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Hi All

For those living in the UK, especially in the South, there has been the first sighting of Asian Hornets. These things are nasty little blighters and will destroy honey bee hives. They originally arrived in France from a pottery shipment from China (IIRC) and it has been expected that eventually they might travel across the channel. However DEFRA are keen to wipe them out before they get a foothold.

Hence if you see any of them please let DEFRA know because they want to find the queen(s) and kill them.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-37430375

Oh man these things are nasty. We've had a scare in the US a long time back I think, but it turned out to be some other kind of hornet or something.

I saw a video about these things once. Asian Honey Bees have a totally bad ass (and so very Zerg) way of dealing with them, but they pretty much kick the crap out of European and African Honey Bees who haven't evolved a defense.

Video here Warning for graphic insectoid violence!

Fuxking Hornets. That's all we need.

I kill wasps on sight anyway so these will be no different. If I can summon the courage that is.

 Future War Cultist wrote:
Fuxking Hornets. That's all we need.

I kill wasps on sight anyway so these will be no different. If I can summon the courage that is.

There was a hornet and spider going at it in the front yard last week, so I did the only honorable thing I could and shotgunned them...er stepped on them. Whoever loses, I win!*


*Frazzled hates spiders but wasps piss him off. Even a spider doesn't deserve to get eaten alive Alien style.

 Future War Cultist wrote:
Fuxking Hornets. That's all we need.

I kill wasps on sight anyway so these will be no different. If I can summon the courage that is.

Just remember that if you see one report it to DEFRA so they can try and narrow down where the queen is. You won't see the queen, she's hiding safely away. Killing one drone doesn't make a dent unfortunately.

Not hard to tell if you see one. It is a freaking bird/ eagle with a stinger. Just shoot it with a frwaking bow and arrow.

Their picture looks exactly how I remember a wasp looking that caught a massive wolf spider in my garden last year here in south australia. Seen it hauling the spiders ass across the paved path to a crack in between treated pine sleepers. Thought it was a native wasp of some kind. Maybe it was one of these. I let it do its thing as I have no love for wolf spiders as there's millions around my property.

Only ever saw the one like it tho. Only other things I see are common bees, small native black bee, european wasps and occasionally yellow or orange mud wasps.

I thought we decided to leave the EU to stop bloody immigrants like these appearing on our shores? Was the whole leave campaign a lie?

 welshhoppo wrote:
I thought we decided to leave the EU to stop bloody immigrants like these appearing on our shores? Was the whole leave campaign a lie?

You need to build a wall.

Hornets fly, Frazzie.

 Orlanth wrote:
Hornets fly, Frazzie.

Yes but we fan build a wall big enough to stop that. We can put some gold leaf on top. You can sell the naming rights along the sections of the wall. You can call it Brexit Wall, or alternatively Trump Towers.

 LordofHats wrote:
Asian Honey Bees have a totally bad ass (and so very Zerg) way of dealing with them, but they pretty much kick the crap out of European and African Honey Bees who haven't evolved a defense.

Maybe the UK could import some of those Crested honey buzzards that eat these hornets.

I hope I never get to see these bastards, ordinary wasps are scary enough even if I'm not particularly sensitive to their stings.

 Whirlwind wrote:


Hence if you see any of them please let DEFRA know because they want to find the queen(s) and kill them.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-37430375

Just be careful because when we had out first Asian hornet scare, people seemed to lose it for just about anything that may remotely look like one.

Mostly the local hornet (vespa crabro) but even regular honeybees were mistaken for death hornets from hell. Even though European hornets prey bees, they also eat several species of agricultural pests so they're beneficial insects.

Here's a blog post that a friend wrote back in the day. It's mostly in Spanish but pictures (and species names) are perfectly understandable.

http://1000000bees.blogspot.com.es/2014/08/de-cuando-todos-querian-tener-una.html?m=1

 Whirlwind wrote:

Hi All

For those living in the UK, especially in the South, there has been the first sighting of Asian Hornets. These things are nasty little blighters and will destroy honey bee hives. They originally arrived in France from a pottery shipment from China (IIRC) and it has been expected that eventually they might travel across the channel. However DEFRA are keen to wipe them out before they get a foothold.

Hence if you see any of them please let DEFRA know because they want to find the queen(s) and kill them.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-37430375

As somebody who has had their legs swarmed by the red imported fire ant, Britain has my deepest sympathy. Invasive species are no joke. It's good to see DEFRA is on top of it.

 oldravenman3025 wrote:

 Whirlwind wrote:

Hi All

For those living in the UK, especially in the South, there has been the first sighting of Asian Hornets. These things are nasty little blighters and will destroy honey bee hives. They originally arrived in France from a pottery shipment from China (IIRC) and it has been expected that eventually they might travel across the channel. However DEFRA are keen to wipe them out before they get a foothold.

Hence if you see any of them please let DEFRA know because they want to find the queen(s) and kill them.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-37430375

As somebody who has had their legs swarmed by the red imported fire ant, Britain has my deepest sympathy. Invasive species are no joke. It's good to see DEFRA is on top of it.

I gawd. I took three hits to the chest when I was at Polk from those *&$%^$. Everytime I go to Polk for JRTC I look first on the ground before I get down. Hell we medivac'ed a guy when he got swarmed from the Pathfinder company. He took multiple bites in his groin area

 Future War Cultist wrote:
Fuxking Hornets. That's all we need.

I kill wasps on sight anyway so these will be no different. If I can summon the courage that is.

We already have hornets, and a fine upstanding job they do keeping the really irritating buzzy bastards under control too (like wasps.)

These are just another species, who happen to aggressively target honey bees, who, unlike the bees in their native country, don't have any methods for fighting back.

Bees in Asia will actually mob a hornet and cook it by making it the centre of a massive bee cooking ball (sacrificing themselves but saving the hive) but nobody's shown the European bees how it's done.

 Azreal13 wrote:

 Future War Cultist wrote:
Fuxking Hornets. That's all we need.

I kill wasps on sight anyway so these will be no different. If I can summon the courage that is.

We already have hornets, and a fine upstanding job they do keeping the really irritating buzzy bastards under control too (like wasps.)

These are just another species, who happen to aggressively target honey bees, who, unlike the bees in their native country, don't have any methods for fighting back.

Bees in Asia will actually mob a hornet and cook it by making it the centre of a massive bee cooking ball (sacrificing themselves but saving the hive) but nobody's shown the European bees how it's done.

So the logical explanation is to bring honey bees from Asia to teach European Honeys how to fight back.
Brilliant, CHECK PLEASE

 Frazzled wrote:

 Orlanth wrote:
Hornets fly, Frazzie.

Yes but we fan build a wall big enough to stop that. We can put some gold leaf on top. You can sell the naming rights along the sections of the wall. You can call it Brexit Wall, or alternatively Trump Towers.

Already on it.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-37421525

http://m.huffpost.com/uk/entry/uk_57cfc2bde4b0ac5a02dc83df