An Asian giant hornet taken from the first U.S. nest to be discovered. ELAINE THOMPSON / POOL / AFP via Getty Images
The first U.S. "murder hornet" nest has been discovered and eliminated.
<p>"Murder hornets," or Asian giant hornets as they are officially called, <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/murder-hornets-honeybees-us-2645912097.html" target="_self">first emerged</a> as a concern after four sightings of the bee-slaughtering <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/insects" target="_self">insects</a> were verified in Washington State in December 2019. Since then, the Washington State Department of Agriculture (WSDA) has been working to prevent the <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/invasive-species" target="_self">invasive species</a> from establishing a presence in the state, and they made headway towards that goal Saturday when they removed a nest newly discovered near Blaine, Washington.</p><p>"Got 'em," the WSDA wrote in a <a href="https://www.facebook.com/WAStateDeptAg/posts/10158596587562906" target="_blank">Facebook post</a>.</p>
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<p>WSDA workers vacuumed the hornets out of the tree cavity where their nest was found and into canisters, <a href="https://apnews.com/article/insects-washington-asia-agriculture-united-states-c235c7f6725460b463af968bb1355445" target="_blank">The Associated Press reported</a>. They donned protective gear thick enough to defend them against the hornets' six-millimeter long stingers. The suits also included face shields because the hornets can spit venom.</p><p>The tree will now be cut down and the nest searched for newborn hornets and to see if any queens have already left. <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/scientists" target="_self">Scientists</a> think there may be other murder hornet nests in Washington State.</p>
<div id="a3b24" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="38572c61a5ebaf7cbdae52cd9f3cf21d"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-twitter-tweet-id="1320151317495439361" data-partner="rebelmouse"><div style="margin:1em 0">Quite a morning shooting Asian giant hornets and our WA Ag workers taking them out in Blaine. Love those sting-resi… https://t.co/uooInt70T9</div> — Elaine Thompson /// journalism matters (@Elaine Thompson /// journalism matters)<a href="https://twitter.com/ElaineMThompson/statuses/1320151317495439361">1603583575.0</a></blockquote></div>
<p>Murder hornets earned their nickname because they attack in groups and can inject a victim with as much venom as a snake bite. They are native to China, Japan, Thailand, South Korea, Vietnam and other Asian countries, where they kill as many as three dozen people every year.</p><p>While that may sound like a lot, species of wasps, hornets and bees already common in the U.S. kill an average of 62 people a year, The Associated Press pointed out.</p><p>The main danger that Asian giant hornets pose is to <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/honeybees" target="_self">honeybees</a>: A small group of them can kill an entire hive within hours, the <a href="https://agr.wa.gov/about-wsda/news-and-media-relations/news-releases?article=31875" target="_blank">WSDA said</a>.</p>
<p>Honeybees in Japan have evolved to surround invading hornets and vibrate until they cook the intruder alive, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/oct/23/murder-hornet-us-first-nest-found-washington-state" target="_blank">The Guardian reported</a>. But North American honeybees have not evolved with Asian giant hornets, so they would not have any such defense strategies. Farmers are concerned that the hornets could devastate U.S. honeybee populations if they were to spread. This would also have serious consequences for all the <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/food" target="_self">foods</a> that bees pollinate.</p><p>The WSDA discovered the first U.S. Asian giant hornet nest around 4 p.m. on Oct. 22. The nest was located after the WSDA tied radio trackers to some captured hornets with dental floss, The Associated Press reported.</p>
<div id="ef0b1" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="4b5bd1f1de8027364b6a15f8bfb6a358"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-twitter-tweet-id="1319651074744094720" data-partner="rebelmouse"><div style="margin:1em 0">The rumors are true - our entomologists located the first-ever #AsianGiantHornet nest in the U.S. late yesterday. P… https://t.co/0LmpZToVHj</div> — WA St Dept of Agr (@WA St Dept of Agr)<a href="https://twitter.com/WSDAgov/statuses/1319651074744094720">1603464308.0</a></blockquote></div>
<p>The first Asian giant hornet was trapped in the U.S. in July, the WSDA said. Since then, its entomologists have been working to locate and eliminate any nests.</p>
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This Beetle Can Survive Being Run Over by a Car. Could It Lead to Crash-Proof Human Designs?
22 October
Animals
A diabolical ironclad beetle. Heather Broccard-Bell / iStock / Getty Images Plus
The aptly named diabolical ironclad beetle (Phloeodes diabolicus) has an exoskeleton so strong, it can survive being pecked by birds and even run over by cars. When early entomologists tried to mount them as specimens, BBC News explained, that exoskeleton would snap or bend their pins.
<p>"This beetle is super tough," Purdue University civil engineer Pablo Zavattieri told <a href="https://apnews.com/article/beetle-armor-stronger-planes-cb50dd9573d65437de4b5209ccd4a2d8" target="_blank">The Associated Press</a>.</p><p>Now, in a study published in <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-020-2813-8" target="_blank">Nature</a> Wednesday, Zavattieri and a team of <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/scientists" target="_self">scientists</a> have discovered exactly what makes the diabolical ironclad beetle so strong.</p><p>The diabolical ironclad beetle is found in the forests of North America's Pacific coast. It has lost the ability to fly, so its super-strong exoskeleton is evolution's compensation for the fact that it can't flee its predators.</p>
<p>To understand how this exoskeleton works, the researchers first determined how much stress it could take. The answer? Quite a lot. The beetle can withstand a load of around 39,000 times its own body weight. To put that in perspective, it would be the equivalent of a 90 kilogram (approximately 200 pound) person surviving the weight of around 280 doubledecker buses, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/oct/21/scientists-reveal-diabolical-ironclad-beetle-bear-huge-weights" target="_blank">The Guardian explained</a>.</p><p>"We were impressed. Especially given that this beetle does not contain any mineral – just organic components," study coauthor and University of California, Irvine professor David Kisailus told The Guardian.</p>
<p>The team then examined how the beetle was able to withstand such a heavy load. They used electron microscopes and CT scans to look at it up close, The Associated Press explained. The beetle's elytra, which are normally protective casing for wings, had hardened. This is common for flightless beetles, but the diabolical ironclad beetle's elytra were unique. They had a greater number of interlocking sections than those of other beetles, resembling a jigsaw puzzle, The Guardian explained. This helps the elytra to distribute the stress of heavy loads.</p><p>Further, the elytra was protein-rich and made of layers. When stress was put on one join, the layers would peel apart to relieve the pressure.</p><p>"When you pull them apart," Zavattieri told The Associated Press, "it doesn't break catastrophically. It just deforms a little bit. That's crucial for the beetle."</p>
<p>The scientists are hoping to take inspiration from the beetle's strength to improve human designs. In fact, the study was part of a U.S. Air Force-funded project to learn from nature in order to make materials that better resist impact.</p><p>As part of the experiment, the scientists made joints from metal and composite materials based on the beetle's elytra, BBC News explained. Their designs did make the materials stronger.</p><p>"Given that nature has been optimising and performing experiments for hundreds of millions of years, there are abundant resources to provide inspiration for next-generation materials," Kisailus told The Guardian.</p>
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Monarch Butterflies’ Spectacular Migration Is at Risk – An Ambitious Plan Aims to Save It
18 September
Animals
Monarch butterflies in Mexico's Oyamel forest in Michoacan, Mexico after migrating from Canada. Luis Acosta / AFP / Getty Images
By D. André Green II
One of nature's epic events is underway: Monarch butterflies' fall migration. Departing from all across the United States and Canada, the butterflies travel up to 2,500 miles to cluster at the same locations in Mexico or along the Pacific Coast where their great-grandparents spent the previous winter.
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<em><a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/d-andre-green-ii-798108" target="_blank">D. André Green II</a> is an </em>Assistant Professor of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Michigan.<em><br/>
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<em>Disclosure statement: </em><em>D. André Green II receives funding from the National Geographic Society.</em>
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<em><span></span>Reposted with permission from <a href="https://theconversation.com/monarch-butterflies-spectacular-migration-is-at-risk-an-ambitious-new-plan-aims-to-help-save-it-136479" target="_blank">The Conversation</a>.</em>
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<p>Human activities have an outsized impact on monarchs' ability to migrate yearly to these specific sites. Development, agriculture and logging have reduced monarch habitat. Climate change, drought and pesticide use also reduce the number of butterflies that complete the journey.</p><p>Since 1993, the area of forest covered by monarchs at their overwintering sites in Mexico has fallen from a peak of 45 acres in 1996-1997 to <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2020/03/number-of-monarch-butterflies-wintering-in-mexico-down-by-more-than-half/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">as low as 1.66 acres</a> in the winter of 2013-2014. A 2016 study warned that monarchs were dangerously close to a predicted "<a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/srep23265" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">point of no return</a>." The 2019 count of monarchs in California was the lowest ever recorded for that group.</p><p>What was largely a bottom-up, citizen-powered effort to save the struggling monarch butterfly migration has shifted toward a top-down conversation between the federal government, private industry and large-tract landowners. As a <a href="https://greendeilab.com/" target="_blank">biologist studying monarchs</a> to understand the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/mec.15178" target="_blank">molecular and genetic aspects of migration</a>, I believe this experiment has high stakes for monarchs and other imperiled species.</p>
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Millions of People Care About Monarchs
<p>I will never forget the sights and sounds the first time I visited monarchs' overwintering sites in Mexico. Our guide pointed in the distance to what looked like hanging branches covered with dead leaves. But then I saw the leaves flash orange every so often, revealing what were actually thousands of tightly packed butterflies. The monarchs made their most striking sounds in the Sun, when they burst from the trees in massive fluttering plumes or landed on the ground in the tussle of mating.</p><p>Decades of educational outreach by teachers, researchers and hobbyists has cultivated a generation of monarch admirers who want to help preserve this phenomenon. This global network has helped restore not only monarchs' summer breeding habitat by planting milkweed, but also general pollinator habitat by planting nectaring flowers across North America.</p><p>Scientists have calculated that restoring the monarch population to a stable level of about 120 million butterflies will require <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/icad.12198" target="_blank">planting 1.6 billion new milkweed stems</a>. And they need them fast. This is too large a target to achieve through grassroots efforts alone. A <a href="https://www.fws.gov/savethemonarch/CCAA.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">new plan</a>, announced in the spring of 2020, is designed to help fill the gap.</p>Pros and Cons of Regulation
<p>The top-down strategy for saving monarchs gained energy in 2014, when the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service <a href="https://www.fws.gov/southeast/pdf/petition/monarch.pdf" target="_blank">proposed</a> listing them as threatened under the Endangered Species Act. A decision is expected in December 2020.</p><p>Listing a species as endangered or threatened <a href="https://www.fws.gov/endangered/esa-library/pdf/listing.pdf" target="_blank">triggers restrictions</a> on "taking" (hunting, collecting or killing), transporting or selling it, and on activities that negatively affect its habitat. Listing monarchs would impose restrictions on landowners in areas where monarchs are found, over vast swaths of land in the U.S.</p><p>In my opinion, this is not a reason to avoid a listing. However, a "threatened" listing might inadvertently threaten one of the best conservation tools that we have: public education.</p><p>It would severely restrict common practices, such as rearing monarchs in classrooms and back yards, as well as scientific research. Anyone who wants to take monarchs and milkweed for these purposes would have to apply for special permits. But these efforts have had a multigenerational educational impact, and they should be protected. Few public campaigns have been more successful at raising awareness of conservation issues.</p><span style="display:block;position:relative;padding-top:56.25%;" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="91165203d4ec0efc30e4632a00fdf57d"><iframe lazy-loadable="true" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/KilPRvjbMrA?rel=0" width="100%" height="auto" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" style="position:absolute;top:0;left:0;width:100%;height:100%;"></iframe></span>
The Rescue Attempt
<p>To preempt the need for this kind of regulation, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service approved a <a href="https://www.fws.gov/savethemonarch/pdfs/Monarch%20CCAA-CCA%20Public%20Comment%20Documents/Monarch-Nationwide_CCAA-CCA_Draft.pdf" target="_blank">Nationwide Candidate Conservation Agreement for Monarch Butterflies</a>. Under this plan, "rights-of-way" landowners – energy and transportation companies and private owners – commit to restoring and creating millions of acres of pollinator habitat that have been decimated by land development and herbicide use in the past half-century.</p><p>The agreement was spearheaded by the <a href="http://rightofway.erc.uic.edu/" target="_blank">Rights-of-Way Habitat Working Group</a>, a collaboration between the University of Illinois Chicago's <a href="https://erc.uic.edu/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Energy Resources Center</a>, the Fish and Wildlife Service and over 40 organizations from the energy and transportation sectors. These sectors control "rights-of-way" corridors such as lands near power lines, oil pipelines, railroad tracks and interstates, all valuable to monarch habitat restoration.</p><p>Under the plan, partners voluntarily agree to commit a percentage of their land to host protected monarch habitat. In exchange, general operations on their land that might directly harm monarchs or destroy milkweed will not be subject to the enhanced regulation of the Endangered Species Act – protection that would last for 25 years if monarchs are listed as threatened. The agreement is expected to create up to 2.3 million acres of new protected habitat, which ideally would avoid the need for a "threatened" listing.</p><div id="5756a" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="60ebca608cf0dade6850bc4cbeb28045"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-twitter-tweet-id="1168708823814742016" data-partner="rebelmouse"><div style="margin:1em 0">Massive #monarch roosts all over the farm, can't move around without setting off a storm. #Minnesota #native #plants https://t.co/XStLDeuouK</div> — Dustin Demmer (@Dustin Demmer)<a href="https://twitter.com/DustinDemmer/statuses/1168708823814742016">1567476871.0</a></blockquote></div><p>Many questions remain. Scientists are still learning about factors that cause monarch population decline, so it is likely that land management goals will need to change over the course of the agreement, and partner organizations will have to adjust to those changes.</p><p>Oversight of the plan will fall primarily to the University of Illinois, and ultimately to the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service. But it's not clear whether they will have the resources they need. And without effective oversight, the plan could allow parties to carry out destructive land management practices that would otherwise be barred under an Endangered Species Act listing.</p>
A Model for Collaboration
<p>This agreement could be one of the few specific interventions that is big enough to allow researchers to quantify its impact on the size of the monarch population. Even if the agreement produces only 20% of its 2.3 million acre goal, this would still yield nearly half a million acres of new protected habitat. This would provide a powerful test of the role of declining breeding and nectaring habitat compared to other challenges to monarchs, such as climate change or pollution.</p><p>Scientists hope that data from this agreement will be made publicly available, like projects in the <a href="https://www.fws.gov/savethemonarch/MCD.html" target="_blank">Monarch Conservation Database</a>, which has tracked smaller on-the-ground conservation efforts since 2014. With this information we can continue to develop powerful new models with better accuracy for determining how different habitat factors, such as the number of milkweed stems or nectaring flowers on a landscape scale, affect the monarch population.</p><p>North America's monarch butterfly migration is one of the most awe-inspiring feats in the natural world. If this rescue plan succeeds, it could become a model for bridging different interests to achieve a common conservation goal.</p>
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'A Jurassic Park Experiment': Watchdog Groups Condemn Decision to Release Genetically Modified Mosquitoes in Florida
20 August
Health + Wellness
While chemical mosquito population control measures have been used with some degree of success, they are toxic to other insect populations and to the health of humans. A different angle of defense has emerged, which is genetic modification of the mosquito itself, making it transgenic. CDC
By Lisa Newcomb
Food safety and environmental groups Wednesday condemned a decision by officials in Florida to approve the release of 750 million genetically modified mosquitoes, a pilot project aimed at reducing the spread of mosquito-borne diseases.
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<p>"With all the urgent crises facing our nation and the State of Florida—the Covid-19 pandemic, racial injustice, climate change—the administration has used tax dollars and government resources for a Jurassic Park experiment," Jaydee Hanson, policy director for the International Center for Technology Assessment and Center for Food Safety, <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/newswire/2020/08/19/750-million-genetically-engineered-mosquitoes-approved-release-florida-keys" target="_blank">said</a> in a press release Wednesday, following a local mosquito abatement board's approval of the project. </p>
<div id="6f0ea" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="0114cc499b274e531924962475ef432e"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-twitter-tweet-id="1296120251105660930" data-partner="rebelmouse"><div style="margin:1em 0">#GMO mosquito trials have shown traces of mutated insects in natural insects -- yet @FLKeysMosquito just pushed thr… https://t.co/JrBjIwT1cZ</div> — Friends of the Earth (@Friends of the Earth)<a href="https://twitter.com/foe_us/statuses/1296120251105660930">1597854123.0</a></blockquote></div>
<p>The Florida Keys Mosquito Control Board on Tuesday approved the trial release, slated for 2021, <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/views/2015/01/25/new-study-pokes-hole-gmo-mosquito-plan" target="_blank">following</a> a years-long debate.</p><p>This would be the first U.S. trial of a genetically modified Aedes aegypti mosquito, which can transmit diseases like Zika and dengue, <em>WUSF Public Media</em> <a href="https://wusfnews.wusf.usf.edu/post/keys-mosquito-control-board-approves-first-us-trial-genetically-modified-mosquitoes" target="_blank">reported</a> Wednesday. The exact location of the release—in the Florida Keys island chain—has not yet been chosen, according to <em>WUSF</em>.</p><p><a href="https://wusfnews.wusf.usf.edu/post/keys-mosquito-control-board-approves-first-us-trial-genetically-modified-mosquitoes" target="_blank">According</a> to <em>WUSF</em>, "The genetic modification means only male mosquitoes—which do not bite—survive. The released male mosquitoes breed with wild females, passing along that self-limiting gene."</p>
<p>But watchdog groups warn that the experiment could produce "hybrid wild mosquitoes" potentially more resistant to insecticides and worsen the spread of mosquito-borne disease. These organizations also worry that the abatement board is putting profit margins of Oxitec, the company that produces the genetically modified insects, ahead of public health.</p><p>"The release of genetically engineered mosquitoes will needlessly put Floridians, the environment, and endangered species at risk in the midst of a pandemic," <a href="https://foe.org/news/750-million-genetically-engineered-mosquitoes-approved-for-release-in-florida-keys/" target="_blank">said</a> Dana Perls, food and technology program manager at Friends of the Earth. "This approval is about maximizing Oxitec's profits, not about the pressing need to address mosquito-borne diseases."</p>
<p><em>Reposted with permission from <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/08/19/jurassic-park-experiment-watchdog-groups-denounce-decision-release-genetically?cd-origin=rss" target="_blank">Common Dreams</a>.</em></p>From Your Site Articles
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Honey Bees Can’t Practice Social Distancing, So They Stay Healthy in Close Quarters by Working Together
16 August
Popular
Pexels
By Rachael Bonoan and Phil Starks
As many states and cities across the U.S. struggle to control COVID-19 transmission, one challenge is curbing the spread among people living in close quarters. Social distancing can be difficult in places such as nursing homes, apartments, college dormitories and migrant worker housing.
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As <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?hl=en&view_op=list_works&gmla=AJsN-F4R8GeDV0D7J0vQFYo0EIN7WE8S0Xsrf4iyl4ou0xv5TZonYueaMbYJDhdcKG2t9nSNTBoqL1mmVdkOJC3x69uokwCbiw&user=KF4sBDIAAAAJ" target="_blank">behavioral ecologists</a> who have studied <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=B6WmgvLL8vMC&hl=en" target="_blank">social interactions in honey bees</a>, we see parallels between life in the hive and efforts to manage COVID-19 in densely populated settings. Although honey bees live in conditions that aren't conducive to <a href="https://theconversation.com/social-distancing-works-just-ask-lobsters-ants-and-vampire-bats-135383" target="_blank">social distancing</a>, they have developed unique ways to deal with disease by collectively working to keep the colony healthy.
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Life in a Crowd
<p>Honey bees, like humans, are highly social organisms. A honey bee colony is a bustling metropolis made up of of thousands of individuals.</p><p>Three "types" of bees share space inside the colony. The queen, who is the only reproductive female, lays eggs. Drones, the male bees, leave the hive to mate with queens from other colonies. Workers – sterile females – make up the bulk of the colony and do all the nonreproductive work. They construct wax comb, collect and bring back food, tend to the young and more.</p><p>Members of a colony work so well together that the colony can be referred to as a "<a href="https://www.npr.org/2008/11/29/97547749/the-secret-society-of-superorganisms" target="_blank">superorganism</a>" – a highly connected community that functions like a single being.</p><p>Being this social comes with many benefits: Just ask any single parent how helpful it would be right now to live in a community that featured cooperative child care! But it also imposes costs – notably, the spread of disease. Inside the hive, worker bees transfer nectar to each other, essentially swapping the essential ingredient for honey. They crawl on top of each other and bump into others all the time.</p><p>What's more, humans keep many honey bee colonies next to each other for agricultural purposes. This creates unnatural, densely populated "cities" of these superorganisms, where pests and disease can spread rampantly.</p>Social Immunity
<p>Like humans, individual worker bees have immune systems that recognize invading pathogens and fight to get rid of them. However, there are some classes of pathogens that the honey bee immune system <a href="https://insectessociaux.com/2018/11/02/honey-bee-immunity-more-specific-than-we-thought" target="_blank">does not seem to recognize</a>. Bees thus need a different tactic for fighting them.</p><p>For these threats, honey bees defend the colony via social immunity – a <a href="https://doi.org/10.3389/fevo.2020.00186" target="_blank">cooperative behavioral effort</a> by many bees to protect the colony as a whole. For example, worker bees remove diseased and dead young from the colony, reducing the likelihood of transmitting infections to other bees.</p><p>Worker bees also line the hive with <a href="https://doi.org/10.1051/apido/2010016" target="_blank">an antimicrobial substance called propolis</a>, made from plant resin that they collect and mix with wax and bee enzymes. Applied to hive walls and between cracks, this "bee glue" kills various types of pathogens, including the bacterium that causes a dreaded honey bee disease called <a href="https://beeaware.org.au/archive-pest/american-foulbrood/#ad-image-0" target="_blank">American foulbrood</a>.</p><p>Another pathogen, the fungus <em>Ascosphaera apis</em>, causes a honey bee disease known as <a href="https://beeaware.org.au/archive-pest/chalkbrood/#ad-image-0" target="_blank">chalkbrood</a>. Because the fungus is heat sensitive, chalkbrood usually does not affect a strong honey bee hive, which maintains its own temperature somewhere between 89.6 degrees F and 96.8 degrees F. But when a colony is small or the outside temperature is cool, as in an early New England spring, chalkbrood can become a problem.</p><p>The chalkbrood pathogen affects young honey bees, or larvae, which become infected when they are fed spores from infected food. It lies dormant in the larval gut waiting for the temperature to drop below 86 degrees F. If this happens, the pathogen grows inside the larval stomach and eventually kills the young bee, turning it into a white chalk-like mummy.</p><p>When this pathogen is detected, worker bees protect the vulnerable young by contracting their large flight muscles to generate heat. This <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s001140050709" target="_blank">raises the temperature in the brood comb area of the hive</a> just enough to kill the pathogen. (Honey bees use heat for many reasons: to optimize offspring development, to fight pathogens, and even to "<a href="https://www.nationalgeographic.com/news/2012/3/120316-hot-bee-balls-hornets-insects-brains-animals-science/" target="_blank">bake" invading hornets</a>.)</p><p>In a recent study, we investigated how the efficiency of <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s13592-020-00754-5" target="_blank">colony-level fever</a> might change with colony size. At the <a href="https://ase.tufts.edu/biology/labs/starks/" target="_blank">Starks Lab Apiary</a>, we infected colonies of various sizes with chalkbrood and tracked the response of the colonies with thermal imaging.<br></p><p>Larger colonies successfully generated a colony-level fever to fight the disease. Smaller colonies struggled, but individual bees in the smaller colonies worked harder to raise the temperature than those in the larger colonies. Even if they fail, the bees don't cave in to fever fatigue by abandoning the fight.</p>In the Hive, Public Health is for Everyone
<p>Like honey bee colonies in agricultural fields, many humans live in extremely dense conditions, which has been especially problematic during the COVID-19 pandemic. The point of social distancing is to act as if we live in lower densities by wearing masks, keeping at least 6 feet away from others and allowing fewer people in stores.</p><p>Data from early in the pandemic show that social distancing was slowing the spread of the virus. But then humans became <a href="https://theconversation.com/complying-with-lockdown-does-become-harder-over-time-heres-why-138691" target="_blank">lockdown-fatigued</a>. By summer, many people were no longer social distancing or wearing masks; on average, individuals were <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/nicholasreimann/2020/07/05/maskless-parties-and-crowded-beaches-across-us-as-coronavirus-spikes-over-holiday-weekend/" target="_blank">doing less to slow the spread of the virus than in April</a>. The five-day running average of new U.S. cases <a href="https://coronavirus.jhu.edu/data/new-cases" target="_blank">rose</a> from less than 10,000 in early May to more than 55,000 by late July.</p><p>Although honey bees cannot wear masks or socially distance, each individual worker contributes to the public health of the colony. And they all follow the same practices.</p><p>They also excel at making group decisions. For example, when it comes time to choose a new home, a worker bee who has checked out a new nest site <a href="https://www.npr.org/sections/krulwich/2013/02/19/172385254/the-filibuster-solution-or-what-if-honeybees-ran-the-u-s-senate" target="_blank">dances to promote it to other bees</a>. The more suitable the site, the longer and harder she will work to convince the others.</p><p>If others express agreement – via dancing, of course – the colony moves to the new nest site. If the bees do not agree, that specific dance stops, that option eventually falls out of favor, and the search continues. In this way, only a group of informed supporters can win the day.</p><p>As many commentators have observed, the strong focus on <a href="https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2020/05/masks-coronavirus-america.html" target="_blank">freedom and individualism in American culture</a> has hampered the U.S. response to COVID-19. We see honey bees as a valuable counter-model, and as powerful evidence that social benefits require a community.</p><p><em><a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/rachael-bonoan-387475" target="_blank">Rachael Bonoan</a> is an Assistant Professor at Providence College. <a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/phil-starks-412898" target="_blank">Phil Starks</a> is an Associate Professor of Biology at Tufts University.</em></p><p><em><strong>Disclosure statement: </strong></em></p><p><em>Phil Starks receives funding from the National Science Foundation.</em></p><p><em>Rachael Bonoan does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</em></p><p><em>Reposted with permission from <a href="https://theconversation.com/honey-bees-cant-practice-social-distancing-so-they-stay-healthy-in-close-quarters-by-working-together-141106" target="_blank" style="">The Conversation</a>. </em></p>From Your Site Articles
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Bees are responsible for pollinating key crops like apples, and their decline now threatens crop yields. Pikist
Without bees, future generations may not be able to identify with adages like, "An apple a day keeps the doctor away."
Crop yields for key crops like apples, cherries and blueberries are down across the U.S. because of a lack of bees in agricultural areas, a Rutgers University-led study published Wednesday in The Royal Society found. This could have "serious ramifications" for global food security, reported The Guardian.
<p>The scientists wanted to understand the degree to which insect pollination, or lack thereof, actually limits current crop production. Surveying 131 locations across major crop-producing areas of the U.S., they found that five out of seven crops showed evidence of "pollinator limitation" and that yields could be boosted with full pollination, the study said. </p>
<p>"The crops that got more bees got significantly more crop production," said Rachael Winfree, an ecologist and pollination expert and the senior author of the paper, reported <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/jul/29/bees-food-crops-shortage-study" target="_blank">The Guardian</a>. "I was surprised, I didn't expect they would be limited to this extent."</p><p>The <a href="https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rspb.2020.0922" target="_blank">research</a> further noted that pollinator declines could "translate directly" to decreased production of most of the crops studied and that wild bees "contribute substantially" to the pollination of most studied crops.</p><p>Declines in both managed honeybees and wild bees raise serious concerns about global food security, the study said, because most of the world's crops rely on pollinators.</p><p>Bees and other pollinators like bats and birds underpin the global food system, but their <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/coronavirus-lockdowns-bees-2646042322.html?rebelltitem=2#rebelltitem2" target="_self">populations are dwindling due to human activity including settlement building, pesticide use, monoculture farming and climate change</a>. This is part of what many are calling the "<a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/insect-apocalypse-2634239696.html" target="_self">insect apocalypse,</a>" a precipitous decline in insects across the globe.</p><p>Wild bees, in particular, suffer from loss of flowering habitat, toxic pesticide use, and climate change, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/jul/29/bees-food-crops-shortage-study" target="_blank">The Guardian</a> reported, and managed honeybees have fallen to disease. Overall, three-quarters of the world's food crops are dependent up pollinators and could falter due to lack of bees, the news report added.</p><p>According to the <a href="http://www.fao.org/news/story/en/item/384726/icode/" target="_blank">United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization</a>, crop production has increasingly become dependent upon insects and other pollinators over the past 50 years by 300%, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/jul/29/bees-food-crops-shortage-study" target="_blank">The Guardian</a> reported. At the same time, farming has become more intensive to produce enough volume to feed a growing global population, the news report said, by flattening wildflower meadows, spraying insecticides and using monoculture crops ‒ all tactics which damage bee populations.</p><p>"Pollination shortfalls" could cause certain fruits and vegetables to become rarer and more expensive, The Guardian reported. This could trigger nutritional deficits in diets as fresh foods are replaced by rice, wheat and corn, which are pollinated by wind rather than insects.</p>
<p><br></p><p>The <a href="https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rspb.2020.0922" target="_blank">study</a> estimated that the five limited crops are valued at over $1.5 billion annually, and decreased yields or production seriously undercut that. They also noted that the value of all pollinator-dependent crops is much higher. A 2019 <a href="https://www.dw.com/en/why-biodiversity-loss-hurts-humans-as-much-as-climate-change/a-48579014" target="_blank">UN-backed assessment</a> estimated that pollinator loss could threaten $235-577 billion in annual crop output globally.</p><p>The study suggested adopting better conservation or augmentation methods for wild bees, such as enhancing wildflowers, using managed pollinators other than honey bees to boost crop yields and investing in honey bee colonies, reported <a href="https://www.futurity.org/bees-crop-yields-pollinators-2412322-2/" target="_blank">Futurity</a>. The paper also recommended farmers review how much pollination might be needed to boost crop yields and assess whether pesticide and fertilizer levels used remains appropriate, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/jul/29/bees-food-crops-shortage-study" target="_blank">The Guardian</a> reported.</p><p>"The trends we are seeing now are setting us up for food security problems," Winfree told The Guardian. "We aren't yet in a complete crisis now but the trends aren't going in the right direction. Our study shows this isn't a problem for 10 or 20 years from now – it's happening right now."</p>
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Specimens of the new butterfly subspecies, A. p. nuydai. J. Badon
By Keith Anthony Fabro
Filipino lepidopterist Jade Aster T. Badon is accustomed to traveling to some of the remotest parts of the Philippines in search of new butterfly species. In August 2019, he made a discovery in a more unexpected place: a field guide he had published himself five years earlier.
<p><br/></p>
<p>In 2014, Badon even included an illustration of this <em>Appias phoebe</em> subspecies in a butterfly field guide and labeled it <em>A. p. Montana</em>, a known subspecies<em>. </em>This mistake, however, was what would reveal the butterfly's real identity years later.</p><p>It wasn't until August last year that Badon had an epiphany. While browsing the same book and after a closer look at the butterfly's wings, he noticed that unlike the true <em>A. p. montana, </em>this butterfly's forewing underside cell end spot was funnel-shaped.</p><p>"The one found in Mount Canlaon, <em>A. p. montana,</em> has circular forewings," says Badon, the president of the nonprofit research group Philippine Lepidoptera Butterflies, Inc. "I did not know that it was a new subspecies back then."</p>
<img lazy-loadable="true" src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yMzQyNTY1OC9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTY2NTUxNTk2MX0.Ry7YtCiUB4fXFa7l6z361cSx4obJ1Q4QdShhhX_tfqE/img.jpg?width=980" id="1e041" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="2ef5adb9c2b7bb79414301d182ddbb9e" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" />
Specimens of the new butterfly subspecies, A. p. nuydai. J. Badon
<p>He did some digging: he checked online and library resources and found no match for the then-unknown butterfly specimen. "What was more interesting is that in Negros Island, no [butterfly] specimens have been collected from Mount Talinis when I studied the specimens," he says in an email.</p><p>Badon and research partner Jacqueline Y. Miller of the University of Florida then published this "<a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/342216650_New_subspecies_of_Appias_phoebe_from_Negros_Island_Philippines" target="_blank">new discovery</a>" in the peer-reviewed entomology journal <em>Nachrichten des Entomologischen Vereins Apollo</em> (<em>NEVA)</em>.</p><p>Here, they unveiled the butterfly's new name: <em>A. p. nuydai — </em>after the Filipino painter, lepidopterist and naturalist Justin S. Nuyda, who pioneered butterfly studies in the Philippines.</p><p><em>A</em><em> p. nuydai</em> 's only known habitat, Mount Talinis, is a 23,564-hectare (58,228-acre) key biodiversity area in the southern part of Negros Island in the central Philippines, and is considered the province's "last frontier"; it hosts an old-growth forest thriving with thousands of wildlife species.</p>
<p>The newly renamed butterfly species is the latest addition to five <em>A. phoebe</em> subspecies found in Luzon, Mindanao, and the islands of Negros, Palawan and Mindoro. It's an island-specific subspecies of the Philippine-endemic <em>Appias phoebe,</em> first described by C. & R. Felder in 1861.</p><p>This butterfly species prefer the cool altitudes of mountain peaks, and <em>A. p. nuydai </em>is specific only to the peaks of Mount Talinis, where it was first seen flitting around Lake Nailig at an elevation of 1,578 meters (5,177 feet) in 2012.</p><p>In May that year, Badon, from Silliman University on Negros Island, obtained a research permit from the Philippines environment department to do a broader biodiversity study of Mount Talinis, a "potentially active" volcano. That's when he discovered the butterfly by surprise.</p><p>"We were camped on the shores of Lake Nailig," Badon says. "We woke up early to have breakfast, and as soon as the sun started rising, hitting the peaks of Mount Talinis, I noticed some yellow and white butterflies flying and puddling on the lakeshores near our camp. I grabbed my insect net and caught two specimens before we left the campground to trek back down to the city."</p>
<img lazy-loadable="true" src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yMzQyNTY2MC9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYwNjM0NjYzM30.bHZcm1scVas5I_CtsqF4u1g1NX7kH1501POB4NNdaLA/img.jpg?width=980" id="f05b9" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="487c5949dc54b2cb21dfdd344a75025b" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" />
A.p. nuydai (above) was initially mislabeled as A. p. Montana (below), another subspecies of the Appias phoebe butterfly species that's endemic to the Philippines. J. Badon; A. p. montana image taken from Tsukada, et. al. (1985)
<p>All the while, Badon was unaware it was a new subspecies. Its close resemblance to <em>A. p. montana</em>, another subspecies found only on neighboring Mount Canlaon, also on Negros Island, hid the butterfly's real identity for years despite Badon's trained eyes.</p><p>Since then, the specimens have been kept in a collection at the University of Florida's McGuire Center for Lepidoptera and Biodiversity, where Badon did his master's and doctoral studies in entomology and nematology from 2011 to 2018.</p><p>Studies point to climate change as possibly the biggest threat to high-elevation butterflies, which could change the distribution of this species.</p><p>"Some of the possible reasons on why they prefer higher elevation is that it is cooler," Badon says. "If climate change progresses in the area, making it warmer, this species will eventually fly to its preferred habitat. But if climate change worsens at a rapid pace, then there is a possibility that this species will have nowhere to go."</p><p>This raises the "need to study the high elevation butterflies to determine how they are adapting to the changing climate and environment," Badon says. "I hope to increase awareness on the importance of insects such as butterflies in the country since they are also great indicators of a healthy environment."</p><p>During their 2012 research expedition, Badon spotted only seven to 10 individuals of this subspecies; further studies are needed to determine its abundance in its only known habitat to be able to assess its conservation status.</p><p>"The peak of Mount Talinis still has forests and as long as it stays that way, the species will thrive," Badon says. "But I'm not sure how climate change will affect them."</p>
<p class=""><em>Reposted with permission from <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2020/06/this-philippine-butterfly-had-a-mistaken-identity-for-years-until-its-rediscovery/" target="_blank">Mongabay</a>.</em></p>From Your Site Articles
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New Report Documents Global Insect Decline and Calls for Reforming Industrial Agriculture
10 June
Popular
The new report points to various studies documenting insect loss, including 2018 research finding 41% of insect species are in decline and that one-third of all insect species are threatened by extinction. Wikimedia Commons
By Andrea Germanos
A new report released Tuesday draws attention to the worldwide decline in insects and calls for global policies to boost the conservation of both agriculture and the six-footed creatures.
<p>The publication, entitled<a href="http://www.foeeurope.org/insect-atlas" target="_blank"> <em>Insect Atlas</em></a>, comes from two progressive networks: Brussels-based Friends of the Earth and Berlin-based Heinrich Böll Foundation.</p><p>"The global loss of insects is dramatic," Heinrich Böll Foundation president Barbara Unmüßig said in a statement.</p><p>The report points to various studies documenting that loss, including 2018 research finding 41% of insect species are in decline and that one-third of all insect species are threatened by extinction. The Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) estimated that 10 percent of insect species are endangered, and another study cited in the new analysis found that at least one in 10 bee and butterfly species in Europe is threatened with extinction.</p><p>While there's no definitive count of the global loss of insects, <em>Insect Atlas</em> says the trend is unmistakable.</p>
<img lazy-loadable="true" src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yMzM4MzIzNC9vcmlnaW4ucG5nIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYzNjEwMjQxOH0.EtO7AHP1ex1OAoQv5uEksP4WMI058toIbdDIVPU1t2k/img.png?width=980" id="95b6b" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="db5cb1fb7efc7f13f0b05dae18c0ee5c" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" />
Insect Atlas. Bartz / Stockmar, CC BY 4.0
<p>That decline has major impacts on food. </p><p>"Three-quarters of the world's most important crops exhibit a yield benefit from pollinators: they contribute directly to around one-third of global food production," says the report.</p><p>The methods used for that production have a huge impact on insects.</p><p>"Alongside climate change and light pollution, the spread and intensification of farming is by far the most important cause of the global decline in insect numbers," the report adds.</p><p>This type of farming is dependent upon expanding pasture—often at the expense of destroying Indigenous land and wild animal habitat—and prioritizes monocultures and therefore insect-killing pesticides, the use of which has steadily increased for the past nine decades, the economic profits of which are predominantly flowing towards just four entities: BASF, Bayer, Syngenta, and Corteva. From the publication:</p><blockquote>What is more, the number of chemical products in use around the world continues to increase. And, their negative effects on the insect world are also becoming more and more evident. This is not just because a growing number of chemicals are being applied; the formulations are also increasingly effective and can be used more selectively<br></blockquote><p>Even when some nations ban certain pesticides over concerns, the chemicals' adverse impacts don't disappear; they just change locations. </p><blockquote>The developed world is waking up to the risks associated with the use of pesticides. The situation is different in the developing world: chemicals that are banned in Europe and North America are still used routinely to control pests. Stricter controls are needed, along with better information for farmers.<br></blockquote>
<img lazy-loadable="true" src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yMzM4MzIzOS9vcmlnaW4ucG5nIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTY2MTAyMzk5Nn0.PAHR7G6mSmXJl5OTAgNUYPXt3tfJ-8ahL40tPkS1vjg/img.png?width=980" id="45512" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="78dcbebf9c0f715d0d4e9bbb0e3573ee" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" />
Insect Atlas. Bartz / Stockmar, CC BY 4.0
<p>Dismantling industrial agriculture, says the report, is essential. "There is no alternative: to protect insects, farming must become part of the solution. Not just for the sake of society, but also for the sake of farming itself—because it, too, needs insects."</p><p>"The evidence is clear: pesticide use is wiping out insect populations and ecosystems around the world, and threatening food production," Mute Schimpf, food and farming campaigner at Friends of the Earth Europe, said in a statement. </p><p>"A handful of corporations control the bulk of pesticide supply, and if left unchecked will continue to use their immense political influence to lock in a system of industrial farming which will continue to wipe out nature and destroy rural communities," she continued.</p><p>One area of reform that would address deforestation and the resulting insect habitat losses is curbing meat consumption and therefore the huge swathes of land on which genetically modified animal feed is grown. "If the developed world were to consume less meat and if agricultural products were no longer used as fuel," says the report, "the pressure on the land areas could be reduced considerably."</p><p>Insect Atlas lays out a number of solutions for global policymakers to pursue. They include:</p><ul><li>Gradually reducing the use of synthetic pesticides by 80 percent in EU agriculture by 2030, starting from 2020 and phase out exports of pesticides banned in the EU;</li><li>Radically reforming the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), including the phasing out of harmful untargeted direct payments, setting aside at least 50% of the CAP budget for environmental, nature, and climate objectives and support farmers in the transition to agroecology;</li><li>Phasing out harmful farming methods like growing genetically modified plants or introducing a new generation of genetically modified insects;</li><li>Taking urgent actions to achieve the targets suggested in the European Farm to Fork and Biodiversity strategies to increase organic farming;</li><li>Reducing the production and consumption of industrial meat and other animal products and supporting plant-based options; and</li><li>Cutting the overall EU demand for agrocommodities in order to reduce global deforestation.</li></ul><p>Schimpf spoke about those solutions and the report on <em>Euronews</em> Tuesday:</p>
<div id="8fdf8" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="375c252c346fe9796c1409d1a05fb0eb"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-twitter-tweet-id="1270286526702850050" data-partner="rebelmouse"><div style="margin:1em 0">What are the consequences for our food supply? "If we continue using pesticides so heavily, farmers will lose the… https://t.co/Kiz6VXe6Mc</div> — Friends of the Earth #BlackLivesMatter (@Friends of the Earth #BlackLivesMatter)<a href="https://twitter.com/foeeurope/statuses/1270286526702850050">1591694883.0</a></blockquote></div><p>Schimpf also drew renewed attention to the <a href="https://www.savebeesandfarmers.eu/eng" target="_blank">Save Bees and Farmers</a> European Citizens Initiative. It's centered on three key demands: a phase-out of the use of synthetic pesticides; measures to increase biodiversity; and support for farmers.</p><p>As of press time, the petition has over 355,000 signatures.</p>
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Trending
A 17-year periodical cicada. Education Images / Universal Images Group via Getty Images
As many parts of the planet continue to open their doors after pandemic closures, a new pest is expected to make its way into the world. After spending more than a decade underground, millions of cicadas are expected to emerge in regions of the southeastern U.S.
<p>The scale of the emergence events is "astounding," according to <a href="https://vtnews.vt.edu/articles/2020/05/CALS-periodical_cicada_2020.html" target="_blank">Virginia Tech</a>. Experts note that people living in Virginia, West Virginia and in parts of North Carolina are now set to see their hatch in the earlier part of the summer as an estimated 1.5 million insects per acre of land emerge from the soil, reports <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-52793339" target="_blank">BBC</a>. This "unique natural phenomenon" has not occurred in the region since 2003.</p>
<p>"Communities and farms with large numbers of cicadas emerging at once may have a substantial noise issue," <a href="https://vtnews.vt.edu/articles/2020/05/CALS-periodical_cicada_2020.html" target="_blank">said</a> Eric Day, <a href="https://ext.vt.edu/" target="_blank">Virginia Cooperative Extension</a> entomologist in Virginia Tech's <a href="https://www.ento.vt.edu/" target="_blank">Department of Entomology</a> in the <a href="https://www.cals.vt.edu/" target="_blank">College of Agriculture and Life Sciences</a>. "Hopefully, any annoyance at the disturbance is tempered by just how infrequent — and amazing — this event is."</p><p>It comes after roughly a billion cicadas took over parts of the northeastern U.S. in 2016, reported <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/theyre-back-17-year-cicadas-to-blanket-northeastern-u-s-1891148953.html)" target="_self">EcoWatch</a> at the time. The group of insects is made up of roughly 15 "broods," with Brood IX emerging this year following a Brood V emergence four years ago.</p>
<p>Cicadas are some of the longest-lived insects in the world, yet they spend most of their lives underground as part of their nymph stage, feeding off of roots for periods lasting between 13 and 17 years before emerging from the soil through mud tubes known as "cicada huts." </p><p>During such events, the finger-sized insects crawl out to molt into winged adults and mate. The specific timing behind this unique life cycle largely remains a mystery, though some experts speculate that it could have evolved as a method to avoid syncing with predator cycles, according to <a href="https://abcnews.go.com/US/millions-cicadas-emerge-parts-us-1st-time-17/story?id=70880463" target="_blank">ABC News</a>. As such, the <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/24/us/17-year-cicadas-virginia.html" target="_blank">New York Times</a> notes that cicadas' best defense is their incredible numbers emerging in synchronicity.</p>
<p>After their surfacing, the insects live outside of the ground for around a month and though they are not harmful to humans — and can actually serve as an important source of food for animals — they can wreak havoc on important crops, vines and saplings, according to a <a href="https://www.pubs.ext.vt.edu/444/444-276/444-276.html" target="_blank">fact sheet</a> provided by Virginia Cooperative Extension.</p><p>"Cicadas can occur in overwhelming numbers and growers in predicted areas of activity should be watchful," <a href="https://vtnews.vt.edu/articles/2020/05/CALS-periodical_cicada_2020.html" target="_blank">said</a> Doug Pfeiffer, a professor and Extension specialist in the Department of Entomology.</p><p>The dramatic timeline is short-lived. Cicada egg-laying takes place over the course of about four to six weeks before the generation dies off. Entomologists at Virginia Tech <a href="https://vtnews.vt.edu/articles/2020/05/CALS-periodical_cicada_2020.html" target="_blank">suggest</a> that tree growers wait a year or two before major emergence events before planting new trees as existing treatment options, such as netting or sprays, don't have a large effect on the bugs.</p><p>People living in the southeast can expect a loud singing sound caused by the vibrating membrane of the insects' abdomens in what entomologists liken to a "field of out-of-tune car radios." Others may see the casted skins on trees as large swarms of cicadas as they congregate.</p><p>"This insect is really fascinating, and if you don't have fruit trees or grapevines to protect, you can enjoy this phenomenon while it lasts," said Pfeiffer.</p>
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Locusts swarm over Jaipur, India on May 25, 2020. Vishal Bhatnagar / NurPhoto via Getty Images
India is facing its worst desert locust invasion in nearly 30 years, and the climate crisis is partly to blame.
<p>The locusts spawned a swarm of social media posts Monday when they entered the city of Jaipur, as <a href="https://indianexpress.com/article/trending/trending-in-india/large-swarms-of-the-locusts-enter-jaipur-netizens-share-frightening-videos-of-attack-6427856/" target="_blank">The Indian Express reported</a>, but the crop-devouring <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/insects" target="_self">insects</a> have been wreaking havoc since May in an invasion that both began earlier and is extending farther than usual. Several farmers told <a href="https://thewire.in/agriculture/locust-attack-india-jaipur-climate-change" target="_blank">The Wire</a> that they hadn't seen an invasion this severe in their lifetimes.</p><p>"Even my father, who is 86, said he hasn't ever seen anything like this. Only heard about this in folk tales," 64-year-old Madhya Pradesh farmer Sooraj Pandey told The Wire.</p>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Locust Ataack in Jaipur 🤮 <a href="https://t.co/QWHfOXasvf">pic.twitter.com/QWHfOXasvf</a></p>— Akanksha🎨 (@art_lover_09) <a href="https://twitter.com/art_lover_09/status/1264802499782991873?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 25, 2020</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
<p>Locusts are not uncommon in the northwest Indian state of Rajasthan, but this year they have also entered the states of Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh for the first time since 1993 and the state of Maharashtra for the first time since 1974. They also do not usually move so far into Rajasthan from the border with Pakistan, according to AFP reporting <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2020/05/crops-destroyed-india-faces-worst-locust-attack-27-years-200526160727430.html" target="_blank">published by Al Jazeera</a>.</p><p>So far, the insects have devoured almost 50,000 hectares or 123,500 acres of <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/agriculture" target="_self">agricultural</a> land in seven Indian states, <a href="https://apnews.com/707418101bef8e5a2340e905fb97fdd7" target="_blank">The Associated Press reported</a>, putting pressure on farmers already struggling with the impacts of the <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/coronavirus" target="_self">coronavirus</a> lockdown.</p>
<p>The government has responded with pesticides, drones and sprayers mounted on vehicles, while farmers have resorted to banging plates, whistling and throwing stones to drive the locusts away.</p><p>"These insects are giving us sleepless nights. We are more worried about them than the virus," Mandeep Singh, a cotton farmer from Punjab, told The Associated Press.</p><p>A swarm of 40 million locusts can cover the space of a square kilometer (approximately 0.4 square miles) and eat the same as 35,000 people in a day, according to UN Food and Agricultural Organization data reported by The Wire.</p>
<p>Unusually large locust swarms bred on the Arabian Peninsula in early 2019 following heavy rains and cyclones in the region, according to AFP. Those ideal breeding conditions were the product of the climate crisis, as warmer than usual temperatures in the western Indian Ocean fueled the storms.</p><p>"These warm waters were caused by the phenomenon called the Indian Ocean Dipole — with warmer than usual waters to its west, and cooler waters to its east. Rising temperatures due to global warming amplified the dipole and made the western Indian Ocean particularly warm," Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology climate scientist Roxy Mathew Koll told The Wire.</p>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">This time desert locust attack is severe. They have arrived earlier, in huge numbers & now reached till Panna in MP. The changing climate conditions are linked with locust growth in east Africa. The swarms has potential of eating everything & destroy the crops. This from Panna. <a href="https://t.co/8aqLa8lA4O">pic.twitter.com/8aqLa8lA4O</a></p>— Parveen Kaswan, IFS (@ParveenKaswan) <a href="https://twitter.com/ParveenKaswan/status/1265124661718847489?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 26, 2020</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
<p>The locusts have already <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/locust-swarm-east-africa-2644928358.html" target="_self">caused significant damage</a> in East Africa earlier in 2020 before migrating to India through Iran and Pakistan.</p><p>India's locust situation could get even worse, both this year and in the future.</p><p>In the short term, more locusts could arrive from Africa in June, according to AFP. There is also a concern that the locusts already in India could breed, The Associated Press pointed out.</p><p>"It is an alarming situation," KL Gurjar, a top official at India's Locust Warning Organization, told The Associated Press. "But we are more worried of their breeding. If that happens, it could be devastating for our farmlands."</p><p>In the future, climate change could also make locust invasions like this year's more common.</p><p>"Climate change may well play a role here, mainly because, according to forecasts by international climate researchers, precipitation will increase in the southern Arabian Peninsula and northern East Africa," University of Trier biodiversity scientist Axel Hochkirch told The Wire. "This means that there will be more frequent 'very humid' phases, such as we have had since 2018, and it is therefore possible that such swarms will simply occur more frequently."</p>
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Holger Casselmann / Wikimedia / CC BY-SA 3.0
The climate crisis has caused Japanese cherry blossoms to bloom in October and sped the arrival of spring in much of the U.S. But it turns out that humans aren't the only animals who can trick plants into flowering early.
<p><br/></p>
<p>Scientists have discovered that <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/bees" target="_self">bumblebees</a> can cause plants to flower as much as 30 days ahead of schedule by biting their leaves.</p><p>"I think it's fascinating how much we still don't know about organisms that we think we know really well," study coauthor and ETH Zurich professor Consuelo De Moraes <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-52759804" target="_blank">told BBC News</a>. "It absolutely increases our sense of wonder at the cleverness of nature in all its many forms."</p>
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<p>The discovery, published in <a href="https://science.sciencemag.org/content/368/6493/881" target="_blank">Science Friday</a>, was made by accident. One of De Moraes' students, Foteini Pashalidou, observed buff-tailed bumblebees making small slits in the leaves of greenhouse plants, <a href="https://www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/2020/05/bumblebees-bite-plants-flower-early/" target="_blank">National Geographic</a> explained. However, the bees didn't appear to eat the leaf bits or bring them back to their nests.</p><p>The researchers did notice that the bees from colonies with less food were the ones most damaging the leaves, <a href="https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2020/05/hungry-bumblebees-make-plants-flower-early-cutting-holes-their-leaves" target="_blank">Science reported</a>. This led the scientists to wonder if the bees were trying to get the plants to flower early out of hunger, so they set up an experiment to test this hypothesis, as Science described:</p><blockquote>The researchers set up a greenhouse experiment with black mustard (<em>Brassica nigra</em>), a crop they had been studying. Ten plants were put in mesh bags with bumble bees that hadn't eaten any pollen for 3 days; they proceeded to nibble five to 10 holes in each plant. On average, <a href="https://science.sciencemag.org/cgi/doi/10.1126/science.aay0496" target="_blank">those plants flowered after 17 days</a>; undamaged plants that had not been exposed to bumble bees took an average of 33 days, the researchers report today in Science. In a similar experiment, tomato plants sped up their flowering by 30 days.</blockquote>
<p>Further experiments confirmed that the behavior was motivated by hunger. Pollen-deprived bees cut four times as many holes in lab leaves as fully fed bees. Outside the lab, bees cut holes in plants on a rooftop garden in early spring, but stopped doing so as frequently once more flowers began to bloom. The researchers also observed leaf-biting in two wild species: red-tailed and white-tailed bumble bees.</p><p>"That was super exciting," De Moraes told Science.</p><p>While this behavior is new to scientists, we may have encountered its evidence for years without realizing it. </p><p>"You see these semi-circular sort of incisions, often in the leaf," coauthor Dr Nark Mescher told BBC News. "One of the students was saying that they were eating a salad the other day, and they saw that kind of damage on the leaf that was probably from a bumblebee."</p>
<p>Beyond its novelty, the finding has important implications for bumblebees' ability to adapt to the climate crisis, National Geographic explained. As warmer spring temperatures cause <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/pollinators" target="_self">pollinators</a> to awaken before plants flower, this activity could ensure early-rising bees find food. It might also help farmers increase human food supply if they can copy the bees' technique.</p><p>But so far the researchers aren't sure how the bees' trick works. Attempts to duplicate it in the lab by damaging leaves in similar ways were only partially successful.</p><p>"We really tried to replicate it with the best of our ability," De Moraes told BBC News. "It's possible that the bees also have some cue that they are providing to the plants that is specific to the bee. And that could be secretions that we don't know about, but it's something that we plan to investigate."</p>
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More than 45 transportation and energy companies, as well as dozens of private landowners, have agreed to create or maintain monarch butterfly habitat along "rights-of-way" corridors across the United States. DebraLee Wiseberg / Getty Images
By Liz Kimbrough
The side of the road isn't usually thought of as ideal habitat. But for insects, such as butterflies and their caterpillars, the long expanses of land along roads and utility corridors add up to a considerable amount of home turf.
<p>More than 45 transportation and energy companies, as well as dozens of private landowners, have agreed to create or maintain monarch butterfly (<em>Danaus plexippus</em>) habitat along "<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Right_of_way" target="_blank">rights-of-way</a>" corridors across the United States.</p><p>The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) and the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC) have signed a historic <a href="https://www.fws.gov/news/ShowNews.cfm?ref=historic-agreement-will-conserve-millions-of-acres-for-monarch-b&_ID=36540" target="_blank">agreement</a> that allows participant landholders to dedicate a percentage of their lands to monarch conservation management in exchange for regulatory flexibility on the rest of their enrolled lands.</p><p>Populations of both <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2020/03/number-of-monarch-butterflies-wintering-in-mexico-down-by-more-than-half/" target="_blank">eastern monarchs</a> and <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2020/02/western-monarch-butterfly-numbers-critically-low-for-second-straight-year/" target="_blank">western monarchs</a> have declined by more than 80% over the past decade and are nearing a <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2020/02/western-monarch-butterfly-numbers-critically-low-for-second-straight-year/" target="_blank">tipping point</a> for migratory collapse. In light of these declines, the USFWS is set to decide in December 2020 if the monarch butterfly will be classified as a federally endangered species under the <a href="https://www.fws.gov/endangered/laws-policies/" target="_blank">Endangered Species Act</a>.</p><p>Land managers and businesses expressed concerns that if they voluntarily created monarch habitat and the monarch was then listed as federally endangered species, the resulting regulations to protect monarchs could complicate their operations or subject them to additional permitting requirements.</p>
<p>"Some companies wanted to wait to see how the listing would play out," Iris Caldwell, a program manager at the Energy Resources Center at UIC, told Mongabay. "But if you are following what's happening with the butterflies you know we really can't wait. We need to be creating habitat on a variety of different landscapes, as much as we can."</p><p>This led Caldwell and her colleagues in the <a href="http://rightofway.erc.uic.edu/" target="_blank">Rights-of-Way as Habitat Working Group</a> (a group of 200 transportation, energy, government, and nonprofit organizations) to ask what kinds of tools existed to eliminate these regulatory uncertainties faced by landowners.</p><p>"How can you incentivize a regulated entity or a utility to do this voluntary proactive work," Caldwell asked, "and still give them kind of the flexibility and the certainty that they need and be able to, in fact, invest in that work without kind of a fear of repercussion?"</p>
<p>The group decided to make use of the USFWs Candidate Conservation Agreement (CCA) and Candidate Conservation Agreement with Assurances (CCAA). Both are formal, voluntary agreements between participant landowners and the USFWS aimed at conserving and protecting at-risk species.</p><p>In the CCAA, the USFWS provides assurance that the landowner participants will not be required to take additional conservation measures on their enrolled lands if the monarch butterfly later becomes listed as an endangered species.</p><p>"So they can just kind of go about business as usual. And if they happen to accidentally kill monarchs in that process, they won't be subjected to the under the endangered species laws," Tara Cornelisse, a senior scientist at the <a href="https://www.biologicaldiversity.org/" target="_blank">Center for Biological Diversity</a>, an organization who submitted comments on the agreement, told Mongabay. "So, in turn, what they're supposed to do is give a percentage of those enrolled lands over to conservation."</p><p>Some of the conservation actions available and recommended to the landholder participants are: adjusting the timing of mowing practices to avoid periods when the monarch larva will be present; moving away from broadcast herbicide spray to targeted herbicide applications; replanting after a construction project on their right-of-way; and using a native seed mix across their system that help promote beneficial plants.</p>
<p>"Some of these organizations manage hundreds of thousands of acres of land and implementing some of these actions across a system of that scale is no small feat," Caldwell said. "I think that kind of learning curve early on and rolling out and implementing some of these conservation measures at scale, may present a challenge for some."</p><p>This is why the role of UIC in coordinating efforts among all the partners who are involved will be really important, Caldwell says. UIC will serve as an intermediary between the landowner participants and the USFWS. The participants will be required to monitor certain data and self-report annually to UIC. UIC will follow up on any discrepancies or concerns and will then submit an annual report summarizing all of the overall work and efforts and any findings across the agreement to the Fish and Wildlife Service.</p><p>This is the largest and first nationwide CCAA in history, and Caldwell said she's hopeful that the data collected will lead to insights to inform best management and adaptive management practices for the conservation of monarchs.</p>
<p>"The elephant in the room," Cornelisse said, "is if this would preclude the listing of the species [as a federally endangered species]."</p><p>Monarchs have a much wider range of habitat and potential habitat than rights-of-way corridors. Up to 75%, of potential monarch habitat is on agricultural lands. Over the past few decades, urban sprawl, pesticide and herbicide‐intensive agriculture, and climate change have contributed to the <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2020/05/insects-decline-on-land-fare-better-in-water-study-finds/" target="_blank">global declines of insects</a>, including monarchs. An ESA listing would afford the species greater protection across their range.</p><p>"The enrolled lands outside the adopted acres [areas managed for conservation] cannot be credited with benefiting monarchs," the Center for Biological Diversity said in written public comments to the USFWS. "It is important that when the Service weighs the value of these lands in other contexts, such as the [Endangered Species Act]‐ listing decision, that not all enrolled lands be considered to be providing habitat for monarchs."</p><p>"I think anybody who knows the science behind the monarch's decline, and the extent of it would say, yes, this [agreement] could provide some benefits, but it cannot preclude the listing of the species," Cornelisse said.</p>
<p>The USFWS anticipates that between 2 million and 26 million acres (809,000 to 10.5 million hectares) of land may be enrolled in the CCAA and CCA agreements, but the percentage of the enrolled land that will be managed for conservation is still to be determined.</p><p>"What is striking to me is so often we just don't think of these [rights-of-way] as conservation landscapes," Caldwell said. "Oftentimes, we don't think of them at all. We're just driving past thousands of miles of roadsides and utility corridors. And so, the whole idea of being able to maximize these landscapes to create habitat for species that really need it, I think, is really exciting."</p>
<p class=""><em>Reposted with permission from <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2020/05/historic-agreement-gives-monarch-butterflies-the-right-of-way/" target="_blank">Mongabay</a>.</em></p>From Your Site Articles
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Asian giant hornets (Vespa mandarinia japonica) drinking sap from tree bark in Japan. Alpsdake/Wikipedia, CC BY-SA
By Akito Y Kawahara
Editor's note: According to recent press reports, two Asian giant hornets – a species not known to occur in North America – were found in northwest Washington state in late 2019, and a hornet colony was found and eliminated in British Columbia. Now scientists are trying to determine whether more of these large predatory insects are present in the region. Entomologist Akito Kawahara explains why headlines referring to "murder hornets" are misleading.
<p><br/></p>
<p><em><a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/akito-y-kawahara-739749" target="_blank">Akito Y Kawahara</a> is an Associate Professor and Curator of Insects at Florida Museum of Natural History, University of Florida.<br/></em></p><p><em>Disclosure statement: </em><em>Akito Y Kawahara does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</em></p><p><em>Reposted with permission from <a href="https://theconversation.com/what-are-asian-giant-hornets-and-are-they-really-dangerous-5-questions-answered-137954" target="_blank">The Conversation</a>.</em></p>
1. How Common Are These hornets in Asia, and How Much Alarm Do They Cause?
<p>The Asian giant hornet (<em>Vespa mandarinia</em>) is fairly common in many parts of Asia, where it is called the "Giant hornet." Growing up in Japan, I saw them relatively frequently in the mountains outside of Tokyo.</p><p>These insects are large and distinctive, with a characteristic orange head and black-banded orange body. Like any other social wasp, they will defend their nest if the colony is disrupted. But in most cases they will not do anything if people aren't aggressive toward them.</p><p>Giant hornets have longer stingers than a honeybee's, and hornets do not break off their stingers when they sting. Because hornet stingers can puncture thick clothing, people should avoid hornets and their nests whenever possible.</p><p>Giant hornets frequently are attracted to tree sap: I was stung by one when I was looking for butterflies on trees. The sting is painful, but the swelling and pain in most cases subside in a few days.</p><p>Just as with honey bee stings, an allergic reaction, or anaphylaxis, can occasionally put people in the hospital. In rare cases, <a href="https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/bee-stings/symptoms-causes/syc-20353869" target="_blank">severe reactions can become fatal</a>. But wasp and hornet stings killed <a href="http://www2u.biglobe.ne.jp/~vespa/vespa0562.htm" target="_blank">less than 13 people a year in 2017 and 2018 in Japan</a> – less than 0.00001% of the national population – in a country where many people spend time in the woods.</p><p>If you are allergic to bee and wasp stings, it is best to avoid getting close to these insects and their nests, wear white clothing outdoors (they are attracted to dark colors), and avoid carrying open-top sweet drinks such as sodas in the woods.</p>
2. Are You Surprised That the Hornets Have Appeared in North America?
<p>To some degree, yes. Most likely, a single, fertile queen hornet entered Canada via shipping packaging and created the colony that was discovered in 2019.</p><p>It's easy for invasive species to travel this way. More than 19,000 cargo containers <a href="https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/policing-americas-ports-108008881/" target="_blank">arrive daily at U.S. ports</a>, and inspectors can only do random searches of shipping containers. One estimate suggests that just <a href="https://www.ncrs.fs.fed.us/pubs/jrnl/2001/nc_2001_haack_004.pdf" target="_blank">2% of shipments</a> are searched for evidence of harmful organisms such as plant pests. Many invasive species are intercepted, but some do get through.</p><p>It's very unlikely that an entire colony of hornets was transferred to North America. Colonies of this hornet are often large, and the hornets would be visible and potentially aggressive if their nest were disturbed.</p><p>A genetic test indicated that one of the hornets found in Washington was <a href="https://news.ucr.edu/articles/2020/05/06/murder-hornets-invade-headlines-not-us" target="_blank">not related to the Canadian colony</a>, but those results have not been published or peer reviewed. The Giant hornet has not been found in 2020 in either the U.S. or Canada.</p><img lazy-loadable="true" src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yMzI3OTM0OC9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTY0NjY1MzYxMX0.r_Wa-PDa8oNFiB_ociakQHDhDnjSqAmc7nVin0-0FYQ/img.jpg?width=980" id="f4562" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="cdc146b7493cb5256374321f9336ca5d" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" />
Four wasp and hornet species often confused with the Giant hornet. Upper left: European hornet (Vespa crabro). Upper right: Common aerial yellowjacket (Dolichovespula arenaria). Lower left: European paper wasp (Polistes dominula). Lower right: Baldfaced hornet (Dolichovespula maculata). gailhampshire (upper left), Gilles Gonthier (upper right), Judy Gallagher (bottom images), all via Flickr, CC BY
3. What Kind of Conditions Do These Insects Need to Live?
<p>Giant hornets are fairly common in mountainous regions of Asia, but they're not often seen in large cities or highly urbanized areas. They usually nest at the base of large trees and inside dead logs. The fact that they can't tolerate extremely hot or <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/25008806" target="_blank">cold temperatures</a> makes it unlikely that they would spread to very hot or cold areas of North America.</p><p>If active colonies are discovered in 2020 in the Pacific Northwest, which has a more temperate climate, it's possible that they could spread there. However, it is unlikely that this would happen quickly, as foraging ranges of <em>Vespa</em> are only <a href="https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0185172" target="_blank">about 2,300 feet (700 meters) from their nest</a>.</p><p>The key to prevent spread is surveillance. Anyone in the Pacific Northwest should be alert for Giant hornets while they are outdoors this summer and fall.</p>4. If More Hornets Are Found, Could They Threaten Honeybees and Other Pollinators?
<p>Possibly. Some media posts have described destruction of honeybee nests by what could have been Giant hornets, but honeybees are not these insects' only prey. The hornets feed on different kinds of insects, and bring captured dead prey back to their hive to feed to their young.</p><p>In Japan, beekeepers surround their hives with <a href="https://shop.r10s.jp/diokasei/cabinet/suzume/imgrc0068904247.jpg" target="_blank">wire screen nets</a> to protect them from hornets. North American beekeepers can replicate these with wire netting from local hardware stores.</p><p>Many honeybees in Asia have the ability to protect their hive from intruding Giant hornets by <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2007.07.033" target="_blank">scorching them</a>. They wait for a hornet to enter their nest, then mob it by surrounding it completely with their bodies. Each honeybee vibrates its wings, and the combined warming of honey bee bodies raises the temperature in the center of the cluster to 122 degrees F (50 degrees C), killing the hornet. Carbon dioxide levels in the nest also increase during this process, which contributes to the hornet's death.</p><span style="display:block;position:relative;padding-top:56.25%;" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="21f08ef1a03946a68aa8e913227b5eb8"><iframe lazy-loadable="true" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/awoV5Wj9Iys?rel=0" width="100%" height="auto" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" style="position:absolute;top:0;left:0;width:100%;height:100%;"></iframe></span><p><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=awoV5Wj9Iys#action=share" target="_blank">youtu.be</a></p>
5. Are News Stories About “Murder Hornets” Overreacting?
<p>Yes, very much so. In parts of Japan, people consider these hornets beneficial because they remove pests, such as harmful caterpillars, from crops. They are also thought to contain nutrients, and have been used as ingredients in <a href="https://www.splendidtable.org/story/the-japanese-tradition-of-raising-and-eating-wasps" target="_blank">Japanese food and some strong liquors</a>. Some people believe the hornets' essence has medicinal benefits.</p><p>People who live in Vancouver, Seattle or nearby should certainly take note of what these insects look like. They are 2 inches long or more, with a <a href="https://extension.psu.edu/asian-giant-hornets" target="_blank">3-inch wingspan</a>, and have distinctly orange heads and broad striped orange and black-banded abdomens. That's different from typical North American hornets, which have yellow or white bodies with black marks.</p><p>In the unlikely case that you see a Giant hornet in Washington state, do not try to remove nests yourself or spray hornets with pesticides. Cutting down trees to prevent nesting sites is also unnecessary, and can affect many other kinds of native wildlife, including beneficial insects that are needed for pollination and decomposition. Many native insects are <a href="https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-ento-011019-025151" target="_blank">declining globally</a>, and it's important to make sure these insects are not affected.</p><p>Instead, take a photo from a distance and report it to the <a href="https://agr.wa.gov/departments/insects-pests-and-weeds/insects/hornets" target="_blank">Washington State Department of Agriculture</a>. Photos are essential to verify that identifications are accurate.</p><p>Consider also uploading your images to <a href="https://www.inaturalist.org/" target="_blank">iNaturalist</a>, which is one of the primary sources for information on tracking wildlife. The images are archived and carry data, such as location, time of observance and the insect's morphological features, that scientists can use for research. </p>From Your Site Articles
- 'Murder Hornets' Spotted in U.S. for the First Time - EcoWatch ›
- First-Ever 'Murder Hornet' Nest Found in U.S. and Destroyed - EcoWatch ›
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