Murder Hornets and Mayhem: Simmer Down Now

Luqi Li Author

08/04/2020 Added

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Jody Green - Murder Hornets and Mayhem: Simmer Down Now

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[00:00:01.923](upbeat music)
[00:00:12.700]Welcome to this presentation about the Asian giant hornet,
[00:00:16.040]otherwise known as and popularized
[00:00:18.380]by the associated press as the "murder hornet".
[00:00:22.790]My name is Jody Greene,
[00:00:24.000]I am an entomologist with Nebraska extension,
[00:00:26.410]I work in Douglas and Sarpy counties
[00:00:28.360]as an extension educator.
[00:00:30.330]Due to the fact that we do not have
[00:00:32.640]any Asian giant hornets in Nebraska, these photos,
[00:00:35.778]and this information, has been brought to you
[00:00:39.350]from the Washington State Department of Agriculture,
[00:00:43.450]where entomologists and other specialists
[00:00:45.460]are doing their very best to locate and eradicate
[00:00:48.650]this new and invasive pest,
[00:00:50.770]that is only found at this time in Washington State.
[00:00:54.550]So we're gonna talk about why
[00:00:56.890]the Asian giant hornet is such a big deal.
[00:00:59.690]So the Asian giant hornet has become a big deal
[00:01:02.400]mainly due to the massive coverage by the media this year.
[00:01:06.200]It was a hot topic the first week of May,
[00:01:08.390]when the New York Times released this article,
[00:01:12.308]and headlines continue to pop up national
[00:01:14.850]and in local news, on social media, and basically anywhere.
[00:01:20.480]We all know that this has been
[00:01:21.680]a very strange year to say the least,
[00:01:23.850]and so to have a big, giant, invasive,
[00:01:26.590]stinging monster of an alien from Asia
[00:01:31.860]is just something people cannot get enough of,
[00:01:34.110]and so I would be very surprised
[00:01:36.230]if you haven't yet heard of this hornet.
[00:01:39.590]As an entomologist, I know that my phone, my email,
[00:01:43.010]and all my social media accounts have just blown up.
[00:01:46.170]I continue to receive photos of everything under the sun,
[00:01:50.470]under the ground, anything orange and black,
[00:01:52.490]anything yellow and black, anything that may fly,
[00:01:54.850]anything that has wings, that has a long stinger,
[00:01:59.890]or looks like a stinger.
[00:02:02.600]I have, I've received a lot of different things,
[00:02:05.610]but they all come with the same question, right?
[00:02:09.080]Is this a murder hornet?
[00:02:10.810]And my answer about a hundred times has been nope.
[00:02:15.900]So we do not have Asian giant hornets here in Nebraska,
[00:02:19.810]but what makes them so invasive
[00:02:22.520]is that like any invasive species,
[00:02:25.410]an invasive species is an introduced species,
[00:02:27.560]whether it's intentional or unintentional,
[00:02:31.680]that's not native that can spread to a degree
[00:02:35.920]where it becomes damaging, either to the environment,
[00:02:39.290]to the human economy, or to human health.
[00:02:43.860]And in this case, there is a threat to honeybees.
[00:02:49.520]And in recent years, we've done a really good job
[00:02:51.740]at getting the word out about pollinator conservation
[00:02:55.030]and the importance of honeybees, bees, native bees,
[00:03:01.807]and what they do in the ecosystem
[00:03:02.850]and how we need to save them.
[00:03:04.390]So when we find out that there's this
[00:03:06.970]massive stinging invasive insect that's bullying honeybees,
[00:03:12.820]and not only that, they're decapitating and ruining,
[00:03:16.560]you know, the livelihood of beekeepers,
[00:03:19.120]it's just something that we cannot handle.
[00:03:22.610]So if the Asian giant hornet is only a threat to honeybees,
[00:03:27.620]why are we so worried about them?
[00:03:30.560]Well, there's been a lot of different theories
[00:03:33.966]of if we are afraid of the pain of their stings.
[00:03:37.360]And it is thought by psychologists that that's not true,
[00:03:41.090]that we are really just grossed out and disgusted in them,
[00:03:44.747]and that's why we are freaking out.
[00:03:49.588]A lot of people have entomophobia or the fear of insects,
[00:03:52.790]and so the imagery created by some of the language
[00:03:56.870]that has been used in headlines,
[00:04:00.090]such as "giant" and "attack", "killing",
[00:04:02.807]"murder", "slaughter", "decapitation",
[00:04:05.010]all these things are very negative
[00:04:07.100]and it just brings us more fear,
[00:04:10.050]but we are not really afraid of the pain we are just afraid.
[00:04:14.090]So the quote by Franklin Roosevelt about
[00:04:17.777]"The only thing we have to fear is fear itself."
[00:04:20.930]I feel like that's a pretty good
[00:04:23.760]description of the situation.
[00:04:26.660]I believe everyone should remain calm
[00:04:28.410]since we don't have these here in Nebraska,
[00:04:30.560]but what has happened is we hear about this hornet,
[00:04:37.945]and then we're paralyzed when we see, you know,
[00:04:39.900]a bee or a wasp fly by us in our garden,
[00:04:44.190]or when we're doing something with our family.
[00:04:46.250]So, really, we just really don't want to panic.
[00:04:49.010]I hope that I can give you some of the facts
[00:04:51.490]so that when you're outside and you see something
[00:04:53.600]while you're working or gardening,
[00:04:56.190]or with your family and friends that,
[00:04:58.770]and if you hear those dreaded words,
[00:05:00.687]"murder hornet", you can be the voice of reason.
[00:05:04.980]So basically I'm here to tell you
[00:05:07.520]that although this is a very hot topic,
[00:05:09.830]there is no need to worry,
[00:05:12.140]and the title of my talk has the "Simmah down nah!"
[00:05:16.830]And that is taken from an old "Saturday Night Live" skit.
[00:05:21.450]These were really funny,
[00:05:22.940]this is Sherry Otari back in the year, 2000.
[00:05:27.000]If you you're mature like me,
[00:05:29.070]and you can remember these, it's quite funny,
[00:05:31.590]but this pretty much sums up
[00:05:32.980]what I would like to say sometimes when,
[00:05:36.590]when I get those pictures of, you know,
[00:05:39.370]a flying moth or a yellow and black beetle.
[00:05:42.470]But today I'm gonna give you some facts
[00:05:44.770]that I know about the Asian giant hornet,
[00:05:47.980]you know, and what people are doing in Washington State
[00:05:51.770]that will hopefully prevent any more spread
[00:05:55.130]and definitely won't get to Nebraska.
[00:05:58.490]But I do wanna point out that this widespread panic
[00:06:01.870]is actually hurting our friends, the honeybees.
[00:06:05.050]People are really on edge, and they may be reaching
[00:06:07.910]for that insecticide when they see any insect
[00:06:10.900]that they may think is out to murder them.
[00:06:13.430]So we wanna keep that in mind, we may really be doing,
[00:06:17.460]you know, counteracting what we really want.
[00:06:21.600]So let's start from the beginning
[00:06:22.900]and learn a little bit about stinging insects.
[00:06:26.090]So wasps and hornets belong
[00:06:28.230]to the insect order Hymenoptera,
[00:06:29.970]which means membranous wings,
[00:06:31.720]and that's how these insects fly,
[00:06:34.390]they have two pairs of membranous wings that look like this,
[00:06:38.105]and there's a lot of described species in this order,
[00:06:42.090]so over 150,000 worldwide Hymenopterans,
[00:06:46.857]and they include ants and bees,
[00:06:49.906]wasps, hornets, sawflies and horntails,
[00:06:53.460]which we consider wood wasps.
[00:06:55.922]They also include a lot of the tiny little wasps
[00:06:58.670]that we don't see, that are parasitic wasps,
[00:07:02.210]beneficial insects, and natural enemies.
[00:07:04.800]But we can say that all hornets are wasps,
[00:07:08.120]so wasps are going to be in this superfamily here,
[00:07:13.740]and then these are different genera,
[00:07:16.920]so all hornets are in the genus Vespa.
[00:07:22.590]So the Asian giant hornet is Vespa mandarinia,
[00:07:26.910]and the European hornet is Vespa crabro.
[00:07:30.841]And I just wanna let you know that we do
[00:07:33.065]have an established hornet in the United States,
[00:07:34.670]which is the European hornet,
[00:07:37.160]but it is not found in Nebraska.
[00:07:39.160]So in the last five years that I've been in Extension
[00:07:41.970]and when I look at distribution maps, I don't see them here.
[00:07:46.790]They are mainly located on the East Coast,
[00:07:49.300]and they haven't got to the West Coast,
[00:07:50.890]so even though they've been here
[00:07:52.390]since the European settlers in the 1800s,
[00:07:56.260]they are not widespread in the United States,
[00:07:58.490]even though they are established.
[00:08:00.140]So there is a good chance that if the Asian giant hornet
[00:08:03.970]does end up staying in the United States,
[00:08:05.980]that it won't get over the mountains and to Nebraska.
[00:08:10.090]We do have a bunch of yellowjackets,
[00:08:12.620]and unfortunately this bald-faced hornet
[00:08:15.570]is called a bald-faced hornet because it is a yellowjacket.
[00:08:18.680]We do not see these here normally in Nebraska,
[00:08:22.210]they're very close, but I have not had a sample come in.
[00:08:25.500]These look a little bit different,
[00:08:27.050]they are black and white, white faces,
[00:08:29.740]that's why it's called the bald-faced hornet.
[00:08:32.520]Commonly we do have yellowjackets and paper wasps,
[00:08:36.400]so that is something you should be familiar with.
[00:08:38.920]Reach out to me if you need some information about those,
[00:08:41.720]they are also, you know, social colonies
[00:08:44.290]that may sting if they feel threatened.
[00:08:47.360]But all of these wasps in this super family here,
[00:08:52.820]they're considered social wasps.
[00:08:56.200]Hornets are usually called that
[00:08:59.000]because they are the larger of the wasps
[00:09:01.160]and they tend to be more aggressive
[00:09:03.750]when they're defending their nests.
[00:09:07.300]So, these hornets, wasps, bees, ants,
[00:09:10.940]they go through a complete metamorphosis,
[00:09:12.690]so egg, larvae, pupa, adult,
[00:09:15.180]anytime you see any insect with wings,
[00:09:17.660]that means it's an adult.
[00:09:19.260]And often in these social colonies,
[00:09:22.080]so, you know, ants, bees, wasps, hornets,
[00:09:25.560]they are going to have a centralized nest somewhere,
[00:09:29.220]and they're gonna have a lot of members,
[00:09:30.920]so a lot of workers, so there's a cast system,
[00:09:33.950]there's gonna be a reproductive cast,
[00:09:36.840]so a queen that's just an egg layer,
[00:09:38.790]and all the other, normally female workers
[00:09:42.640]are going to take part in brood care,
[00:09:45.400]taking care of the larva, going and foraging for food,
[00:09:49.300]which are normally other insects,
[00:09:51.860]going and getting those insect parts,
[00:09:54.470]caterpillars, spiders, whatever,
[00:09:56.010]chopping them up, feeding that to the larvae,
[00:09:59.040]and because they rely on each other as a superorganism,
[00:10:04.430]they will defend that nest,
[00:10:06.426]and so if they feel threatened, they will sting.
[00:10:11.540]So, these different stinging insects, they have,
[00:10:14.910]you know, special nesting sites,
[00:10:16.620]they look a little bit different,
[00:10:19.672]and that's why they're a different species
[00:10:22.292]and different genus, but we do see these paper wasps
[00:10:25.060]and yellow jackets very commonly in Nebraska.
[00:10:27.790]Paper wasps will have a single tier,
[00:10:30.060]you can see this single tier by a petiole,
[00:10:32.930]it's often in a sheltered location,
[00:10:36.060]under the eaves of a window, it could also be in,
[00:10:39.430]you know, a bird house or anywhere that's protected,
[00:10:43.490]but they have made these nests that look,
[00:10:46.250]they call them umbrella wasps as well.
[00:10:48.690]They are usually kind of spindle shaped
[00:10:51.592]about three quarters to an inch long,
[00:10:53.870]and when they fly, their legs kinda dangle,
[00:10:56.330]that's how you can tell it's a paper wasp, but we have,
[00:10:59.640]I think 23 different species, there's quite a few.
[00:11:03.330]Yellowjackets, they are also kind of known
[00:11:05.550]as being kind of jerks, they can be aggressive,
[00:11:08.953]and they can have many, many workers in their colony,
[00:11:12.940]so this is what their nests look like,
[00:11:14.760]they have a series of tiers encased in a paper envelope,
[00:11:19.520]and so this kind of nest can be underground
[00:11:22.330]like this illustration in old abandoned rodent borough,
[00:11:26.100]it can also be an aerial nest up in a tree,
[00:11:28.410]high up off the ground, and then they also can nest
[00:11:31.320]in structures and wall voids, attics,
[00:11:33.420]sheds, things like that.
[00:11:35.010]But they can be very aggressive, especially in the fall.
[00:11:39.170]The Asian giant hornet, they nest almost always underground,
[00:11:43.833]and so in their native land and also in the nest
[00:11:47.230]that was found in North America, it was underground,
[00:11:51.250]so they've got several tiers as well,
[00:11:53.230]but they do not have that envelope that encases those tiers,
[00:11:57.600]you can see there's some tree roots in there,
[00:12:00.160]but they are not really recorded
[00:12:03.400]as to nesting above ground in trees
[00:12:06.920]or anything like that like some other species.
[00:12:09.690]Their nests are often very big,
[00:12:11.400]they can be up to two feet wide.
[00:12:15.125]And so, what happened, so for those headlines
[00:12:21.799]to have kind of popped up in May,
[00:12:25.120]so what happened back, think about last year,
[00:12:28.670]it seems like a long time ago, so in August of 2019,
[00:12:32.410]three Asian giant hornets were discovered
[00:12:34.600]close to Vancouver in Canada.
[00:12:37.230]It was likely brought over in shipping containers from Asia,
[00:12:42.080]so unlikely to be intentional introduction,
[00:12:46.260]but a group of local beekeepers
[00:12:48.820]located this nest in Nanaimo, British Columbia
[00:12:52.670]in a public park and destroyed it,
[00:12:54.810]so they eradicated that nest,
[00:12:56.650]but it had been, you know, in there.
[00:13:00.010]And then there were two specimens that were dead
[00:13:03.830]that were found across the border in US soil,
[00:13:06.190]and that's what prompted all the headlines,
[00:13:09.250]so it was two dead species.
[00:13:11.530]So, scientists who are modeling the behavior
[00:13:15.960]and possible spread of the Asian giant hornet
[00:13:19.730]do believe that the West Coast
[00:13:22.210]would be an ideal place for them to nest,
[00:13:25.260]as well as areas on the East Coast,
[00:13:27.820]not that they would be able to get over there on their own,
[00:13:31.080]but it's thought that the Rocky mountains
[00:13:33.690]and the Great Plains states
[00:13:34.910]would not be adequate climates for them, so that's good.
[00:13:39.840]The Asian giant hornet can measure up to two inches long,
[00:13:43.000]and have a three inch wingspan, so that is pretty massive.
[00:13:46.060]Again, they are the largest hornet in the world,
[00:13:48.820]they have stingers that are quite long,
[00:13:51.210]a quarter of an inch, not barbed,
[00:13:53.920]so they can sting repeatedly.
[00:13:55.800]It is said that their stings can be painful
[00:13:58.770]and contain more toxic venom
[00:14:01.810]than some of our native bees and wasps,
[00:14:05.970]but it is unlikely that a single sting
[00:14:08.320]could result in death if the person
[00:14:10.370]was not allergic to the venom.
[00:14:13.110]When you look at them, they have this giant orange head,
[00:14:16.130]kind of like a jack-o-lantern, with prominent eyes,
[00:14:19.330]so this orange head, very large,
[00:14:21.450]and then when you look at their bodies,
[00:14:24.220]very stocky, very large, they've got black
[00:14:26.930]and orange stripes and these stripes are not broken,
[00:14:29.940]so they're unbroken stripes that go across the abdomen,
[00:14:32.690]and that is a very important characteristic.
[00:14:36.740]So here is an Asian giant hornet beside an American quarter.
[00:14:41.970]The scientific name is Vespa mandarinia,
[00:14:45.640]and in their native land,
[00:14:46.610]they're also known as the Japanese hornet,
[00:14:48.900]the yak killer, and the giant sparrow bee.
[00:14:51.570]There are a number of hornets throughout the world,
[00:14:54.600]and there are invasive hornets actually in Europe,
[00:14:57.570]but it's a different species.
[00:15:00.630]There are many different species,
[00:15:02.550]this one is Vespa mandarinia,
[00:15:04.690]and when you look at the distribution map from iNaturalist,
[00:15:08.960]you can see it's very common in Eastern Asia,
[00:15:13.140]and particularly in Japan.
[00:15:15.360]These areas have low mountains and forest,
[00:15:19.395]and they're considered subtropic to moderate temperatures.
[00:15:22.600]And their normal foraging range to look for food
[00:15:27.020]is a half a mile to a mile and a quarter.
[00:15:30.440]On average, it's usually never more
[00:15:33.570]than five miles or eight kilometers from the nest,
[00:15:37.800]so that's also good news is that
[00:15:40.560]they do not go very far and distribute on their own.
[00:15:45.194]When it comes to invading the honeybees,
[00:15:48.930]it can be pretty detrimental because it only takes
[00:15:51.440]a very few number of Asian giant hornets
[00:15:54.470]to destroy a honeybee hive,
[00:15:56.240]and this can be done within hours.
[00:15:58.580]And these are the three terrible steps,
[00:16:01.783]phases that they go through
[00:16:03.910]in order to destroy this honeybee colony.
[00:16:07.050]So, and this has been studied in Japan,
[00:16:10.970]but it's the hunting phase
[00:16:12.650]where they rip off the heads of the honeybees
[00:16:15.640]and turn their thoraxes into meatballs
[00:16:18.170]so it's like highly proteinaceous
[00:16:19.810]and has a lot of amino acids,
[00:16:22.320]then the slaughter phase is when
[00:16:23.610]they just rapidly kill the honeybees,
[00:16:25.400]they're not really stopping
[00:16:26.400]to make them into meatballs anymore,
[00:16:27.850]they're just slaughtering them,
[00:16:28.900]and then the third phase is the occupation phase
[00:16:31.580]where they enter the nest
[00:16:33.170]and they devour the honeybee brood,
[00:16:35.700]so the larva and the pupa, and this can take days.
[00:16:40.000]So, it can be very bad.
[00:16:43.860]In Asia, they have Asian honeybees,
[00:16:48.780]so, you know, there's different species of bees,
[00:16:51.020]and these Asian honeybees, Apis cerana,
[00:16:54.010]they have evolved strategies since they've lived
[00:16:57.580]and evolved with these hornets
[00:16:59.940]for hundreds of years to protect their hives.
[00:17:03.180]And one of those, and it's really cool,
[00:17:05.200]if you ever get a chance to see it,
[00:17:07.070]there is a video called "Hornets from Hell"
[00:17:09.880]on YouTube through the Natural Geographic,
[00:17:12.450]and it will show you the bee ball that they make.
[00:17:16.240]So what happens is they ambush
[00:17:18.560]the hornet that is entering the beehive
[00:17:20.610]and they grab onto it, they engulf it in this ball,
[00:17:25.980]and they beat their wings very fiercely,
[00:17:29.180]it raises the temperature, it dumps carbon dioxide on them,
[00:17:33.818]on the hornet, it exceeds the thermal threshold,
[00:17:36.260]and it essentially cooks that Asian giant hornet to death.
[00:17:41.120]Unfortunately, some of the honeybees
[00:17:42.450]that are involved in this bee ball do die,
[00:17:44.850]but it eliminates the hornets from going through
[00:17:47.020]that second phase, that slaughter phase.
[00:17:51.300]Unfortunately, our European honeybees,
[00:17:53.260]the bees that we keep here,
[00:17:55.030]the beekeepers keep here in the United States,
[00:17:57.390]they have not evolved this strategy,
[00:17:59.210]so that is why we really do worry
[00:18:01.990]about the honeybees in the United States
[00:18:04.170]and the potential impacts that it may have
[00:18:07.260]because they don't have the capability to do this.
[00:18:12.220]In Asia, the Asian giant hornet is actually a delicacy,
[00:18:16.770]or it's a sport to hunt them and to remove the larvae
[00:18:20.640]out of the brood and eat them, either by frying or boiling.
[00:18:23.780]They also do this thing with the adults
[00:18:25.990]where they put them in alcohol for up to three years,
[00:18:29.380]and then they drink the liquid,
[00:18:31.100]and it's thought to be like some health enhancement,
[00:18:34.360]athletic performance enhancer drink or beverage,
[00:18:37.670]so it's touted by having like this amino acid mixture,
[00:18:42.260]so you just really never know, you know,
[00:18:46.810]we're trying, we're afraid of them,
[00:18:48.530]and then, you know, in different parts of the world,
[00:18:50.610]people are eating them and drinking hornet-infused alcohol.
[00:18:55.270]But let's go through their life history
[00:18:58.800]and how their colonies progress through the year.
[00:19:02.650]So these again are social wasps,
[00:19:04.500]so they have annual colonies.
[00:19:06.270]So you know, through the winter, the nest is abandoned,
[00:19:10.050]and you know, the colony dies off,
[00:19:13.240]and a new one gets started each spring
[00:19:16.130]by a foundress or a fertilized queen.
[00:19:19.410]So April, May is when fertilized queens
[00:19:21.650]become active again after the winter,
[00:19:23.470]and they start to find a good place for a nest,
[00:19:27.580]so for the Asian giant hornet,
[00:19:29.610]it's gonna be underground somewhere.
[00:19:32.350]In June and July, the nest grows with workers,
[00:19:35.640]so she's produced enough workers
[00:19:37.390]that they ended up doing the work,
[00:19:38.480]she becomes the sole, just stays in the nest,
[00:19:42.240]the underground nest and lays eggs.
[00:19:44.070]In August, this is when there is a peak population,
[00:19:48.360]and this is where we are now in, so in Washington State,
[00:19:52.260]that's why they're doing what they're doing
[00:19:54.730]to try and locate as many wasps as they can
[00:19:57.730]to find the location of the nests.
[00:20:00.990]In the fall, so in September,
[00:20:02.300]this is when the queens produce males or drones
[00:20:04.820]and future queens to continue, you know,
[00:20:08.397]and to continue the offspring.
[00:20:10.430]And then in October and November,
[00:20:13.130]this is when mating occurs, and in fall,
[00:20:16.265]this is also the time when honeybee hives
[00:20:17.900]are most likely predated on.
[00:20:20.060]And right before winter, fertilized and unfertilized queens
[00:20:23.150]will go find a protected place to survive the winter,
[00:20:28.220]unfertilized queens and drones, they die,
[00:20:31.450]and only the fertilized queens survive
[00:20:34.080]to found and start new nests the following spring.
[00:20:38.270]The Washington State Department of Ag,
[00:20:40.570]they really do lead the way with the science,
[00:20:42.910]the research, the trapping and eradication protocols,
[00:20:46.240]so I would advise you if you have any questions
[00:20:50.010]about anything that I've talked about today
[00:20:52.440]to go to their website, it is really, it's really good,
[00:20:58.280]there's so many good pictures,
[00:20:59.910]and there's all their press releases,
[00:21:02.340]they've got videos, and they've got a lot of the protocols,
[00:21:05.270]anything you need to know about Asian giant hornets,
[00:21:07.980]they have it, they've really done a lot
[00:21:10.160]of partnering with scientists in Asia
[00:21:13.640]to try and stop this invasive pest.
[00:21:17.220]So in Asia, you know, they've been dealing with it
[00:21:19.510]for a long time, people don't worry about it so much,
[00:21:22.600]but in Washington State, they're definitely,
[00:21:25.670]you know, worried about it.
[00:21:26.930]So, right now, they are really focused on citizen scientists
[00:21:31.740]helping them trap for the Asian giant hornet,
[00:21:34.480]they have people that are committed to sampling weekly
[00:21:38.310]using homemade bottle traps tied to trees,
[00:21:41.660]they bake this with orange juice
[00:21:43.280]and a rice wine mixture with some alcohol in there,
[00:21:47.010]and it is thought to attract the Asian giant hornets.
[00:21:53.000]And it's homemade because they need to have
[00:21:55.970]cuts or holes in there that is big enough
[00:21:58.360]or large enough for the Asian giant hornet
[00:21:59.980]to get inside and get trapped.
[00:22:01.420]The yellowjacket traps are not big enough.
[00:22:05.070]So, and they're also committed
[00:22:06.660]to going through those samples weekly,
[00:22:08.740]straining them, rinsing them,
[00:22:10.270]and mailing, whatever they catch in their bottle traps
[00:22:13.850]back to the US, I mean, the WSDA,
[00:22:16.580]Washington State Department of Ag.
[00:22:19.000]There is also a Facebook group
[00:22:20.930]that was established to help guide
[00:22:24.680]the Washington State residents
[00:22:27.090]during this trapping phase,
[00:22:28.610]so this is really only for Washington State residents
[00:22:33.265]because we don't have them here in Nebraska,
[00:22:34.530]we wouldn't put up a trap, we would catch things
[00:22:36.930]that are not pests, and we don't need that.
[00:22:40.180]So this is only for Washington State residents
[00:22:42.560]to help out with this cause.
[00:22:45.480]Right now there's over 500 traps
[00:22:49.010]deployed in the Washington State area,
[00:22:50.730]so that's good coverage,
[00:22:52.000]and if one thing has been really good
[00:22:54.140]with all the media hype,
[00:22:55.660]it is getting the awareness out about these hornets
[00:22:59.210]and getting the help that they need to help trap.
[00:23:02.150]So the recent updates detected two separate queens
[00:23:06.425]in the spring of 2020 that were both queens,
[00:23:09.630]and so, you know, they didn't know
[00:23:11.610]if there was a nest that was established somewhere,
[00:23:16.340]but, you know, in July there was one trap catch on July 14th
[00:23:23.450]and just confirmed on July 29th to be an Asian giant hornet.
[00:23:28.930]So the first trap-caught Asian giant hornet
[00:23:31.620]was caught in Birch Bay and Washington,
[00:23:35.620]and you can see this is actually the specimen,
[00:23:39.050]so I think at this moment, it's in the lab
[00:23:41.470]trying to determine if it's a worker or a queen,
[00:23:46.360]from the press release, they thought it was a worker,
[00:23:50.310]and this is the press release here
[00:23:52.070]if you're interested in listening to it,
[00:23:54.800]they ask a lot of questions, it's the press
[00:23:56.350]asking the scientists the questions or the entomologists,
[00:23:59.720]and so if you have a question, I'm sure he answers it.
[00:24:03.170]So this worker, or this hornet here
[00:24:06.740]was found six miles from the original detection,
[00:24:10.469]and so they are now in the next stages
[00:24:13.790]of what they need to do.
[00:24:14.800]So, the Washington State Department of Ag,
[00:24:17.650]they're gonna continue to monitor
[00:24:19.060]using these bottle trap catches,
[00:24:21.000]and then they are gonna go to live trapping,
[00:24:23.510]and so when they do catch a live worker,
[00:24:26.920]they can do some things to try
[00:24:30.240]to mark and recapture it, or follow it back to the nest,
[00:24:34.090]they can outfit it with many GPS tracking systems,
[00:24:37.500]They can also try to triangulate
[00:24:40.230]and find where the nest may be using thermal detection,
[00:24:43.910]and then they will go through their eradication protocol,
[00:24:48.020]and if you're interested in that,
[00:24:49.520]the USDA website has the Asian giant hornet program,
[00:24:53.410]and it was updated just in July, so July 2020,
[00:24:57.800]and it will go through what they plan to do,
[00:25:00.010]what they plan to use,
[00:25:01.320]and all the environmental considerations involved with that.
[00:25:05.100]The deadline for the WSDA is early to mid-September,
[00:25:10.200]and because of what I said about the life cycle
[00:25:13.290]the season, it is very, there is a time crunch,
[00:25:16.350]and so they want to get to any nests
[00:25:19.130]and eradicate those before they produce males
[00:25:23.087]and queens and the mating occurs, right?
[00:25:28.150]So the safety precautions that they have to use,
[00:25:30.770]they definitely do not wanna wear beesuits
[00:25:33.330]because Asian giant hornets can sting right through them.
[00:25:35.770]so they have ordered these,
[00:25:38.160]looks like space suits from Japan.
[00:25:41.380]They're, white because it's thought
[00:25:43.790]that the darker colors make the Hornets more aggressive,
[00:25:48.150]but they're gonna do this eradication
[00:25:50.300]in the evening or the nighttime, which is safer
[00:25:53.190]because there are gonna be,
[00:25:55.530]the majority of workers are going to be in the nest,
[00:25:58.730]they're not gonna be returning back to find this happening,
[00:26:02.810]and also, at night, scientists can wear red headlamps
[00:26:08.210]or flashlights that they are unable to detect.
[00:26:13.050]But at this time, scientists will know more in the fall
[00:26:15.960]as to what the status is of infestation establishment
[00:26:19.130]so we are anxiously waiting for that,
[00:26:22.150]but they do know that the trap does work,
[00:26:25.530]so, you know, it will be interesting to see
[00:26:29.420]what happens for the rest of the year.
[00:26:32.610]But here in Nebraska, we do have a few
[00:26:34.650]Asian giant hornet lookalikes, and I do agree,
[00:26:38.010]when something's flying really fast
[00:26:40.170]or at you or hovering, it's hard to be able
[00:26:44.820]to get those identifying characteristics and say what it is.
[00:26:50.070]However, we do not have Asian giant hornets in Nebraska.
[00:26:54.360]We do have cicada killer wasps
[00:26:56.540]that are our largest wasp in Nebraska,
[00:26:59.200]and that I would say most people
[00:27:02.730]are seeing these in the summer, when the cicadas come out.
[00:27:08.840]They are not aggressive, the males do not have stingers,
[00:27:13.250]the females have all of these stinging insects
[00:27:16.860]are the ones that have the stingers.
[00:27:18.660]When you look at it, it's yellow and black,
[00:27:22.870]really bold coloring, but the yellow stripes are broken.
[00:27:27.430]And it's hard when there's not side-by-side comparison
[00:27:31.350]so you can see the difference.
[00:27:33.850]You know, the abdomen's got orange
[00:27:35.510]and black stripes that are unbroken,
[00:27:37.260]and you can see the size of the head
[00:27:39.330]is huge from the Asian giant hornet,
[00:27:41.270]and cicada killer wasps have really small heads.
[00:27:44.580]It doesn't really help
[00:27:46.320]that cicada killers nest in the ground,
[00:27:49.060]and so that is also some cause for alarm.
[00:27:51.470]Female cicada killer wasps dig burrows
[00:27:54.580]in places that have full sun and really like loose soils,
[00:27:58.380]and so one way to get rid of them,
[00:28:00.420]if you don't want them there
[00:28:01.560]is to water the soil, excessively wet it,
[00:28:05.000]and if you do need to get rid of it,
[00:28:06.720]if it's ruining the landscape or somewhere on your turf,
[00:28:09.590]then you might need to do individual treatment
[00:28:12.500]to each of those holes.
[00:28:14.520]But these are not Asian giant hornets,
[00:28:16.720]and I don't want you to go out
[00:28:18.070]and try to trap them or hurt yourself
[00:28:19.970]trying to identify them or kill them
[00:28:21.460]thinking that that's what they are.
[00:28:23.370]So, in summary, I hope that you've learned something today
[00:28:27.030]about wasps and hornets, and hopefully you can share this
[00:28:29.970]with the people you live and or work with.
[00:28:33.460]The Asian giant hornet is not coming to murder you.
[00:28:36.610]So when it comes to these hornets,
[00:28:38.990]we really just wanna stay calm,
[00:28:41.170]because there are a lot of other things to focus on.
[00:28:44.130]If you have any questions about wasps in Nebraska,
[00:28:47.670]please feel free to reach out to me.
[00:28:50.370]Here is my contact information,
[00:28:53.350]I hope you have enjoyed this,
[00:28:55.370]and that you have very wonderful virtual turf field day.
[00:29:00.990]Thank you.
[00:29:02.310](upbeat music)

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Murder Hornets and Mayhem: Simmer Down Now

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