Murder Hornets Invade North America, Europe (Updated)

The "murder hornet" is the Asian giant hornet
Photo Credit: Unknown

The Asian giant hornets (AGH) are only now beginning their foray into North America.

UPDATE: Texas governor requests formation of a task force to prepare for AGH invasion.

They've already established a beachhead in Europe. "Murder hornets" have been in Britain since 2016. Before Britain, the murder hornets also invaded Spain (2010), Portugal and Belgium (2011), Italy (2012), and Germany (2014).

Twitter was freaked out by screaming click-bait tweets about "Murder Hornets," winged stinging devils from Hell itself, reeking of sulfur. But seriously, these little monsters are actually no laughing matter. They're just as scary as some people would have you think. So, just what are these so-called "Murder Hornets?"

Adult cicada killer wasp hauling its cicada prey.

Photo by Steven Kritchen, Bugguide.net

A brief note about those huge wasps we see in Texas: They are NOT "murder hornets." They're the "cicada killer wasp" (Sphecius speciosus). Texas A&M says that "Although female cicada killers can sting, they usually ignore people and are rarely aggressive. On the other hand, males are often territorial and may act aggressively. Here’s the deal though. Males don’t possess stingers and are completely harmless." I see them in Houston. They're impressive but not threatening.

"Murder hornets" are better known as "Asian giant hornets." Their venomous sting can kill humans. It is Vespa mandarinia, the world's largest hornet species. They are native to Southeast Asia and they prey on other critters. Their favorite prey is bees. One sting is enough to a human allergic to their venom, but several stings can kill a non-allergic person. Imagine tiny striped rattlesnakes with wings and a penchant for mayhem. That's what "murder hornets" are like.

According to the New York Times, it's also "known as the yak-killer hornet, the commander wasp in Korea and the tiger head bee in Taiwan, according to experts." The NYT quoted May Berenbaum, the head of the entomology department at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign: "You want to talk about beepocalypse...They are sworn enemies of honey bees. I would say a bee’s worst nightmare. Probably the worst nightmare of a lot of people, too."

For the moment, the state of Washington is the only part of the U.S. that Asian giant hornets are know to have established themselves. Take no comfort in that, however.  It’s just a matter of time before the “murder hornet’’ gets to the East Coast, experts warned The Post on Sunday.

India's Deadly Open Wells

Villagers lower a ladder to a leopard trapped in a well.
Photo: Caters News Agency

A leopard was recently rescued by villagers in Dhundi, a village in central India near Satpura Tiger Reserve in Madhya Pradesh. The story, with video, immediately went viral on Monday, June 4. It's a heartwarming story of human kindness.

But it is also a story about human carelessness. Far too often, leopards and other animals fall into vast, open wells. The lucky ones are rescued. "Another leopard was also rescued from a well using the same technique last month, after it had fallen into a well" near the same tiger reserve, reports The Daily Mail.

In May, Times Of India reported that, "An adult male leopard, estimated to be 4-5 years old, was rescued from a partially full well at Tudal, Gaondongorim, by range forest staff on Saturday."

In another report, in April, the Times reported that, "A five-year-old leopard, which fell into a 15m deep well was rescued on Saturday morning by forest officials. The leopard fell into the well while chasing a dog."

Caught On Camera! Chicago Couple Gets Busy On Public Sidewalk

SHOCKING PHOTOS BELOW:
August 12, 2012 - Chicago - The shameless act of two Rogers Park residents was caught on camera yesterday afternoon. It was a beautiful, sunny day in the Rogers Park neighborhood on Chicago's north side. I walked along the quiet 1000 block of W. Pratt Avenue, nestled between N. Sheridan Road and Lake Michigan.

Unexpectedly, I ran into a couple making love on the sidewalk, in full view of everyone. Children were nearby, and these two love bugs were completely uninhibited. They were aware of me, I believe, but continued their lustful act even as I knelt just inches away from them, camera in hand. This was the hottest cicada on cicada action I've ever witnessed.

I'm fairly certain that these were the Tibicen linnei species. One was approximately 1.5 inches long from "nose" to the back end of its wings. The other (the female?) was a bit shorter. Both of them were completely naked, naturally, as they exchanged bodily fluids and empty promises to love each other forever and ever. 

For those of you who thought you going to see a naked couple of humans getting busy, shame on you.

And here's a note to the imbeciles at Google AdSense: You're blocking ads on this blog for a damned post about insect mating, you morons.


Click on images to make them bigger:

Videos of Metrodome Roof Collapse, Inside and Outside

December 12, 2010 - Two spectacular videos to watch. It's fortunate that nobody was hurt when heavy snow in Minneapolis caused the roof of the Metrodome stadium to fall apart at around 5:00 a.m. today. Below, the first video shows a view of the collapse from outside. The second one shows the collapse inside the Metrodome.

More CO2 From Planes? Or Iceland's Volcano?

That troublesome volcano in Iceland, Mount Eyjafjallajoekull, has virtually crippled air travel in much of Europe. The enormous amounts of volcanic dust and ash is dangerous to jet engines. That, however, is not all that spews out of a volcano. Gigundo amounts of gases, including carbon dioxide (CO2), also come out.

This ingenius graph shows just how ridiculous Al Gore and his CO2-phobic followers really are. We found it at Information Is Beautiful.net. (Click to enlarge)

The European aviation industry alone puts out far more CO2 per day than Eyjafjallajoekull currently puts out. You can find the supporting data sheet here. 

But, you may say, doesn't this prove that we're right to be concerned about human contribution to CO2 in the atmosphere?

Actually, it shows just how much a single, relatively small volcano puts out in a short amount of time. That's one volcano. It's Nature. Now think of all of the other active volcanos farting out CO2, not to mention the trillions of plant and animal organisms doing the same thing 24/7, as they have for billions of years and will continue to do long after we've left the planet. (Gotcha.)

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Exclusive Interview With Wisconsin Meteor Professor

APRIL 16, 2010 - by Tom Mannis - PROFESSOR JOHN VALLEY IS HAVING A VERY GOOD WEEK. First, the skies over Southern Wisconsin were lit up Wednesday night by a very bright and apparently rather large meteor. The following morning, Prof. Valley and his colleagues at the University of Wisconsin-Madison's Department of Geoscience received a gift from the heavens. Literally.

As Prof. Valley told Chicago News Bench this afternoon, "a land owner" personally delivered and donated a "peanut-sized" piece of that meteor to them the on Thursday morning. Pieces of meteors are called meteorites, and Prof. Valley seems 99.99 percent convinced that this is the real thing.

The land owner told Prof. Valley that he heard the meteorite strike his roof on Wednesday night. Although the object is only "7.5 grams, about the size of a peanut in the shell," is was moving at high speed. Additionally, there may well have been other pieces of the same meteor falling on the roof at the same moment.

The land owner wishes to remain anonymous, and Prof. Valley would not even say whether or not the person was a farmer (but he did refer to the land owner as "he" and "him"). The land is near Livingston, Wisconsin (map).

What makes Prof. Valley so certain that this meteorite comes from the Wednesday evening meteor is its pristine condition. "Weathering, like rusting, was virtually non-existent on this meteorite," he told CNB.

He explained that meteors traveling through space are constantly bathed in cosmic rays (fast positive ions), which impart short-lived radioactivity to the space rocks. Once a meteor is inside of the Earth's protective Inner Radiation Belt, and then within our atmosphere, a meteor stops being irradiated by cosmic rays. Scientists can tell how long a meteorite has been on our planet by its "exposure age," Prof. Valley said, "which is a half-life meausurement of trace amounts of short-lived radioactivity imparted by cosmic rays." The radiation from the meteorites is not enough to be dangerous to humans.

Researchers from the University of Wisconsin and other institutions are in a rush to comb the Southern Wisconsin countryside for more meteorites from Wednesday night's event. Prof. Valley said that "it's a time sensitive process," because growing vegetation, flooding and other factors can quickly make it more difficult to find the little objects.

If you are interested in looking for meteorits, you should know that it's illegal to trespass on private property or to take anything off of somebody's land without permission. That includes rocks, even if they came from outer space. Prof. Valley said that he and his colleagues always execute "a contract and/or monetary payment" with a land owner when it comes to searching for meteorites on private property.

Meteorites sell on the open market by the gram and can be quite valuable. Price can vary greatly depending on the type of meteorite and its composition. Meteorites from Mars, for example, are the most valuable and also the rarest. "I encourage to bring it to knowledgeable experts before they sell it," said Prof. Valley.

Prof. Valley said that his department has received calls from other people in Southern Wisconsin who think they might have a meteorite from the Wednesday night fireball. He did not say whether they offered to donate the meteorites or merely have them appraised.

RELATED:
UW Has Meteorite Fragment
Meteorite Found in Wisconsin
Videos of the Midwest Fireball...
The Inner Radiation Belt
Meteoroids and Meteorites
How do you know if it's a meteorite?

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Videos of the Midwest Fireball (Updated)

Great balls of fire! What was that bright light streaking through the Midwestern skies on the night of Wednesday, April 14? It was a meteor, and it was captured by Milwaukee's WISN Channel 12's weather camera at 9:24 p.m. CST (see it here). On April 16, it is being reported that pieces (meteorites) of the meteor that lit up the sky are being found in SW Wisconsin between Avoca and Platteville (Duluth News Tribune).  UPDATE: Exclusive Interview With Wisconsin Meteor Professor - Land owner finds and donates meteorite to University of Wisconsin-Madison.







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The Great Outdoors!

Ah, this is the life. Drag half of your furniture, the baby and a bunch of crap to the park, drop litter all around you, light up a smoky fire and slap some kind of meat on the grill. Would it be easier to stay home? Sure, but then you wouldn't be outdoors, enjoying all that fresh, smoky air!

One Classy Beach

These photos were taken around 6:30 a.m. on June 24. Let's see, we have a tent person in Katy Hogan's bird sanctuary. We have a chair set up under a tree, which is reminiscent of a couch in somebody's front yard. We have an a cucina set up in the park, complete with leftover, rotting fruit. Man, this is one classy beach.

Transient Cougars as Colonizers

Did the Chicago cougar, shot this week in Roscoe Village, come from Wisconsin or the Black Hills? Was it a potential colonizer? Maybe; they're still trying to figure it out.
It was probably not a Wisconsin native. Cougars no longer live in Wisconsin. They are sometimes seen there, however, says the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources (WDNR) on their web site.

The big cats get around. Sometimes it's because they are displaced by development, sometimes they are in search of a mate. Like wolves, they are territorial and sometimes drive members of their own species out of an area to protect their own hunting ground. And sometimes, no doubt, a big cat just gets lost.

The Daily Chronicle reports that a wildlife supervisor for the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources "had been tracking a cougar sighting in his state. A Wisconsin resident encountered a cougar in the second story of their barn." Although the Wisconsin DNR says cougars no longer inhabit Wisconsin, they also say that cougars are sighted in the state from time to time. Those cougars, it is believed, roam in from other areas such as Canada or Wyoming.

The Wisconsin DNR web site says this: "Cougars (Puma concolor) also known as puma, mountain lion, panther, catamount, American lion, and mishibijn (Ojibwa), once roamed throughout the state of Wisconsin. It was one of three wild cats native to the state, along with the bobcat (Lynx rufus) and the Canada lynx (Lynx canadensis). Currently bobcats are the only known breeding wild cat in the state..." The web site also has an interesting map of recent - very recent - cougar sightings.

The Chicago Tribune reported that "wildlife officials say that a DNA test should reveal whether a cougar killed Monday in Chicago took a 1,000-mile trip from the Black Hills of South Dakota through Wisconsin before being shot by police in the Roscoe Village neighborhood."

A thousand miles is not really that far, if you think about it. Walking at 3 miles per hour, for 12 hours a day, a human could travel 1,000 miles in 666 days. A healthy cougar would move more quickly, and could easily traverse the distance in about a year. So yes, the cougar could very well have walked here from South Dakota.

An interesting paper (3 pages, .pdf) from 2005, titled "Long-Distance Dispersal by a Subadult Male Cougar From the Black Hills, South Dakota" supports my assertion:

The dispersal reported ... indicates that cougars from western populations have the ability to make long-distance movements over relatively short periods to the south and east. Thus, managers in these regions will need to verify sightings of cougars, not only to address questions from their constituents and media contacts, but also to determine whether they represent potential colonizers of vacant habitat. FULL PAPER at South Dakota State University...

Whoa! "POTENTIAL COLONIZERS of vacant habitat." In other words, cougars leave the area they were born in, then go out to conquer the world. Literally. Think about that. There are hundreds of thousands of square miles of "vacant habitat."

The total land area of Wisconsin, our neighbor to the north, is 54,314 square miles. Illinois has 55,593 square miles of land area. That's over 100,000 square miles in just these two states, and a heck of a lot of it would be considered as "vacant habitat" by cougars. With plenty of deer, rabbit and other tasty critters to feed on, cougars would have no difficulty in re-colonizing remote or sparsely populated areas of Wisconsin, Illinois, or any other state.

The Bench's advice: Carry copious amounts of catnip just in case you run into a colonizer.

Ten Senseless Murders

Good stuff here, showing how stupidly far animal lovers can go in their self induced insanity. Michael Greenwell notes: Germany’s celebrity polar bear Knut has triggered a new controversy by fishing out 10 live carp from his moat and killing them in front of visitors. Oh, the horror! A carnivore that kills other animals! You mean, polar bears are not just like the shitty Disney movies that have brainwashed millions of kids? Disney portrays killer animals as cute plush toys, so kids get a false impression. In reality, bears brutally kill other cute animals for food. Nothing wrong with that, it's Nature at work. It is the order of things. Don't believe it, city slicker? Watch the video below. Greenwell goes on: There is speculation that hand-reared Knut killed the carp just for fun. First of all, I don’t find it particularly shocking that a polar bear killed something, do you? I know I don't. It's what carnivores do. They kill. They eat what they kill. Duh. Greenwell himself goes in for the kill: Third, making the thing a celebrity means that once the public falls out of love with it it has alcohol addiction, the Betty Ford clinic and the inevitable comeback tour to come. But the story goes on… The Frankfurter Allgemeine news website reports that Knut “senselessly murdered the carp”, fishing them out, playing with them and then leaving the remains. Have the idiots at the Frankfurter Allgemeine never watched a cat play with a mouse or a moth? Cats, like bears and other carnivores, kill. The more intelligent carnivores, such as cats, bears, dogs, wolves, make sport of their kills. So, in that regard, they have something in common with humans, which are the most sporting of all carnivores. WARNING: THIS VIDEO SHOWS A CUTE POLAR BEAR KILLING A CUTE WALRUS. DO NOT WATCH IT IF YOU'RE A WEAK-KNEED LIBERAL.

Whale of a Tale

This is amazing. A living, breathing bowhead whale was captured last month, and researchers believe the creature is at least 115 years old. How do they know this? (CBS) BOSTON - A 50-ton bowhead whale caught off the Alaskan coast last month had a weapon fragment embedded in its neck that showed it survived a similar hunt - more than a century ago. Embedded deep under its blubber was a 3 1/2-inch arrow-shaped projectile that has given researchers insight into the whale's age, estimated between 115 and 130 years old. FULL STORY... RELATED: How Old Is A Whale?

Colony Collapse Disorder

No, this is not a story about the British Empire of yore. It is the story of a much larger colony, many colonies, actually. Honeybees are disappearing in the millions around the U.S. and other parts of the world. Bee keepers are panicking; some have been forced out of business. Imagine a cattle rancher whose entire herd has suddenly disappeared without a trace, and that is what bee keepers are experiencing. Roughly one fourth of our domestic agricultural crop is completely dependent upon honeybees for polination; without their assistance, those crops cannot reproduce. No, we're not going to starve because of this (Einstein was wrong), but if the problem is not solved it will cause tremendous damage to agriculture and local economies. The following article sums it up well. Colony Collapse Disorder KELOLAND TV, SD - May 23, 2007 - CCD or colony collapse disorder is what scientists say is killing tens of millions of bees in the U.S. ... CCD or colony collapse disorder is what scientists say is killing tens of millions of bees in the US. Since the discovery of CCD, Adee says he has lost a few colonies but nowhere near the number of losses many other beekeepers are dealing with. And if you don't think CCD will affect you, think again. Sooner or later consumers will feel the sting of fewer bees at the grocery store. Adee says, "And that's why Congress is so concerned. Ninety crops depend on bee pollination. One bite out of every three we eat comes from bee pollinated crops." FULL ARTICLE... Fungus a possible culprit in bee loss Are mobile phones wiping out the bees? French Beekeepers Brace for Asian Sting

Bee-zarre

There bee a current mystery in many parts of the world: Where have the bees gone? Honey bees have been abandoning their hives in the millions, and experts are mystified. But stories abound about swarms of bees around the world wreaking havoc and mischief. Recently there was a swarm of bumble bees that forced an airplane to make an emergency landing. Where did those bees come from? LONDON (Reuters) - A passenger plane was forced to land after flying into a swarm of British bees Thursday....Huge clouds of bees have been seen around Bournemouth over the past few days, a spokeswoman said. FULL STORY... According to the EarthTimes, "A swarm of bumblebees forced a British passenger jet to turn back to base, delaying for 11 hours some 200 holidaymakers on their way to Faro, southern Portugal, the charter airline said Friday." MORE... RELATED: Aggressive bees take over Texas street Mick Jagger reportedly used bees to enlarge manhood Mystery ailment kills 30% of Alberta bees Beekeepers attribute winter losses to whims of weather, not disease Bees disappearing in northwest regions of Iran

Where Are Chicago's Cicadas?

They're here, but not everywhere quite yet. The suburban areas are getting them before those of us in the city. Here on Chicago's far north side in Rogers Park, I haven't seen or heard a single cicada to date. But the Chicago Tribune has a fun and informative article about the bugs' progress. Perhaps the invasion will happen on Memorial Day?

Understanding the Invasion

"Cicada Facts: Understanding the Invasion" from National Geographic is a very cool article that gives facts and photos about the billions of bugs that are about to emerge from the ground all around us.

However, it's not really an "invasion" as National Geographic calls it. The periodical (17-year) cicadas laid their eggs 17 years ago. Sixteen years and 51 weeks ago, they hatched. For 17 years the immature cicadas have lived underground, drawing nourishment from tree roots. They have always been here, they never went away, and so in a real sense they are not even returning. (If a human baby was born and raised in the same neighborhood, and at 16 she had a "coming out" party, would you say she is "invading" the neighborhood? No, of course not.)

So, not "welcome back," but "welcome to maturity" would be more correct for the cicadas now crawling out of the ground in Illinois and most of the Midwest. Buy that cicada a beer.

Have fun, little crawlies. You only have 2-6 weeks to find a mate, get busy and lay your eggs. If the birds, squirrels, dogs, cats, and I don't eat you first, that is. According to National Geographic, "Cicadas are said to make good eating because they are low in fat and high in protein. They are considered a delicacy by many people around the world." Yum.

Hunting Cicadas

Any moment now, Chicago will literally be abuzz with tens of millions of cicadas. The 17 year cicada should come out of the ground this week, if predictions and conditions are right.

For more information about the tasty bugs, check out Hunting for Periodical Cicadas in 2007.

New Madrid: It's Our Fault

In 1811, an earthquake struck near St. Louis. It was so powerful that it altered the course of the Mississippi River - and rang church bells in Boston. Scientists have finally figured out what might have caused a series of devastating earthquakes that struck the Midwest nearly 200 years ago at a set of faults that has confused geologists for a long time. Now, Allessandro Forte of the Université du Québec à Montréal and his colleagues have arrived at a more dramatic mechanism—an ancient, giant slab of Earth called the Farallon slab that started its descent under the West Coast 70 million years ago and now is causing mayhem and deep mantle flow 360 miles beneath the Mississippi Valley where it effectively pulls the crust down an entire kilometer (.62 miles). "This remarkable localization of flow in the mantle below New Madrid, originating so deep below the surface, was completely unrecognized prior to our work," Forte told LiveScience. FULL ARTICLE at LIVESCIENCE... RELATED: In the winter of 1811-12, the central Mississippi Valley was struck by three of the most powerful earthquakes in U.S. history. Even today, this region has more earthquakes than any other part of the United States east of the Rocky Mountains. Government agencies, universities, and private organizations are working to increase awareness of the earthquake threat and to reduce loss of life and property in future shocks. The 400 terrified residents in the town of New Madrid (Missouri) were abruptly awakened by violent shaking and a tremendous roar. It was December 16, 1811, and a powerful earthquake had just struck. This was the first of three magnitude-8 earthquakes and thousands of aftershocks to rock the region that winter. FULL ARTICLE from U.S. GEOLOGICAL SURVEY...

Honey Bee Crisis: A Global Mystery

An excellent report about the mysterious disappearance of honey bees by science reporter Linda Moulton Howe. This is a problem not only in the United States, by the way. This is happening in other parts of the world, and nobody yet knows the cause or the solution. Here is an excerpt from Linda Moulton Howe's report:

"So far, there are still no answers, but there is a long list of possibilities, which include pesticides and genetically modified crops, also known as GMOs or GMs. Scientists say there is no direct evidence that genetically modified crops are linked to honey bee die-offs. But I have been learning that not much is known about the accumulating impact of pesticides on insects, animals and even people when you consider in this modern world how many combinations of pesticides are used. One pesticide by itself might not destroy honey bees. But what happens when farmers spray herbicides, fungicides, insecticides and rodenticides on land that also has genetically modified crops with pesticides built-in?"

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