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Scientists in South America have made a remarkable discovery just in time for the spooky season. They have identified a new species of wasp that possesses a rather macabre method of hunting and feeding. These vampiric vespids inject their larvae beneath the skin of their prey, causing a slow and agonizing demise from the inside out.

Murder hornets may have been eradicated from the United States as Washington recorded no sightings so far this year. Called Northern giant hornets, or Asian giant hornets, the insects are the largest species of hornet in the world. They are native to Asia, and an invasive species in the U.S. that poses a great risk to the native ecosystem. Scientists are not sure how the species entered the country, though some suspect they may have come from an illegal importation. The WSDA recorded new sightings of the insect over the next two years. But this year in Washington, there have...

Researchers found that giant hornets can be lured into traps using sex pheromones, according to a new study published in the journal Current Biology. Many people often refer to them as "murder hornets," but it's a sensational name that should be avoided, said study author James Nieh, professor and associate dean in the department of biological sciences at the University of California San Diego. "They are predators, but so are lions and tigers, and we don't call them murder lions," he said. Trapping the invasive insects Nieh's team created a series of traps using sex pheromones to attract male hornets....

Birds do it, bees do it—even the wasps that kill bees do it. A clever team of scientists now has an idea to use the Asian giant hornets’ horniness against them, in hopes of stopping the invasive species from decimating U.S. bee populations. They’ve identified the sex pheromones of the queen and propose trapping the hornet drones that are lured in by the pheromones. VIDeo at link............. The Asian giant hornet (Vespa mandarinia) preys on bees, and its stings are pretty painful to humans (they can kill people who are allergic to their venom). The hornets are native to Asia...

Crews found the nest after they followed a hornet that was equipped with a tracking device. WSDA was able to net and tag three hornets between Aug. 11 – Aug. 17.

The first live Asian giant "murder hornet" of 2021 has been spotted in Washington state — and it was caught in the act of living up to its name, attacking a wasp nest. Entomologists on Thursday confirmed the report of Vespa mandarinia — the world's largest hornet and a worrisome invasive species that originates from East Asia and Japan — by a person in a rural area east of the town of Blaine, south of Vancouver, British Columbia, near the Canadian border. "This hornet is exhibiting the same behavior we saw last year – attacking paper wasp nests," state entomologist...

Oregon’s Bootleg Fire, amplified by a historic draught and weeks of extreme heat, is expected to grow in the coming days as first responders are hampered by storms and strong winds. The season’s largest wildfire is so powerful, that it’s generating “fire clouds” (or pyrocumulonimbus clouds) that can spur their own hurricanes, lighting, and thunder (watch above). The possibility of “fire tornadoes” also exists. “The fire is so large and generating so much energy and extreme heat that it’s changing the weather,” said Marcus Kauffman, a spokesman for the state forestry department. “Normally the weather predicts what the fire will...

Asian giant hornets, or “murder hornets” as many came to know them, suffered a setback in their quest to make a new home for themselves in North America when Washington State entomologists found and destroyed a hive full of the massive stinging insects last month. After closely examining the nest, which was located in a tree hollow, officials say they’ve counted roughly 500 hornets, according to a statement. Some 200 of those individual insects were likely queens, Sven-Erik Spichiger, managing entomologist at the Washington State Department of Agriculture (WSDA), said in a news conference last week. If Spichiger and his...

After months of searching, in October scientists located and destroyed the first nest of giant 'murder hornets' ever discovered in the US, eradicating a hidden enclave of the invasive insects concealed in a tree in Washington State, close to the Canadian border. While the discovery and elimination of the nest is considered a victory by state and federal authorities – who are striving to prevent the Asian giant hornet from establishing a foothold in North America – a post-mortem of the hornets' former home provides a sobering perspective on the scale of the bug threat we're up against. After tracking...

Murder hornets from the first nest discovered on US soil have been successfully sucked out of a tree cavity and placed on ice after experts located the nest in Washington state this week by attaching radio trackers to the bugs. The so-called murder hornets, known for their potentially fatal sting to humans and their ability to wipe out an entire bee hive in a matter of hours, were vacuumed out of the tree into a long plastic tube before being killed, marking the culmination of a complex removal process Saturday morning.

Agricultural officials confirm 3 new sightings of Asian giant hornets in Blaine Officials confirmed three new sightings of Asian giant hornets in Whatcom County, increasing to 12 the number that have been reported there. BLAINE, Wash. - Officials confirmed three new sightings of Asian giant hornets in Whatcom County, increasing to 12 the number that have been reported there. The Bellingham Herald reports the total represents the first sightings of the hornets in Washington state and the U.S. since they were first spotted in Whatcom in 2019. All three recent sightings were found near Burk Road, southeast of Blaine, in...

As the US grapples with the world's worst coronavirus outbreak, a new threat is emerging as Asian giant hornets – known as “murder hornets” due to their lethal sting to humans – are gaining a foothold in the country. After they were first found in Washington State in May this year, the 2-inch (5cm)-long hornets have now been trapped for the first time – giving officials an indication – firstly that their traps work, and secondly of where nests could be situated. Now authorities in Washington State have until mid-September to try and eradicate the invasive species before the breeding...

It feels like we skipped the Murder Hornets.

For a while there, we were convinced that we’d discovered the next great plague of 2020 after the novel coronavirus. We were told that the Asian Murder Hornets had arrived in North America and they were going to finish wiping out the honeybees and potentially a number of us as well. But was it all just a bunch of hype designed to generate hilarious memes on social media? That’s the opinion of at least some entomologists. These alleged “bug experts” are telling the Washington Examiner that the insects aren’t really murderous and they’re “just another type of hornet.” While...

Giant murder hornets? As Joe Biden might say, c’mon man! Meanwhile, this, from The Week cheers my heart: “California highway police say that while overall traffic levels are down 35 percent this year because of a stay-at-home order, the number of speeding tickets for driving more than 100 mph has increased by 87 percent, with one motorist caught doing 165 mph. Commissioner Warren Stanley warned that higher speeds can ‘significantly increase the chance of death should a crash occur.” Rest easy Power Line readers: They haven’t caught me yet. Also, let us give a nod to the astrological signs aligning...