Very nice and a bit of a surprise to me. I hope they are correct.
But unless some form of full inspections or spraying N/S America wide for containers coming from overseas, we will probably have more of these.
With the direction/trend of the "US Gov." being run as a business for the past 40 years, I believe we could very well see these hornets arrive in other areas.
IIRC, there is a insect in the East that is killing millions of trees which arrived 10 or 20 years ago. I forgot the details but eradicating them is now impossible.
Is it really worse than the members of the https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bark_beetle subfamily? They are able to destroy whole forests if the trees are under stress (drought, pollution, acid rain) already. But they should be nothing new.
> With the direction/trend of the "US Gov." being run as a business for the past 40 years, ...
Businesses that do get $37 trillion in debt go bankrupt. That government lovers managed to make believe it's normal for governments to go ever more into debt to then tax everybody through the inflation "hidden" tax is one of the biggest travesty of our time.
The richer oxygenation of the Earth's atmosphere in a previous geological era favoured the development of very large insects. Some wingspans attained 70cm! But the evolution of insectivorous birds likely favoured the smaller, nimbler insect variants.[1]
And then there is historical climate change as factor, not to mention K-Pg Extinction. [2,3]
>The richer oxygenation of the Earth's atmosphere in a previous geological era favoured the development of very large insects. Some wingspans attained 70cm!
This makes me wonder: what did these insects taste like?
Notice that humans already eat several animals that are basically very large insects: shrimp/prawns, crabs, and lobsters. According to a quick google search, these crustaceans are basically a sister group to insects, and interestingly are more closely related to insects than spiders are.
However, humans generally don't think of insects as appetizing meals, to put it mildly, while lobsters are considered a delicacy, and shrimp, crabs, and other crustaceans are not only commonly eaten, but are somewhat expensive food items.
Of course, one of the big differences between insects and these crustaceans is the size: even small shrimp are very large compared to just about any insect, so most people generally don't eat the shell, but only the fleshy insides. This is even more true with lobsters, where the shell is very thick and hard and inedible. Doing this with a beetle or grasshopper isn't so easy.
So if prehistoric insects could be so large, did they resemble sea crustaceans more (as far as having thicker shells, and more easily-separated meat)? And would humans find them tasty if we could somehow resurrect these giant insects today?
Not the same Asian hornet, in Europe we have Vespa velutina vs mandarinia in the PNW.
Our invasion was traced back to 2004 when a queen was supposedly brought from China to France through the port of Bordeaux. The spread is very much not controlled in Mediterranean countries, but I believe beekeepers have adapted.
The headline conjures up an image of one giant hornet, rampaging through US cities like Godzilla, carrying a hockey stick to underline its northern/Canadian affiliation.
Netflix documentary series "The G Word", produced by Barack Obama and featuring Adam Conover as host, does an outstanding job of highlighting these thankless civil servant positions.
Memorably, they interviewed NOAA scientists and pilots who fly into hurricanes to make critical measurements for meteorological predictions. I had no idea we did that!
Readit News
But unless some form of full inspections or spraying N/S America wide for containers coming from overseas, we will probably have more of these.
With the direction/trend of the "US Gov." being run as a business for the past 40 years, I believe we could very well see these hornets arrive in other areas.
IIRC, there is a insect in the East that is killing millions of trees which arrived 10 or 20 years ago. I forgot the details but eradicating them is now impossible.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spotted_lanternfly
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emerald_ash_borer
Businesses that do get $37 trillion in debt go bankrupt. That government lovers managed to make believe it's normal for governments to go ever more into debt to then tax everybody through the inflation "hidden" tax is one of the biggest travesty of our time.
https://www.aphis.usda.gov/plantsplant-healthplant-pests-and...
And then there is historical climate change as factor, not to mention K-Pg Extinction. [2,3]
[1] https://news.ucsc.edu/2012/06/giant-insects.html
[2] https://www.sci.news/paleontology/ypresiosirex-orthosemos-gi...
[3] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cretaceous%E2%80%93Paleogene...
This makes me wonder: what did these insects taste like?
Notice that humans already eat several animals that are basically very large insects: shrimp/prawns, crabs, and lobsters. According to a quick google search, these crustaceans are basically a sister group to insects, and interestingly are more closely related to insects than spiders are.
However, humans generally don't think of insects as appetizing meals, to put it mildly, while lobsters are considered a delicacy, and shrimp, crabs, and other crustaceans are not only commonly eaten, but are somewhat expensive food items.
Of course, one of the big differences between insects and these crustaceans is the size: even small shrimp are very large compared to just about any insect, so most people generally don't eat the shell, but only the fleshy insides. This is even more true with lobsters, where the shell is very thick and hard and inedible. Doing this with a beetle or grasshopper isn't so easy.
So if prehistoric insects could be so large, did they resemble sea crustaceans more (as far as having thicker shells, and more easily-separated meat)? And would humans find them tasty if we could somehow resurrect these giant insects today?
Dead Comment
Dead Comment
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2024/dec/13/rapid-sp...
Five years ago, while I was driving one of the blighters landed on my windscreen. I pushed the wiper lever to rinse, expecting it to swipe him away.
Instead it beat him down to my air intake vent, and he was sucked into the AC system.
I made sure to warn the mechanic of what lurked down there when I brought the car for her annual service.
Our invasion was traced back to 2004 when a queen was supposedly brought from China to France through the port of Bordeaux. The spread is very much not controlled in Mediterranean countries, but I believe beekeepers have adapted.
Memorably, they interviewed NOAA scientists and pilots who fly into hurricanes to make critical measurements for meteorological predictions. I had no idea we did that!