Oh, come on. Murder hornets?
In the first four months of 2020, the news has brought massive bushfires in Australia, the U.S. killing of an Iranian general followed by Iran’s retaliation, the impeachment trial of President Trump, Britain’s break from the European Union, a deadly global pandemic hand in hand with a worldwide economic crises, and the relentless march toward the 2020 presidential election.
So sure, let’s just throw murder hornets in the mix. What is one more ball to juggle?
But maybe we can use murder hornets — less sensationally known by the name Asian giant hornets — as an example of the balance between the stories that grab our attention and why we should be paying attention.
One could dismiss them as the next trendy thing during quarantine, like “Tiger King” on Netflix or the rebirth of breadmaking. The problem is that dismisses the actual threat of the big stinging insect.
First, let’s dismiss the name. Could you die from a murder hornet sting? Sure, maybe, just as you could with a sting from a honeybee or an encounter with yellow jackets under the proper circumstances. In their home in Japan, about 50 people a year die from the stings, but in the United States, annual deaths from bee, wasp and hornet stings are around 62.
The real issue with the name comes from their relationship with other bugs, such as bees — which they decapitate.
What’s important is focusing on the real threat — that of an invasive species — rather than the catchy name.
The hornet has been seen in Washington state and Canada. That might be 2,500 miles or so from Pennsylvania, but it’s also almost 8,000 miles from Japan, yet somehow the insect has ended up in the ecosystem.
Western Pennsylvania is already dealing with invasive species like the spotted lanternfly and the snakehead fish. The danger of these out-of-town visitors isn’t that they are horror movie villains. It’s that they are a well-organized street gang — moving in, taking over, strangling the competition. They can kill crops, kill wildlife and kill industries.
The last thing we need is a new invasive species with a cartoonishly large orange head and a sting described in The New York Times as “like having red-hot thumbtacks being driven into (the) flesh.”
What we can learn from the murder hornet, however, is balance.
Let’s acknowledge the danger. Let’s be alert for the problem. Let’s even be amused by the storyline. But let’s not let the hype turn it into something it isn’t while missing the real, but less terrifying, issue.
Because we still have a lot of 2020 to go.
Categories: Editorials | Opinion
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May 05, 2020 at 05:01AM
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Editorial: The real danger of murder hornets - TribLIVE
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