Murder Hornet? I Scoff at It.

[MineralMan]

In California, we have these. They're often seen getting nectar from milkweed plants, right next to the Monarch Butterflies. They're called "Tarantula Hawks." They don't normally sting humans, but when they do the pain is excruciating. What they do is sting tarantulas to paralyze them. Then, they drag the tarantula into a burrow and lay their eggs on it. The wasp's larvae consume the paralyzed tarantula. Nasty crittters, but fascinating. Just don't mess with them! You'll be very sorry if you do.

[Kali]

1. we have them too, in AZ

and the metallic blue ones

[MineralMan]

6. Yes. Wherever there are tarantulas, you'll find those wasps.

They very rarely sting humans, but it's best not to have them around, just in case.

[Ms. Toad]

2. Just to be clear - tarantula hawks and murder hornets are two different things. n/t

[MineralMan]

5. Yes, they are. One is an invasive species. The other is native to the USA.

I want nothing to do with either of them, although I did watch several for a long time feeding on a milkweed in California.

[MontanaMama]

3. Thanks but no thanks.

I’ll keep our 5-6 month winters instead. Oh, and grizzly bears. We’ll keep those too. You all keep your murder hornets and tarantula hawks there. Way over there. 😳

[BusyBeingBest]

4. Terrified of those things. I've removed certain white-flowering shrubs

(fernbush) from my yard because they really like them. They're too big and painful-stinging to have any predators to eat them. Also I'm pro-tarantula, love seeing them migrate--the more wasps, the fewer tarantulas. That said, tarantula hawk wasps just mind their own business. Don't know about the asian hornets, but I won't go anywhere they turn up, that's for sure. Hornets seem to be bad-tempered mofo's in general.

[MineralMan]

7. I'm fond of tarantulas, too.

We had them in my home town in California. When I was a boy, I looked them up at the library, and discovered that the ones we had rarely bit humans and didn't really hurt you if they did. So, I wasn't afraid of them, and used to pick one up from time to time and put in on my shirt when I went to grammar school. "Eeek!" Of course, as a 9 year old boy, that was just the reaction I was looking for.

[ismnotwasm]

8. Yikes

That’s one thing about the PNW, it might rain a lot but our bugs are generally reasonably sized

[BusyBeingBest]

9. Well, except for your Giant Asian Hornets.

[MineralMan]

10. That's true. Southern California is a desert, really.

Lots of weird critters in the desert.

I lived on the Central Coast of California for over 35 years, which wasn't a desert. I was surprised to learn that we had scorpions in that area, living in sand dune areas. Scorpions. I discovered that when a kid across the street from my house let out a piercing scream. I ran over there to see what was going on and there it was. A little tan-colored scorpion. I guess its sting hurt pretty badly. I caught it in a paper cup and released it far from residential buildings.

[Cirque du So-What]

11. They don't decimate honeybee colonies, however

and that is a primary concern about proliferation of the Asian giant hornet.

[MineralMan]

12. That's true, of course.

I wonder how many of those Asian giant hornets there really are here, though. Not too many, I suspect.

[Cirque du So-What]

13. Japanese honeybees have evolved a smothering/overheating defense

With no natural enemies on this continent, they may proliferate.

[happybird]

14. Dang, that's a big mofo

and I thought cicada killers were big and scary!

[MineralMan]

15. I know. I was warned about the tarantula hawks at a very early age.

Before long, though, I discovered that humans didn't interest them at all, so I watched a lot of them through the years. I once even saw one dragging a paralyzed tarantula to a burrow. I didn't have any sort of camera at the time, and it was decades before cell phones were invented. But, as a boy, I found the whole thing very fascinating.

[BGBD]

16. not the same species, not close either.

Giant Asian Hornets aren't anything to be all that worried about existentially, but if you happen to step on a nest of them they are going to fuck up your week.

[MineralMan]

19. Yes. I know that. I'm presenting the Tarantula Hawk as even

scarier than the "Murder Wasp," and a lot more likely to be encountered.

I scoff at the Murder Wasp because I've seen the Tarantula Hawk.

[BGBD]

24. did you see the video of

the guy who made a GAH sting him?

[Celerity]

17. let's all hope that the worst of all (the Executioner Wasp of Central & South America) doesnt invade

Polistes carnifex

A YouTuber shot a video of a sting from the 'Executioner Wasp,' which he says tops the 'Murder Hornet'

https://www.insider.com/murder-hornet-video-youtube-wasp-sting-worse-coyote-peterson-executioner-2020-5

the video is insane (as is the Animal Planet bloke)

[Archae]

18. I can't stand ANY bug that has a needle in it's ass.

Around here we get those damn yellowjackets.

(I think that's what they are, yup, they are.)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yellowjacket

[PlanetBev]

20. I've never heard or seen one of those things

And I live in Southern California. You learn something new everyday.

I hate spiders and all stinging insects with wings, so they can have each other.

[MineralMan]

22. They're not common, really. The only place you'd ever see them is

when the milkweed is blooming. They get nectar from the flowers. I've never seen one any other time. One time, I was looking for monarch butterflies, which also like milkweed, and saw a bunch of them alongside a road, so I stopped to take a look. There were tons of monarchs, but there were also about a dozen of those wasps. They weren't interested in me at all, and were busy sucking down all the nectar they could get, so I got a good long look at them close-up.

They're not in the least aggressive, and would only sting a person who was trying to handle them.

They're really pretty, with their red wings and weird curled antennae. So, I had fun watching them for a while. When I was a kid, I'd notice them from time to time, but I was looking for things like that at the time. I also found snakes, lizards, salamanders and all sorts of other critters I never seem to see now that I'm an adult. Kids see things.

[denbot]

21. The scary part is that "murder hornets" act as colony, Tarantula hawks are solitary critters.

A colony is far more dangerous than any single creature of the same type. All tarantula hawks lead solitary lives, and are easy to deal with as individuals. I collected a couple for a lower division entomology class, so dealt with them up close and angry.

It becomes less about how beautiful the contrast between their gunmetal blue carapace contrasts with their nearly day-glow orange wings, and more about the nearly inch long stinger tattooing it’s way through the capture net.


They are very beautiful creatures, but definitely have anger issues if disturbed.

[MineralMan]

23. You're the first person other than myself who has ever shown an interest

in those giant wasps. There are smaller wasps like that that prey on smaller spiders, as well, like wolf spiders. I've encountered many of those, too. None have ever seemed aggressive, though. They're focused on what they do, and probably aren't even aware of humans at all, unless we bother them.

[Niagara]

25. I'm more concerned about our honey bees.

There is already a decline with the honey bee population and these Murder Hornets wipe out colonies of them.





https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/03/us/murder-hornets-asian-giant-hornet-bees.html

[tandem5]

26. I'm a child of the Africanized Killer Bee era -- I scoff at all of it.

Veiled racism aside, the specter of the killer bee moving up California from Mexico was the fearmongering du jour of our local news for years. "They're coming! They're getting closer! They're going to kill us all!" Well they never came or they did and nobody noticed. These days any resilient pollinator should be welcomed in the face of CCD.