‘Murder hornets’ kill honey bees in gruesome ways. That’s bad for us all, experts say
It didn’t take long for news to go viral about the arrival of the Asian giant hornet, better known as the murder hornet, in the United States.
That’s because their visit could prove devastating for honey bee colonies in America responsible for the food on our plates, the many plants in our gardens, and pretty much the entire food chain.
The invasive species is native to places like Japan, South Korea and Taiwan, so experts aren’t sure how it made its way to Washington state late last year, media outlets reported.
They get their name from their murderous capabilities. All it takes is one hornet to spot a honey bee hive and mark it with a pheromone — an excreted chemical that impacts the behaviors of receiving individuals — before the whole swarm of up to 50 comes in and tears the bees to shreds, bringing some remains to their young for dinner, The New York Times reported.
One group of researchers that recorded a “slaughter” event learned each hornet killed one bee every 14 seconds, the outlet said.
Japanese honey bees have learned to “cook” the hornets to death by forming a vibrating ball around one of them, creating an oven that can reach up to 115 degrees, according to the NYT.
Honey bees in America aren’t so equipped. They try to sting the hornets, but fail because their exoskeletons are too strong, meaning the hornets can prove deadly in the U.S.
Government biologists are now asking the public to report any sightings of the murderers in an effort to eradicate them before they can officially call America home.
But what will a world without honey bees look like if eradication efforts prove ineffective?
Food security
Our plates and the foods on them will look much different.
One out of every four bites of food we eat is “courtesy of bee pollination,” the U.S. Department of Agriculture said, so no bees means significantly less food and food diversity.
This is because honey bees spend the majority of their time pollinating about 75% of the fruits, nuts and vegetables grown in the U.S., according to the department.
The California Almond Board said that without bees, almonds “simply wouldn’t exist,” the Natural Resources Defense Council reported. Without the critters to help spread coffee flower seeds, the caffeine we love will become more expensive, and rare, the outlet said, because the plant is only open for pollination for three to four days.
Other crops such as blueberries, squash, apples, strawberries and tomatoes also grow with the help of honey bee pollinators; it’s a symbiotic relationship.
Without bees, our diets would consist mostly of corn, wheat and rice because they are pollinated by wind, according to ASAP Science.
Not to mention “bee pollination is responsible for more than $15 billion in increased crop value each year, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.
Livestock
Honey bees also pollinate alfalfa — a forage crop used for grazing and cultivating hay — that feeds livestock such as dairy cows.
If cows and other valuable animals do not have food to eat, then people have less milk and meat to consume, which comes down to issues to “sustain the global human population of 7 billion,” according to the BBC.
Plant biodiversity
Declines in pollinators could make plants more vulnerable to extinction, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service says.
When bees visit flowers, the powdery pollen sticks to their furry bodies, joining them on their journeys to other plants. Pollination happens when pollen falls off a bee and onto another flower or tree, thus ensuring a fruit, nut or other food product will grow next season.
If bees are not present to do this important job, then food will not grow in the quantities needed to feed humans and other animals.
There is also a correlation between pollinator diversity and plant diversity, the agency says — another symbiotic relationship that proves the more the merrier.
This in turn maintains healthy ecosystems full of trees and plants that provide food and homes for humans and other animals, while improving water, air and soil quality, an article in The Conversation said.
The world might be OK, thanks to native bees
Long before Europeans brought honey bees to America, native bees were already pollinating the nation’s plants, according to the USDA.
“A honey bee would have to visit a blueberry flower four times to deposit the same amount of pollen as a single visit from a bumble bee queen,” the article in The Conversation said.
That’s because native bees can shake flowers at a certain frequency to release more pollen than their honey counterparts, the article said. “Honey bees can’t do this.”
So, while a murder hornet infestation could possibly make a gigantic dent in honey bee populations, there remains no evidence that the hornets have an affinity for wild, native bees, which provides a glimmer of hope for both the insects and the food on our plates.
However, evidence shows native bee populations are also declining, but at least the murder hornets have nothing to do with it.
This story was originally published May 4, 2020 at 3:32 PM with the headline "‘Murder hornets’ kill honey bees in gruesome ways. That’s bad for us all, experts say."
