Bumble bees drop to shake off Asian hornets | Hacker News Reader

Bumble bees drop to shake off Asian hornets

phys.org

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I know the article is about bumble bees, but I watched this awhile back: Asian Hornets vs flypaper:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=onq9ixC7OEg

Very few honeybees end up in the trap, but a huge number of hornets are killed.

Actually sort of curious if this would work with some of the Wasps that plague US beekeepers...

Amazing video. Those things are massive!

I’ll be having nightmares tonight thanks!

Since it's October... an enterprising horror film director should find a way to integrate this into their movie. ;)

For some reason, like a reverse ASMR video, the sound of so many helpless hornets buzzing was heeby jeeby inducing lol

I do like how it's supposed to be all hornets from the same nest, so it's not like it's indiscriminate in attracting hornets that aren't attacking honey bees.

Asian honeybees have developed a defensive strategy of mobbing attacking Asian hornets in a ball and vibrating their wing muscles to increase the temperature and eventually kill the hornet by overheating it. I assume this also kills a number of the colony's honeybees as well, but European bees have learned no similar defense and a single hornet can decimate a whole colony.

Does this only work in the hive? Or is the heat concentrated enough even out in the open?

It seems to work even out in the open. This video shows some thermal camera imagery of it: https://youtu.be/euMNIu9a7ps?t=312

Ah interesting. And it looks like it then doesn't kill the colony's honeybees, since they can withstand a higher temperature than the hornet.

"Watch A ‘Murder Hornet’ Destroy An Entire Honeybee Hive" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-gAVlh-7WZM&ab_channel=VICEN...

Note these are not the same as "murder hornets" (Vespa mandarinia) we heard about often in the news back during the pandemic, these are a close cousin called Vespa Velutina.

Murder hornets are Asian _giant_ hornets.

"Since its discovery in North America, the scientific literature and official government sources refer to this species by its established common name, Asian giant hornet, whilst the mainstream media have taken to using the nickname "murder hornet".[23][24][25] In July 2022, the Entomological Society of America stated that they will adopt the common name northern giant hornet for the species to avoid potentially discriminatory language, citing the rise in anti-Asian sentiment and hate crimes in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic."

What’s the status of these in NA?

The searches I’ve done suggest the known nests were eradicated. I understand there’s a good chance there were probably a few went unnoticed, but i have my hopes.

Look I want to be optimistic too, but as far as species traveling between continents... it is often hard to put the genie back in the bottle. At the end of the day, either they are well adapted here, or they are not.

On the bright side they're huge and terrifying, so they probably won't stay under the radar anywhere around people. Almost anybody who notices these will try to track them down and kill them.

Following in its footsteps, the National Geographic Society announced that the continent will now be known as "Awesomeland".

I see the bees are learning jiu-jit-zoo and beating the hornets in the ground game.

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