[FRIAM] Kill it!

Tue Aug 24 22:29:04 EDT 2021

As far as the Japanese Hornets go, they hang in packs of 17 or so, send out
scouts to find honeybee hives, attack the hives and behead all the bees.
All.   If you are unlucky enough to encounter and kill one, it releases a
hormone that draws all it's compatriots to you.  They will not be pleased,
and you can't outrun them.

I got stung by one once.  Sort of like a nail through the hand, (I
imagine).   Another time there were several gnawing on the aluminum window
in the bathroom where I was lodging (perhaps it was simply some sort of
recreation for them).   It was a scary sound.  They were making progress.
I departed.

Do not kill *one*.

Note: Some beehives have a defense, they clump around the scout in a
buzzing ball, and though many in the ball lose their heads, collectively
they raise the temperature of the hornet scout and "cook" it.   It doesn't
release enough pheromone such that the other hornets follow up.

On Tue, Aug 24, 2021 at 5:40 PM Steve Smith <sasmyth at swcp.com> wrote:

>
> On 8/24/21 9:05 AM, uǝlƃ ☤>$ wrote:
> > I'm definitely rooting for the Murder Hornets! Little wimpy bugs need
> someone to teach them what it means to be a real bug. These hipster bugs in
> the PacNW are a bit sad ... kinda like the self-conscious nerds so popular
> in movies and TV lately ... Woody Allen destroyed masculinity. Those bugs
> in TX and NM, now; those are real bugs ... respectable bugs ... bugs you
> wanna sit down and quaff a Bud Light with. Apparently, China's doing
> something right to grow such macho bugs.
>
> My first reaction to the subject line is one of my favorite parody
> attributions to redneck culture:  "it's Diffr'nt, kill it!" but then I
> read the content and realized it was more apropos than I expected.
>
> I believe that something like "xenophobia" is an adaptive response in
> many contexts...  we have some pretty deep instincts it seems that let
> us know to be "askeered" of "spiders and snakes" even if we'd never seen
> another ape respond that way.  My dog has always been very (properly)
> fearful of snakes...  otherwise her natural curious aggression would
> have had her dead-by-snakebite long ago...   she went crazy everytime
> she saw a rattlesnake but always barked crazily from a good 6-10 feet
> away.   She never alerted to a non-rattler that I knew of.    And in the
> arms race of survival, it is natural that some "skeery" things will
> camoflauge as benign or friendly or cute.
>
> I am always a little nervous when large movements (especially gubbm'nt
> supported ) try to tap those instincts.  It seems like a bad precedent
> to encourage formalized xenophobia even against helpless insects.   The
> Charlottesville (and too many other) white-nationalists chanting "jews
> will not replace us" and all of Trump's fear-mongering are obvious (and
> ugly), but aspects of the B(lack) L(ives) M(atter) movement that perhaps
> overstated police culpability (in general not in specific cases), and
> Hillary's unfortunate election-forfieting statement calling Trump
> supporters "deplorables" (plenty of them were, but the brush was too
> broad and there was probably at least some backlash turnout over that
> one).  Her "superpredator" comments, etc. in the 90's are another
> example.
>
> As for me, I have a nicely expanding set of stands of what is know
> locally as "Guaco" (critical to the black on black pottery process) in
> the pueblo nearby but more commonly known as "beeweed" among anglos...
> it turns out to be a particularly attractive nectar source for the
> Tarantula Hawk (or Tarantula Wasp), a big ole blue-black  beast that
> looks like it could stun you with a sting and drag you to it's
> underground lair where it would insert it's fertilized eggs into your
> abdomen to hatch and thrive until the larva are ready to emerge and
> pupate ultimately into more giant scary wasps.   The thing is, this is
> exactly what they do, but only with Tarantulae (and perhaps other large
> spiders?) but can hardly be induced to sting anything else (I think
> there is a YouTube Steve-Irwin wannabe who succeeded in getting one to
> sting him on camera, but while painful it was not acutely life or limb
> threatening).  There are as many as a dozen or more of these wasps (and
> occasionally a few other pollinating insects) hanging around them.   I
> approach them relatively casually but even when I drive up within a few
> feet on my way into the driveway or run my weedwhip into the ragweed
> surrounding the stand, they take no interest in  me.   I suppose if I
> were to violently attack them, they *might* respond in some offensive
> way, but most indications are, they reserve their sting for immobilizing
> their Tarantula baby-incubators.   My immediate neighbors have lots of
> loud yard-grooming equipment and a whole shed full of pesticides and
> herbicides they run around  spraying on everything in their yard, and
> while "beeweed" would never survive a week in their yard, I think they
> would be out machine-gunning these elegant (though menacing looking)
> wasps if they saw one.   FWIW I have not seen a Tarantula at this
> location in the 2 decades I've lived her, I guess the wasps feed in my
> yard and reproduce elsewhere.
>
> My bottom line is that xenophobia is first-order adaptive, but humans
> need not be first-order (only) creatures.  We *can* think past our
> initial reactions or herd-hysteria if we choose to.  Or not.
>
> >
> > On 8/24/21 7:57 AM, Marcus Daniels wrote:
> >> And wouldn’t you know it is from C H I N A!
> >>
> >>> On Aug 24, 2021, at 7:54 AM, thompnickson2 at gmail.com wrote:
> >>>
> >>> Those big wasps you got out there in the NW, they're kind of pretty
> to.  Shall I root for those?
> >>>
> >>> Nick Thompson
> >>> ThompNickSon2 at gmail.com
> >>> https://wordpress.clarku.edu/nthompson/
> >>>
> >>> -----Original Message-----
> >>> From: Friam <friam-bounces at redfish.com> On Behalf Of u?l? ?>$
> >>> Sent: Tuesday, August 24, 2021 10:45 AM
> >>> To: FriAM <friam at redfish.com>
> >>> Subject: [FRIAM] Kill it!
> >>>
> >>>
> >>> ‘Kill it!’ US officials advise no mercy for lanternfly summer invasion
> https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/aug/24/pennsylvania-lanternfly-summer-invasion
> >>>
> >>> Am I so wrong to root for the bad guy? ... such a good lookin' bug.
>
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