Don't buy the 'murder hornet' hype

Giant hornets, like you, need protein. 

The two-inch-long wasps Vespa mandarinia — regrettably dubbed “murder hornets” — attack bee colonies because they teem with prey. These hornets are remarkable, tenacious-looking animals. They're the biggest wasps in the world. The problem is they’re native to Asia, but in 2019 and 2020 people have spotted over a dozen of them (so far) in a corner of Washington. This makes the hornets an invasive species, and with no natural enemies in a new land, a big potential threat to honey bees in the U.S.

In 2020, news stories have hyped the Asian giant hornets, mostly due to their clickbaity, unfortunate nickname. (The nickname is absurd because even in Japan, where the insects are common, "no one calls them 'murder hornet,'" Akito Kawahara, an entomologist at the Florida Museum of Natural History, told Mashable.) The eager stories about these supposedly murderous animals (humans murder, animals don’t) will almost certainly continue as the Washington State Department of Agriculture seeks to stomp out the giant hornets before they establish themselves in the region. This is a necessary, though truly challenging, endeavor. Read more...

More about Wildlife, Insects, Science, Climate Environment, and Animals

from Mashable https://ift.tt/318UXUt
via https://mashable.com/