A close friend of mine told me they had encountered one of the largest wasps ever a few weeks back. They described it possess a loud humming noise as it flew around and it was certainly not normal as it menacingly surveyed the area. After listening, I sent over a picture of an Asian giant hornet and unsurprisingly, this is exactly what this person had seen. The Asian hornet is a problem for our bees and our own safety. They possess dangerous neurotoxins and can inflict anaphylactic shock shortly after stinging. It’s hard to not notice these insect but accidents happen and an aggravated nest of hornet will stand its ground with a stinger.
It’s important to keep these hornets from spreading around our country, protecting our native bee population is a priority that many ecological experts resonate with. Part of the plan to control this situation is to get a better perspective of the issue at hand. Scientists are now attempting to implement a tracking system by attaching external transmitters to hornets as they fly back to their nests. The process is simple, trapping the hornets that would otherwise be hunting for bees in gruesome fashion and gluing transmitters to begin a geo mapping process of the hornet population. Tracking their movements would allow for strategic deployment of hornet population measures.
Similar to managing a pandemic, establishing the clues behind how and why these creatures spread may give an entry point to exploit and manipulate. These hornets are thought to be highly resilient and are able to survive in various weather conditions. Travelling hundreds of kilometres between continents. The projection of spread is still going to take decades but it’s a matter that requires attention nonetheless and these steps taken to get a grasp of the situation are highly important.
I would hope that just as we unravel the details of spreading viruses, this spread of bee killing insects will also yield to a safe and sustainable plan. Such hornets that pose a threat to existing ecology as they spread will eventually need to be dealt with but the data collection stage of this operation is key in planning an approach. I would think that in the coming years, an effective attempt at controlling the spread or population of the Asian Hornet will come to fruition.
Sources
https://www.sciencenews.org/article/asian-giant-murder-hornets-new-map-habitat-united-states
