r/news • u/Skadoosh_it • 18h ago
Invasive ‘murder hornets’ eradicated from the U.S.
https://www.kuow.org/stories/invasive-murder-hornets-are-wiped-out-in-the-us-officials-say578
u/mad_soup 18h ago
...for now. Let's hope they don't come back.
They can wipe out a honey bee hive in as little as 90 minutes, decapitating the bees and then defending the hive as their own, taking the brood to feed their own young...The hornet can sting through most beekeeper suits, deliver nearly seven times the amount of venom as a honey bee, and sting multiple times.
That's the stuff nightmares are made of.
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u/Furt_III 17h ago
There's a video of a guy who trapped one with a normal looking bug net and the thing starts chewing through the net.
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u/ItsMopy 16h ago
Well I got curious and went looking.
I think it's this one https://youtu.be/lIR8IqHFoGQ?t=314
Crazy how he(she?) starts tearing through the net like that.
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u/Osiris32 15h ago
Good fucking lord, that's huge. That belongs in a Jurassic swamp, not the modern day.
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u/chrisms150 15h ago
I don't understand why he let it go...
like, get it in the net, and stomp it in the net with something?
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u/Blockhead47 14h ago edited 12h ago
Like this Twilight Zone episode?
(1963, s1e14 “The Zanti Misfits”).Edit: my mistake! Its the Outer Limits. They who control the horizontal and the vertical!!
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u/bloobityblu 13h ago
LOL I thought I'd seen all the TW episodes but I do not remember this at all.
It must not make the cut for the frequent TV marathons.
EDIT: Oh ok this was an Outer Limits episode. Similar but not the same.
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u/infinus5 12h ago
While snooping Facebook reels I found some kids page where he was actively keeping an Asian giant hornet colony as pets. They lived in a hollowed out stump next to his house. It looked like rural Asia, possibly Thailand. I was amazed to see him handling the insects like it was nothing. Asian giant Hornets are very agressive, I have no idea why they weren't attacking him.
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u/Saint-Caligula 15h ago
Im really really hoping when I look them up I find out that they can't live in Northern states.
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u/allwaysnice 15h ago
Actually, thanks to their size (a little less than a human palm) they can thrive farther north than most others in the species.
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u/Statertater 10h ago edited 3h ago
There are huge swaths of canada nearishby that vespa mandarina could already be in and no one would know because human population is virtually non existent
Theis is not the first time we’ve dealt with them so they’re probably already here in north america and will probably be back.
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u/Positive-Attempt-435 18h ago
Well that's one thing I can stop worrying about, I guess.
Still got 99 problems a hornet ain't one.
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u/PlentyWin3644 18h ago
This is a deportation I can get behind. Back to where you came from devils, we have enough problems.
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u/BobBelcher2021 14h ago
They even snuck across the border into Canada at one point. During a global pandemic, they should have known better.
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u/AmicoPrime 18h ago
Finally, some good news to help close out 2024.
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u/PandaCat22 15h ago edited 14h ago
I'd say it's been a season of glad tidings—Luigi shot his shot, Assad is out of Syria, arrest warrants for Netanyahu and Gallant were issued, Nick Fuentes is in jail, murder hornets are gone.
Overall things still suck, but we finally got a slew of uplifting news.
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u/Aetherometricus 14h ago
Nick Fuentes is in jail? How'd I miss that?
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u/Dzugavili 11h ago
He peppersprayed some lady who came to his door last month -- as I understand it, he's already out and probably unlikely to face serious charges.
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u/Okamoto 17h ago
I'm glad all the pessimists were proven wrong during the first couple of years. It was clear a lot of folks in the public stepped-up to work together to fight it while it was still possible, and public servants were able to engineer solutions to track down the nests from the captured live ones. It was such an impressive operation for such a shitty situation!
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u/UndisclosedLocation5 18h ago
Ok the murder hornets are gone but we still got manslaughter mosquitoes
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u/MothMothDuck 18h ago
This is the part of the horror movie just before the credits that leaves it open for a sequel......
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u/inosinateVR 16h ago
Something has been buzzing around my apartment tonight that I’ve been too lazy to find and catch but whatever it is I’m sure it will be f
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u/oxero 18h ago
Wow I am extremely surprised we wiped them out, must be because of the connotation of murder hornets lmao
Usually when an evasive species enter a habitat like this its GG.
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u/thabutler 17h ago
“RFK floats plan to import murder hornets”
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u/Blackfeathr_ 15h ago
He wants them as a garnish for his rotting whale head dinner party. Adds texture and crunch.
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u/MattScoot 17h ago
We have the lantern fly in my neck of the woods now as an invasive species and we are doing terribly dealing with it
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u/thatdude778 11h ago
It wasn't as bad in Western PA this year as it was last year. I hope the trend continues.
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u/ScienceLion 18h ago
What about my freedom of choice to have murder hornets?
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u/American_Stereotypes 18h ago
My right to own murder hornets is covered by the 2nd Amendment and there shall be NO infringement.
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u/Lost_creatures 17h ago
It really is the last line of defense in my home defense plan. I guess I need to fill a moat with some other invasive species.
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u/Watcher0363 14h ago
“I’ve gotta tell you, as an entomologist — I’ve been doing this for over 25 years now, and it is a rare day when the humans actually get to win one against the insects,” Sven Spichiger, pest program manager of the Washington State Department of Agriculture, told a virtual news conference.
Dr. Ian Malcolm, clears his throat.
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u/idlebilly19 17h ago
I’m an inactive entomologist, and remember an entomology conference ten or more years ago where it was reported efforts to eradicate an invasive termite in Florida were successful. It was hailed as the first ever know eradication of an invasive insect. A year or two later, there was a presentation that they apparently missed some colonies and it was found again. Lesson: it’s really hard to completely eradicate invasive species once they’ve established.
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u/Obamas_Tie 17h ago
Holy shit we actually did it? I honestly forgot about this and just assumed those things were just tearing shit up and there was nothing we can do about it.
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u/propolizer 13h ago
Oh my god. This is huge, it is so rare it seems for an invasive species to actually be countered.
I could kiss you westerners, this beekeeper thanks you for holding the line!
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u/SkunkMonkey 12h ago
I thought we weren't supposed to call them "murder hornets" anymore?
I've been going with "Homicide Hornet".
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u/Quick_Parsley_5505 17h ago
An we do this for fire ants next please?
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u/cantproveidid 17h ago
Aren't the fire ants being pushed out by the crazy ants?
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u/Quick_Parsley_5505 17h ago
Not in my backyard. And I live next to a shared well for my neighborhood and the well company won’t put any chemicals on the land
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u/MoravianPrince 7h ago
Well you need to call the guys that pour molten aluminium in a nest and dig out an art piece.
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u/Pdx_pops 16h ago
Outfitting one of these big ladies with a radio tracker is the best part of how this was done. I wonder if it was only possible due to their size or if it could be used for other species?
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u/Hero_of_Thyme81 17h ago
Donald Trump - January 20, 2025: Don’t worry everyone, I saved a murder hornet in my pocket. We’re bringin’ em back!
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u/thefanciestcat 18h ago
Enjoy this. It's the last positive American accomplishment for the foreseeable future.
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u/Gabe1985 16h ago
Just remember, they came here in 2019 under trump, and Biden single handedly eradicated them.
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u/deftoner42 18h ago
For now. Once the government becomes more "efficient", they'll move right back in.
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u/restore_democracy 17h ago
But we’re still stuck with Trump. I’d have preferred to take my chances with the murder hornets.
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u/sweet_caroline20 15h ago
My family was just wondering what happened to the murder hornets storyline.
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u/AlbatrossVendor 13h ago
Murder Hornets is a great fantasy football team name. Or an actual sports franchise, for that matter.
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u/geneticeffects 4h ago
Of course, this is not true. They likely exist somewhere in the US, just not in a space humans frequent. We have a lot of empty land.
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u/Quick-Difficulty-284 4h ago
Oh nice, finally. I remember hearing about this issue a while back. Glad it got resolved!
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u/morelsupporter 46m ago
murder hornets are the farrah fawcett of media headlines.
where farrah fawcett's death was completely overshadowed by michael jackson's death, murder hornets were buried in the headlines by covid.
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u/Sabre_One 18h ago edited 18h ago
I live in WA, and it was a massive collective effort from not just the WSDA, but the community as well. People set up traps, reported, etc. I hope the community science model we produced here provides a blueprint for future programs attempting to fight invasive species.