Killer killer wasps to the USA - A beekeeper's nightmare

The fact that Asian giant wasps are found in the United States raises concerns that they may breed and kill native colonies.

Mr. Ted McFall saw a pile of bees on the ground from a truck window when he went to inspect the hives he raised near Custer, Washington, USA in November.

As he got closer, Mr. McFall saw more and more bees inside the nest. Thousands of bees had their heads cut and no culprits were found.

For decades as a beekeeper, Mr. Ted McFall has never seen anything like it.

Bees lose their head in Ted McFall's bees. (Photo: New York Times).

Jaws shaped like shark jaws

'I don't know what causes this, ' McFall told the New York Times. Only later did he suspect the culprit was what some researchers called a 'killer wasps'.

For queen bees up to 5 cm long, Asian giant hornets can use jaws shaped like shark jaws to wipe out a hive in a few hours. They cut off the heads of bees and carry the stalks to feed the young.

It also has strong venom and stinger long enough to puncture bee protective gear. Their stings are often described by victims as hot metal.

In Japan, these wasps kill up to 50 people each year. And now, they have come to America.

Dangerous alien creatures

Mr. McFall is still not sure that the giant Asian wasps are the culprit. But last fall, two wasps were discovered in the northwestern state of Washington, a few kilometers from Mr. McFall's bee farm. This is the first time these bees have been discovered in the US.

Since then, scientists have started hunting these bees out of fear that the alien species could destroy the population of bees in the United States and reproduce so much that they cannot be eradicated.

'This is an opportunity for us to stop them from starting to reproduce , ' said Chris Looney, an entomologist at Washington State Department of Agriculture. ' If we don't do it in the next few years, this will not be possible anymore.'

Chris Looney placed the body of a giant Asian wasp on his coat to show its size. (Photo: New York Times).

One early morning in December, 4 km north of McFall's bee farm, Jeff Kornelis spotted a strange bee under the porch. 'It's the biggest wasp I've ever seen,' he told the New York Times.

The bee was dead, and after review, Mr. Kornelis had a hunch that it might have been an Asian giant wasp. This seems absurd considering the geography of Mr. Kornelis. However, he watched an episode of this bee on YouTube.

In addition to its unusual size, this wasp has a distinctive appearance. It has teardrop-shaped eyes like a 'spiderman' character , orange and black stripes along the tiger-like body, and wings like little dragonflies.

Mr. Kornelis contacted the state government and confirmed that it was indeed a giant Asian wasps. Soon after, they learned that a beekeeper in the area had found a similar bee.

Washington state clearly faces a serious problem. However, with only two bees and the coming winter, it is almost impossible to determine how many Asian wasps have reproduced here.

A number of giant Asian wasps were also discovered on the border with Canada, causing increasing confusion.

Hunt down giant Asian wasps

In November, an Asian wasp was discovered in White Rock, British Columbia, Canada, about 16 km from where it was discovered in Washington. This is far enough for the bees to belong to the same colony.

Even before that, a wasps honeycomb was discovered on Vancouver Island, Canada. This place is too wide a strait for a wasp to fly from the mainland.

Mr. Conrad Bérubé, a beekeeper and entomologist in the town of Nanaimo, Vancouver Island, is tasked with destroying the hornets of the wasp here.

Mr. Looney held a homemade bee trap and was about to bring it to the tree in Blaine. (Photo: New York Times).

Mr. Bérubé wears protective gear and leaves at night, when the wasps return to their nests. But when he got close to the hive, his noises and flashlights woke the hives of bees before he could fuse them with carbon dioxide. And that was when he felt the first injection.

'It was like having red hot nails stabbing into my flesh , ' Mr. Bérubé told the New York Times. He was injected at least seven times, some of which were still bleeding.

Jun-ichi Takahashi, a researcher at Kyoto Sangyo University in Japan, said the bee was nicknamed 'killer wasps' because its flock attacks could be injected into the victim. the amount of venom equivalent to a poisonous and deadly snake.

That night, Mr. Bérubé removed the hive and sampled. But the next day, his leg ached as if he had the flu. Of the thousands of injections at work, the giant Asian wasp sting was the most painful, Bérubé said.

Officials in Blaine, USA, sent a portion of the leg of the bee sample found here and transferred it to a specialist in Japan. Specimens from the hive in Nanaimo, Canada were also sent.

Genetic test results show that bees in Nanaimo and in Blaine are not related to each other. This means that there are at least two colonies of bees in the area, said Telissa Wilson, a pest biologist.

Recently, Mr. Looney placed transparent bottles made into bee traps in Blaine. The bee trap sold in the market is too small for the Asian giant wasp.

He poured some orange juice mixed with rice wine into the traps. Others mix milk kefir with water and some experimental lures. They hope to catch a queen bee looking for a place to build a nest.

The body of a giant Asian wasps. (Photo: New York Times).

Mr. Looney hangs them from a tree and marks each location on his phone.

In an area where bees can nest in places like this, the task of finding and removing them is very difficult. How to find a honeycomb that can hide underground? And where to find them when queen bees can fly many kilometers a day, at speeds up to 32km / h?

Mr. Looney said he and others plan to place hundreds more traps in the coming months. State officials also outlined a plan to set the trap starting from Blaine out.

Working inside a giant Asian wasp honeycomb can cause the internal temperature to reach 30 degrees Celsius. Therefore, they are also exploring the use of thermal imaging to examine the forest floor. Then, they can also try other advanced tools to track the humming of the wasps when flying.

If a wasp gets trapped, Mr. Looney plans to attach radio frequency identification tags to track it or just attach a small transmitter and then follow the wasp when it returns to the nest.

Most bees will not be able to fly when the transmitter is attached. However, this is not a problem. Asian giant wasps are large enough to fly with these.

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