont fuck with us signal that the Giant hornets have learned to respect

Yep, I mentioned that it’s western European honeybees which where decimated, and that eastern bees take their revenge.

The bee revenge video which I posted says that it’s Japanese bees, but I’ve read that eastern European bees have the bee heat ball defense against the hornets.

I don’t know which is true. Whether Japanese bees in the video originally came from eastern Europe, or that Japanese and Eastern European bees are different, but both have the defense against the killer hornets.

Whatever the case, it’s clear that western European bees (the kind we have in the U.S., which produce more honey) do not have the special defense.

This can be a very serious problem. I’ve read supposedly some places in southern France (where giant hornets have found an especially fruitful climate) have been found to have 8 killer hornet hives per square kilometer. One of the articles I’ve read said the hornets seem to be more aggressive than the ones in Japan. These creatures seem to be very adaptable.

No, I don’t think we want to trade our apis melifera for apis cerana.