They are not `murder hornets.' They are just hornets,” said Washington Agriculture Department entomologist Chris Looney, who is working on the state's search for these large hornets.
The facts are, experts said, two dead hornets were found in Washington last December, a lone Canadian live nest was found and wiped out last September and no live hornets have yet been seen this year.
Looney has a message for Americans: These hornets are not coming to get you. “The number of people who are stung and have to seek medical attention is incredibly small,” he said in an interview.
While its nickname exaggerates the human health threat, experts said this hornet is especially big - two inches long,- so it does carry more and stronger toxin.
“It's a really nasty sting for humans,” said University of Georgia bee expert Keith Delaplane. “It's like the Africanized bee... A dozen (stings) you are OK; 100 not so much.”
University of Illinois entomologist May Berenbaum said of the worry: “People are afraid of the wrong thing. The scariest insect out there are mosquitoes. People don't think twice about them. If anyone's a murder insect, it would be a mosquito.”
Mosquitoes are responsible for millions of yearly deaths worldwide from malaria, dengue fever and other diseases, according to the World Health Organization. Asian giant hornets at most kill a few dozen people a year and some experts said it's probably far less.
Hornet, wasp and bee stings kill on average 62 people a year in the United States, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
In Japan, Korea and China, “people have co-existed with this hornet for thousands of years,” said Doug Yanega, senior scientist at the University of California Riverside Entomology Research Museum.
The Following User Says Thank You to Ryan Coke For This Useful Post:
Durability of the strings is the only question Badminton strings might actually be thin enough to slice the hornets and kill them. Tennis is too thick and all you'll do is hit the hornet a distance and piss it off. It's not like you're intending to constantly smashing the racquet body into solid objects... are you?
I know this because I've done this on yellow jackets before. The badminton racket shredded the wasp's body so it died.
The wasp survived the tennis racquet. The wasp bounced off the tennis racquet with a dull plunk sound. The wasp was launched into a wall and was stunned for about 10-20 seconds before starting to move again. No idea if it was injured or just basic stunned because once we saw it moving, we turned it into mush with a sandal.
A rattan rug beater would likely be much more effective and durable for all intents and purposes of fighting a giant hornet. I think a metal badminton racquet would work OK too. But probably not a tennis racquet or otherwise which don't have a good whipping motion.
If it uses AA or AAA batteries, definitely not. The 9V powered ones might, but I'd be expecting it to just hurt/piss off hornets of that size at best.
Maybe a pickle ball wooden paddle to knock it out...Then shoot it with
my AR-15 style assault rifle.
I don't know which is more troubling. The fact that these things are big enough to attach tracking collars to, or the fact that one of them chewed said tracking collar off.
I watch very very little cable and the first time I did in a long time I saw that commercial and thought it was the funniest thing because I have a pair of pajama pants that are too big and I pull them up like that sometimes and the wife makes fun of me.
The Following 2 Users Say Thank You to Raekwon For This Useful Post:
