BUSTLE - The world has been abuzz (yep, pun totally intended) about the arrival of the Asian giant hornet, otherwise known by the charming nickname "murder hornet," in North America. The New York Times reports that they've been found in Vancouver Island and Washington State, and there's a concern that scientists won't be able to stop these murder hornets from getting a foothold in the U.S. Murder hornets' main M.O. is destroying honeybee populations and stinging humans in the process — an injury that's supposed to feel like "red-hot thumbtacks," according to a victim quoted by the Times — so preventing that foothold would be good. The stings can even be fatal if you get swarmed by many hornets at once. But entomologists tell Bustle that while the Asian giant hornet's appearance in North America is concerning, it shouldn't be petrifying you right now. (Leave that to, you know, everything else that's happening.)
"The most compelling reason to be concerned about the hornet's possible spread is the ecological consequences," Quinn S. McFrederick, head of the McFrederick Lab at University of California at Riverside, tells Bustle. If the hornet spreads unchecked, it could cause a lot of damage both to honeybee populations and other native insect species, McFrederick says. But now beekeepers are on alert, and Raupp says that natural spread across the U.S. will likely take many years. Hornets don't just take over a country overnight, and a lot of people are mobilizing to stop them.