How Commercial Disinfection Services Can Keep Office Workspaces Safe
Americans spend approximately 45 hours each week at work, sometimes more.
And, even though business owners employ cleaning services or carry out DIY efforts, it isn’t enough to defend against harmful pathogens like the ones that cause COVID-19.
There are many high-touch areas in offices that increase the chance of contamination of germs, viruses, and bacteria, which can spread easily to other employees, customers, and loved ones.
Disease outbreak is a serious situation, which has been made evident by the novel coronavirus outbreak.
That’s why now, more than ever before, it’s important for businesses to use professional commercial-grade disinfection services that can help protect against viruses such as coronavirus, hantavirus, E. Coli, and hepatitis B and C.
Benefits of Using ViralGuard Disinfection Services
Safer Work Environment
For many businesses, employees work in close proximity to one another.
And there can be a variety of high-touch areas like furniture, keyboards, and door handles that can have a harmful impact if contaminated.
The commercial-grade disinfectant is safe for people, pets, and has a clean scent.
Depending on the surface material, it takes approximately an hour and half for the disinfectant to dry. After the drying time, your business can continue with its day-to-day affairs.
Disinfecting workspaces on a regular basis can help protect office workspaces from becoming contaminated with viruses and bacteria.
Fewer Sick Days Caused by the Spread of Disease
Sick days are essential, but it can hurt the business when most — if not all, of your employees are out sick.
Production can slow if a virus spreads from one employee to another, or from a surface to an employee.
Professional disinfecting services in offices or shared areas like breakrooms, bathrooms, or conference rooms can help protect your staff and slow the spread of pathogens.
Using store-bought cleaner can help maintain a clean office space and give you the clean scent so many of us associate with a job well-done. But that doesn’t mean it is defending against dangerous bacteria and pathogens.
A thorough cleaning using EPA-registered disinfectants is critical in keeping your workforce safe and healthy.
Get Commercial Disinfection Services Today
Catseye technicians are supplied with the equipment necessary to disinfect entire buildings. Special focus is paid to high-touch surfaces such as door handles, railings, and desktops, as well as office chairs, arm rests, and keyboards.
Catseye’s commercial disinfection services use EPA-registered disinfectants and materials effective against viruses that includes, but not limited to:
COVID-19 (SARS-CoV-2)
Hantavirus
E. Coli
Hepatitis B and C
Avian Flu
Staphylococcus aurous (Staph)
Streptococcus pyogenes (Strep)
Protect your staff, customers, and visitors from theses harmful particles and many others.
Contact Catseye today to learn more about our ViralGuard Disinfection Services for businesses.
Look what showed up in a yard in Bowie Maryland, a periodical cicada. Image: Nancy Harding, UMD Entomology
Earlier this year we broke the sad news that the Washington–Baltimore region would not have the pleasure of enjoying billions of boisterous Brood X cicadas.We suggested a road trip to southwestern Virginia, southern West Virginia, and northern North Carolina to witness the appearance of Brood IX cicadas. Not ones to disappoint, cicadas are emerging in these areas by the billions. Before COVID 19 and lockdown, Bug of the Week was planning a road trip to southern VA to listen to the big boy band in the treetops and revel in this spectacular and unique event that happens nowhere else in the universe except right here (we think).
Periodical cicadas have a marvelous and unusual life cycle for an insect spending either 17 or 13 years mostly underground as nymphs feeding on sap from tree roots. In spring, usually in mid to late May of the 13th or 17th year of their life cycle, nymphs emerge from their subterranean crypts and molt into adults. One of the many wonders of cicadas is that broods of 13 and 17 year cicadas emerge on different years and in different locations. A brood of cicadas emerges somewhere in the eastern or central U.S. almost every year. There are 3 broods of 13 year cicadas and 12 broods of 17 year cicadas. Many of you may remember the spectacular emergence of Brood X up and down the east coast in 2004. Since then, parts of our region have seen cicadas of Brood II, Brood XIV, and Brood XIX. You can learn about Brood XIX by visiting “St. Mary’s survivors – Cicadas of Brood XIX” and learn about Brood II in a lengthy series of episodes beginning in April of 2013 with “Hail Brood II: Magicicada spp.” We also introduced the class of 2021 with Brood X stragglers back in 2017 with “Periodical cicadas up and out of the ground in Maryland, DC, and Virginia – Magicicada spp.”.
Guess what, we are beginning to see the vanguard of Brood X cicadas appearing one year early in the Baltimore-Washington region. Keep an eye out for these cicada stragglers and report your sighting using the free Cicada Safari app.
In addition to the massive emergence of billions of Brood IX cicadas underway in North Carolina, Virginia, and West Virginia, Maryland seems to be a hotspot for the appearance of cicada stragglers, the vanguard of Brood X cicada scheduled to make their grand appearance in 2021. Image: Gene Kritsky
However, this week we began receiving strange sporadic reports of a few periodical cicadas emerging in the suburbs of Baltimore, Washington, and throughout the DMV. This wonderful event is part of the ongoing mystery surrounding one of Nature’s most magical creatures. Before local cicadaphiles get their hopes too high and cicadaphobes start packing to leave town, please know that this is not a full blown emergence of Brood X. Cicada experts call sightings of a few cicadas in unexpected locations in “off” years, cicada “stragglers.” Stragglers are periodical cicadas that emerge in years prior to or after their brood is expected to emerge. Usually, 17 year cicada stragglers emerge four years prior to their expected emergence date; however it is possible for periodical cicadas to emerge between 8 years earlier and 4 years later than expected. Based on historical data, researchers can associate stragglers with their massive parent brood. This year unexpected stragglers, likely from Brood X, have shown up in our area. The map accompanying this episode provides scientifically vetted accounts of actual sightings of periodical cicadas in our region this spring. This wonderful event has entomologists eager to add new information to our knowledge of these inimitable creatures.
To join other cicadaphiles in the quest for information on these marvelous creatures, look for the Cicada Safari app at the app store. Image: Gene Kritsky
Ok, so cicadaphiles, here is your call to action and a chance to participate in an awesome citizen science project! Cicada researchers are vastly interested in the phenomenon of cicada stragglers, as they may inform us on the evolution of cicadas, their distribution, and the formation of new broods. If enough of these rascals emerge at once, survive, and successfully reproduce, a new brood may be just around the evolutionary corner. To get in on the action, go to the app store on your cellular phone and download the Cicada Safari app. It is free and very easy to use. Download, register, and start snapping pictures of cicadas. Easy as pie. Cicada geniuses will vet your images and add them to a growing data base designed to demystify the seasonal phenology and distribution of these charismatic creatures.
So snap to it and keep your eyes open for cicadas.
Acknowledgements
We thank Nancy Harding for providing the inspiration for this episode and for sharing the nice image of a cicada. We also thank Dr. Gene Kritsky of Mount St. Joseph University for providing insights into this article and for sharing the distribution map of cicadas as of May 23, 2020 from data assembled from the Cicada Safari app. To learn more about magical periodical cicadas, please visit fabulous repository for all things cicada at Cicada Mania and search the archives at Bug of the Week for “cicada”
Mother Nature’s hit squad is at work in my perennial gardens. Today we learn about aphid mummies and how they get holes in their rear ends. Something I’m sure everyone wants to know.
For the last two episodes we have been fascinated by the Asian giant hornet and what it’s potential introduction and establishment in North America might mean to bee keepers and average citizens. This week we bring it home to the front flower bed to learn about a member of the brachonid wasp clan, a tiny American wasp called Aphidius. Each spring I am treated to hordes of prolific aphids colonizing my bee-balm and other perennials. Their tiny beaks probe meristematic buds, sucking sap and curling and twisting expanding leaves. These rascals excrete gobs of sticky honeydew on leaves and branches below; altogether they are quite disagreeable. Rather than panic and pull out an insecticide, I wait a few days or a week, and usually papery brown aphids will appear amongst the other plump, juicy members of the aphid colony. These papery brown aphids go by the colorful name of “aphid mummies”. Aphid mummies are the exoskeletons of once living aphids, aphids that have had their internal organs consumed by an Aphidius wasp larva which developed within.
As aphids feed on plants, plants release volatile chemicals that can attract Aphidius wasps to an individual plant under attack. In addition to plant attractants, the very honeydew excreted by aphids may also serve as attractants to their lethal Aphidius enemy. Once a colony of aphids is located, the tiny female wasp begins her attack. By curling a marvelously jointed abdomen beneath her body and between her legs, the stinger at the tip of the abdomen faces forward just like the lance of a charging medieval knight on horseback. She deftly jabs with her stinger, a.k.a. ovipositor in entomological jargon, until she finds just the right spot to pierce the exoskeleton and deposit an egg inside the hapless aphid. Upon hatching from the egg, the wasp larva begins to consume tissues within the aphid, but its choice of meals is selective. It does not consume the vital organs immediately and does not kill its aphid host outright. It nibbles around the edges so to speak, allowing the aphid to survive and feed while the wasp larva develops within. And you thought James Cameron was the first to come up with that idea for Aliens.
Cool wet weather has spawned an outbreak of aphids on my perennial plants. Among the plump juicy aphids are brown, papery aphid mummies, the product of attacks by parasitic Aphidius wasps. These tiny braconid wasps play an important role in reducing aphid populations on many woody and herbaceous landscape plants. Watch as a wasp tangles with a hapless aphid. The aphid does its best to kick and push the female wasp away. Her articulated and highly mobile abdomen curls beneath her body, providing a frontal assault on the aphid. At the tip of her abdomen is an ovipositor and as she stings the aphid her eggs are inserted into the aphid’s body.
Parasitic (a.k.a. parasitoid) wasps developing within their host are called endoparasites and those that develop while their host continues to feed and move about are called koinobionts. Other species of parasitic wasps, including the steel blue cricket hunter, potter wasp, and cicada killer we met in previous episodes, first paralyze their host, arresting its development before depositing an egg. These undead but paralyzed victims soon become food for the wasp larva. Bad way to go. Wasps with this modus operando are known as idiobionts. As they develop, some species of Aphidius exert a zombie-like mind control over their aphid host, causing it to wander away from the rest of the aphid colony. By creating distance from the rest of the herd, these parasitized zombie aphids may be less likely to be consumed by predators that would also kill the wasp larva developing within. As if this was not enough abuse, the parasitized aphid has one final chapter in its doomed existence. As the larval wasp nears the end of its development, it finally consumes the vital internal organs and tissues of the aphid, leaving behind only the papery exoskeleton and thereby creating a mummy. Within the mummy, the larva pupates and with time a tiny adult wasp emerges from the pupa, still within the aphid’s exoskeleton. Ready for what’s up when aphids have a hole in their rear end? To free itself from the mummy, Aphidius uses sharp jaws to chew a near perfectly round hole in the aphid’s abdomen as an escape hatch. Once out, it’s off to find some food, maybe a mate, and hunt more unfortunate aphids.
Aphidius wasps are not only important agents of biological control in my garden, but they also wage war on aphid pests found in many agricultural crops around the world. Some species can be purchased commercially and are released in greenhouses and conservatories to reduce aphid populations as an alternative to insecticides. While the larvae require aphid hosts in which to develop, adult wasps use floral resources like nectar as a carbohydrate source. So, be sure to have a season long diversity of flowering plants in your landscape to help sustain these tiny warriors and if you spot a papery brown aphid with a hole its rear end, you will have found your mummy.
Acknowledgements
Bug of the Week thanks Dr. Shrewsbury for providing inspiration for this episode. The fascinating articles “Host behaviour modification by the endoparasitoid Aphidius nigripes: A strategy to reduce hyperparasitism” by Jacques Brodeur and Jeremy McNeil, “Identification of Semiochemicals Released During Aphid Feeding That Attract Parasitoid Aphidius ervi” by Yongjun Du, Guy M. Poppy, Wilf Powell, John A. Pickett, and Lester J. Wadhams, and “Ecological Interactions Affecting the Efficacy of Aphidius colemani in Greenhouse Crops” by Sara G. Prado, Sarah E. Jandricic, and Steven D. Frank, were used in preparation of this episode.
Many viewers are sending images of European hornet, a fairly common and widely distributed exotic species established in the US for decades. A side-by-side comparison will help you to distinguish between the European hornet and Asian giant hornet.
Due to a seemingly unrelenting interest in recently discovered “murder hornets” in the Pacific Northwest, we are revisiting the story posted last week at Bug of the Week. First, I wanted to thank all visitors to Bug of the Week and folks that listened to, watched, or read about Asian giant hornets and sent images or descriptions of large wasps they encountered. Many of the accounts detailed the discovery of a hornet in a fireplace or basement. The good news: to date, all images and reports have been European hornets, not the dreaded “murder hornets.” So, thanks everyone for being on the lookout. Check out the image with this story and you should be able to distinguish between Asian giant hornets and European hornets. Please click on this link to see how European hornets roll.
For those of you who missed last week’s episode, here is the story as presented a week ago with minor modification. A couple of weeks ago, the New York Times set off a firestorm of interest in a fierce predatory hornet that was recently discovered in the Pacific Northwest. By the way, hornets are a type of social wasps that live in colonies with a caste system of queens, workers, and drones. In September of 2019, in the town of Nanaimo on Vancouver Island, a colony of Asian giant hornets (AGH) was discovered and destroyed. Three months later in Blaine Washington, the first confirmed detection of AGH in the United states was made. Several more potential sightings and suspected attacks on honeybee colonies were reported in Washington State during the latter part of 2019. How AGH arrived in North America from infested nations in Asia including Japan, China, Taiwan, Laos, Thailand, Cambodia, Myanmar, Vietnam, Nepal, India and Sri Lanka, remains a mystery. However, as with recent introductions of other invaders such as spotted lanternfly, brown marmorated stink bug, and emerald ash borer we met in previous episodes, it is probably a safe bet that they sailed across the seas as stowaways in a shipment of goods headed for a port on the Pacific coast. One disquieting aspect of these recent discoveries is evidence suggesting that hornets found in Canada were genetically distinct from those discovered in the US. This opens the door to the possibility that at least two independent introductions have occurred. Not surprising, but not good news.
Let’s take a quick look at four species of stingers that might be confused with the Asian giant hornet. The Asian giant hornet is large with queens about two inches long. A large yellow head at the front leads a yellow abdomen encircled with several dark bands with even margins. Queens of the next largest hornet, the European hornet, measure just shy of an inch and a half. Heads are chestnut or amber and the abdomen has a few dark bands with strange dots at the posterior margin. The Baldfaced hornet is a native with striking colors of white bands and markings on a black background. Queens are about three quarters of an inch long. Several species of native and introduced yellowjackets sport bold alternating bands of black on yellow. They range in size from about half to three quarters of an inch. The last wasp in this gallery is our native Cicada killer. Commonly seen in summer, these hunters of annual cicadas have a shiny black abdomen with yellow or creamy patches partially encircling the sides. They are quite large at an inch and a half or more. Image of Asian giant hornet by Allan Smith-Pardo of USDA APHIS PPQ and Bugwood.org; other images and video by Michael J. Raupp.
People have asked why they should be concerned about this invader. Two good reasons exist. First, even though these are not “generally aggressive” towards humans, like other social insects including paper wasps, yellowjackets, and honeybees, they will forcefully defend their colony if the colony is threatened. And their sting really packs a wallop. Descriptions of pain associated with the sting liken it to being stabbed with a hot nail, not something I have experienced but it sure sounds painful. The toxicity of AGH’s venom is actually somewhat less than that of the honeybee, however, due to their very large size, among the largest of all hornets on the planet, the volume of venom delivered per sting is quite large. Many deaths associated with stings from hornets, bees, and wasps result from severe allergic reactions called anaphylaxis. However, reports of human deaths from China and Japan have been linked to the toxic properties of the venom itself when people received multiple stings by many AGHs. The venom of AGH is a witches brew of chemicals, including cytolytic toxins that destroy cell membranes, and neurotoxins that attack the nervous system. One account from China claimed that 41 people had been killed by AGH stings with another 1,600 needing medical attention. To put this into perspective a bit, here in the US the CDC reports on average 62 deaths each year due to stings from hornets, wasps, and bees. And for the major gender demographic of Bug of the Week, the men, about 80% of these deaths are males. Figure that one out.
Let’s take a closer look at the Asian giant hornet. Image by Allan Smith-Pardo, Invasive Hornets, USDA APHIS PPQ, Bugwood.org
The second, and perhaps more important reason for concern, is the potential effect AGH can have on the already beleaguered honeybee industry and non-commercial beekeepers. Already imperiled by invasive mites and diseases, climate change, and pesticides, honeybees now face a new enemy. AGH has been described as a specialist on social bees including our domestic European honeybee, Apis mellifera. In the typical seasonal progression of business in a colony of AGH, many different types of insects and other arthropods are captured by foraging workers, dismembered, and chewed into balls of flesh. These meat balls are taken back to the colony as food for the queen and developing hornet larvae. In a remarkable treatise on the biology of AGH, Matsuura and his colleague Sakagami described a unique and diabolical attack levied on honeybee colonies that begins in late summer and early autumn. Phase 1 of the attack, called the hunting phase, occurs when individual hornets lurk near a hive, capture and kill singular honeybees, macerate them into a ball, and take them back to their colony to feed the brood. Phase 2, graphically named the slaughter phase, happens when several hornets focus their attention on one beehive. As guard honeybees mount a counterattack to the pillaging hornets, the attackers grapple with the defenders, decapitate them with powerful jaws, and discard their victims in front of the hive. The slaughtered bees are not taken back to the hornets’ nest as a source of food. They are simply discarded on the ground. The slaughter phase can last several hours and decimate a hive. One report of an attack by 30 hornets resulted in the death of 25,000 honeybees. Phase 3 of the attack is called the occupation phase. After the slaughter is complete, with most honeybee defenders dead and most other workers and foragers having abandoned the hive, the killing of adult honeybees ceases. Attention turns to bee brood (immatures) developing in their cells. Asian giant hornets post guards at the entrance of the beehive ready to attack humans or other hornets not part of the same clan that approach the hive. Inside the hive, bee larvae and pupae are pulled from their chambers and transported back to the hornets’ nest to feed developing hornet larvae. This nightmare for honeybees leaves little wonder for why these marauders are called murder hornets.
Should the discovery of AGH on the west coast send shockwaves across our nation? Not at this point in time. The infestation on the west coast at the time of this writing consists of one colony in British Columbia that was completely destroyed last year. While the discovery of hornets and suspected colony raids on beehives nearby portend other colonies of hornets, this season awaits the discovery and confirmation of more established colonies. The critical issues now are to survey, detect, and delimit the extent of this introduction and to act swiftly to eradicate colonies of AGH before this invader becomes well established and spreads. This effort is already underway by agencies and scientists in the United States and Canada. Citizen scientists are being enlisted to help find the hornet and report its location to officials. Past history has proven that very few invaders that arrive on our shores actually become established and achieve significant pest status. Even if AGH were to establish in the Pacific Northwest, it would likely take years, if not decades, to become broadly distributed across our nation. However, as we have seen with other pests, like emerald ash borer and brown marmorated stink bug, spread of an invasive species can be greatly accelerated by inadvertent human assistance, including interstate transport of materials that may harbor hornets or arrival of new impregnated queens from Asia that can found colonies near ports of entry into our country.
What should the general public and beekeepers do at this time? Learn to identify AGH and distinguish it from other hornets and wasps. Washington State University and USDA have excellent resources to learn about the biology and management of Asian giant hornet (see the links below). This week’s YouTube video and images should help with identification.
Please keep your eyes open and if you believe you have discovered AGH, snap a photo with your cell phone and send it to your state department of agriculture or local university extension service. Beekeepers, now is the time to learn about this new threat to your colonies and to learn what steps can be taken should it arrive in your area. So, is it time to panic? Nah, not here in the DMV for sure; for most of us it is time to become informed about this invader. For beekeepers throughout our country, particularly those in the northwestern United Sates, it is time to be vigilant and learn about the biology and management of this pest.
Links to other websites with great information and video of Asian giant hornets include the following:
We thank Kathryn Fink and Celeste Headlee for providing the inspiration for this episode. We also thank Allan Smith-Pardo of USDA APHIS PPQ and Bugwood.org for the amazing images of Asian giant hornet. “A Bionomic Sketch of the Giant Hornet, Vespa mandarinia, a Serious Pest for Japanese Apiculture” by Makoto Matsuura and Shoichi F. Sakagami, “Purification and properties of a presynaptically acting neurotoxin, mandaratoxin, from hornet (Vespa mandarinia)” by Takashi Abe , N. Kawai, and A. Niwa, “Cardioactive effects of hornet venom, Vespa mandarinia” by T. Abe, and “Giant hornet (Vespa mandarinia) venomous phospholipases” by Takashi Abe, Masato Sugita, Tsuyoshi Fujikura, Jiro Hiyoshi, and Michinori Akasu, provided valuable insights for this week’s episode.
A Look into How Commercial-Grade Disinfection Services Work for Your Business
Building owners, property managers, and business operators are responsible for making important decisions to keep their employees and/or residents safe, and their offices and facilities clean.
To do that, businesses are hiring professional disinfection crews to help combat the novel coronavirus, among other harmful bacteria and pathogens that can cause viruses.
Current evidence shows that COVID-19 is primarily transmitted through droplets that contain the virus. Meaning, the virus can be inhaled. But these droplets can also land on surfaces.
Depending on the surface or object material, the virus can survive for approximately 72 hours. Consider the number of objects and furniture in your business and how frequently they encounter employees and customers.
As of right now, there is no vaccine for the virus. So, if someone contracts the virus, it can be quite serious, or even deadly. The infected person can also spread the virus further to their homes and loved ones.
Disinfecting surface areas like doorknobs, desks, phones, and other areas around the business can help protect your staff, customers, and yourself.
When Technicians are at Your Office Space or Facility
Waiting until the restrictions are lifted to have your facility or office disinfected could put your business behind schedule. It can also put your staff at risk of contracting the virus.
The best time to disinfect your building is when it is empty. Catseye Pest Control technicians will schedule a time that is most convenient for you and your business and can access each area of the building without being in the way of your staff or other occupants.
Even if your business is essential and still operating at this time, Catseye can work with your schedule while also practicing safe social distancing.
Keeping your business, employees, and customers safe during a pandemic is our number one priority.
Using EPA-registered disinfectants and materials we can disinfect desks, door handles, breakrooms, and other areas, we can disinfect the entire building.
Is the Commercial-Grade Disinfectant Safe?
Catseye’s commercial-grade disinfectant is EPA-regulated, making it safe for people and animals. It also leaves behind a clean scent rather than a chemical scent people associate with disinfecting.
Depending on the material and surface area, the disinfectant takes approximately an hour and a half to dry. Your business will be up and running again before you know it!
Our disinfectant services can help defend against harmful viruses that can lead to diseases like histoplasmosis, leptospirosis, coronavirus including COVID-19, and many more.
It’s worth noting, a disinfected facility can become infected again if a sick person, or people, enters the premises.
In an ideal situation, a sick person will stay home from work. But sometimes that isn’t feasible. This is especially true when viruses like COVID-19 can take upwards of two weeks to appear.
Schedule Disinfection Services
As it stands, it’s unclear when the current pandemic will end (as of May 2020). Because of this, business owners might feel uncertain about scheduling disinfection services.
This is no reason to wait to act and get quality disinfection services to your property or business.
Time is of the essence.
Putting our technician’s knowledge and equipment to work allows Catseye to provide disinfection services to commercial buildings, grocery stores, fire stations, and so many other commercial facilities.
Whether your business is essential and currently operating as normal, closed to the public, or waiting for the restriction to be lifted, it will benefit from professional disinfection services.
To stay ahead of the pandemic and prepare your office, restaurant, or other professional space to reopen in the future, you should schedule your COVID-19 disinfection service now.
Also Called the ‘Murder Hornet,’ the Asian Giant Hornet is a Threat to Bees & Humans
The start of 2020 has been one for the books.
And, just when we thought things couldn’t get worse, there’s a new invasive pest taking the internet by storm thanks to its debut in the United States.
The nickname “murder hornet” surely helped increase the popularity of the large hornet of Asian descent, which became an internet sensation as warmer weather set onto America in 2020 after it was first seen in Washington in late 2019.
Now, the appearance of the Asian giant hornet has grown into a genuine fear for Americans.
The Asian giant hornet (Vespa mandarinia) is the world’s largest species of hornet.
When the ‘Murder Hornet’ Showed Up in the United States
Even though confirmed sightings of the pest have only come from one state thus far, it has prompted fears that the Asian giant hornet could establish itself in the United States and pose danger to bee colonies throughout the nation.
Scientists have begun searching for the invader in hopes of preventing the insect from establishing itself in our country.
Becoming established could be devastating to the bee populations and detrimental to our health.
If the presence is not eliminated, eradicating the murder hornet would be difficult, or impossible.
“This is our window to keep it from establishing,” Chris Looney, an entomologist at the Washington State Department of Agriculture told the New York Times. “If we can’t do it in the next couple of years, it probably can’t be done.”
The stinging pest is native to the forests and mountainous areas of eastern and southeast Asia.
Scientists aren’t certain how this species found its way to America, but, in the past, pests have been transported by international cargo.
The Asian giant hornet lifecycle typically begins in April as the queen emerges from hibernation. Feeding on plant sap and fruit, the pest searches for an underground den to build its nest.
After the colony grows and becomes established, worker hornets leave the colony in search of food and prey.
Even though it feeds on plant sap and fruit after hibernation, this species of hornet prefers to make a meal out of honey bees.
Attacking honey bee hives, killing adult bees, the pest brings bee thoraxes back to the colony to feed the queen and the young.
Using their spiked, shark fin-shaped mandible appendages, Asian giant hornets can decapitate and wipeout a hive in a matter of hours.
Thus, giving them the “murder hornet” nickname.
How Asian Giant Hornets Could Be Harmful to Humans & Other Animals
Protecting the population of honey bees is a grave concern.
Pollination is one of the most important factors that contributes to biodiversity. One of the most important things a honey bee can do is pollinate.
Nectar and pollen sticks to the tiny hairs on the bee’s body and then rubs off on the next flower or plant. This process encourages development in fruits, vegetables, and other plants.
So honey bees not only help to provide us with honey, but crops like apples, lima beans, tomatoes, brussels sprouts and many others depend on pollination.
Not only are flowering plants dependent on pollination, bees and forest beekeeping help to sustain forest ecosystems. This process is done through the regeneration of trees, which then helps to conserve forest biodiversity.
There are other honey bee predators that are cause for concern including wasps, bears, and humans. Yet, the murder hornet has quickly made its way to the top of the list.
But, that’s not our only concern.
Larger targets, like humans, also have to worry about the invasive pest.
The Asian giant hornet’s stinger is long enough — and strong enough — to puncture a beekeeping suit. Combined with the venom, being stung by one of these hornets can feel like one of the most excruciating sensations a person could experience.
Some have compared it to hot metal puncturing their skin.
The venom also contains a pheromone, which acts like a magnet for other hornets. So, a person could be swarmed by numerous hornets in only a short matter of time.
To make matters worse, the hornet can sting multiple times. This is quite scary, but especially for those with allergies to bee, wasp, and hornet stings. The outcome of multiple stings could likely be fatal.
The Asian giant hornet has been known to kill approximately 50 people each year in Japan.
How to Identify an Asian Giant Hornet
Unlike other hornets, the Asian giant hornet is quite large — much like the name would suggest.
The hornet can grow up to two inches long. That’s double the size of a yellow jacket!
The pest has a large head that is a yellow-orange color and large, prominent eyes. Their abdomens are black and yellow striped.
Colonies are typically formed as nests in the ground, especially in wooded areas. Take extra care while going for walks on nature trails or hikes.
Typical bee equipment will not be enough to protect you from stings. Do not attempt to remove or eradicate a colony.
Asian giant hornets can be similar in size (and nickname) to the cicada killer wasp, which can grow up to approximately two inches. But the pest is black with yellow stripes on their abdomen. They also have black and red colorations on their back.
Also referred to as cicada killers and cicada hawks, the wasp captures and paralyzes cicadas — the insect that sometimes feeds on plants and crops.
However, cicada killer wasps are not as aggressive as the Asian giant hornet and typically won’t sting unless provoked.
What to do if You See an Asian Giant Hornet
If you spot a hornet nest on your property, you are urged to contact the wildlife and pest control professionals at Catseye Pest Control.
Allowing experts to handle pest removal is essential in the eradication of an invasive species.
Let’s take a closer look at the Asian giant hornet. Image by Allan Smith-Pardo, Invasive Hornets, USDA APHIS PPQ, Bugwood.org
Last week an article in the New York Times set off a firestorm of interest in a fierce predatory hornet that was recently discovered in the Pacific Northwest. By the way, hornets are a type of social wasps that live in colonies with a caste system of queens, workers, and drones. In September of 2019, in the town of Nanaimo on Vancouver Island, a colony of Asian giant hornets (AGH) was discovered and destroyed. Three months later in Blaine, Washington, the first confirmed detection of AGH in the United states was made. Several more potential sightings and suspected attacks on honey bee colonies were reported in Washington State during the latter part of 2019. How AGH arrived in North America from infested nations in Asia including Japan, China, Taiwan, Laos, Thailand, Cambodia, Myanmar, Vietnam, Nepal, India and Sri Lanka, remains a mystery. However, as with recent introductions of other invaders such as spotted lanternfly, brown marmorated stink bug, and emerald ash borer we met in previous episodes, it is probably a safe bet that they sailed across the seas as stowaways in a shipment of goods headed for a port on the Pacific coast. One disquieting aspect of these recent discoveries is evidence suggesting that hornets found in Canada were genetically distinct from those discovered in the US. This opens the door to the possibility that at least two independent introductions have occurred. Not surprising, but not good news.
Let’s take a quick look at four other species of stingers that might be confused with the Asian giant hornet. The Asian giant hornet is large with queens about two inches long. A large yellow head at the front leads a yellow abdomen encircled with several dark bands with even margins. Queens of the next largest hornet, the European hornet, measure just shy of an inch and a half. Heads are chestnut or amber and the abdomen has a few dark bands with strange dots at the posterior margin. The Baldfaced hornet is a native with striking colors of white bands and markings on a black background. Queens are about three quarters of an inch long. Several species of native and introduced yellowjackets sport bold alternating bands of black on yellow. They range in size from about half to three quarters of an inch. The last wasp in this gallery is our native Cicada killer. Commonly seen in summer, these hunters of annual cicadas have a shiny black abdomen with yellow or creamy patches partially encircling the sides. They are quite large at an inch and a half or more. Image of Asian giant hornet by Allan Smith-Pardo of USDA APHIS PPQ and Bugwood.org; other images and video by Michael J. Raupp.
People have asked why they should be concerned about this invader. Two good reasons exist. First, even though these are not “generally aggressive” towards humans, like other social insects including paper wasps, yellowjackets, and honey bees, they will forcefully defend their colony if the colony is threatened. And their sting really packs a wallop. Descriptions of pain associated with the sting liken it to being stabbed with a hot nail, not something I have experienced but it sure sounds painful. The toxicity of AGH’s venom is actually somewhat less than that of the honey bee, however, due to their very large size, among the largest of all hornets on the planet, the volume of venom delivered per sting is quite large. Many deaths associated with stings from hornets, bees, and wasps result from severe allergic reactions called anaphylaxis. However, reports of human deaths from China and Japan have been linked to the toxic properties of the venom itself when people received multiple stings by many AGHs. The venom of AGH is a witches brew of chemicals, including cytolytic toxins that destroy cell membranes, and neurotoxins that attack the nervous system. One account from China claimed that 41 people had been killed by AGH stings with another 1,600 needing medical attention. To put this into perspective a bit, here in the US the CDC reports on average 62 deaths each year due to stings from hornets, wasps, and bees. And for the major gender demographic of Bug of the Week, the men, about 80% of these deaths are males. Figure that one out.
The second, and perhaps more important reason for concern, is the potential effect AGH can have on the already beleaguered honey bee industry and non-commercial beekeepers. Already imperiled by invasive mites and diseases, climate change, and pesticides, honey bees now face a new enemy. AGH has been described as a specialist predator on social bees including our domestic European honey bee, Apis mellifera. In the typical seasonal progression of business in a colony of AGH, many different types of insects and other arthropods are captured by foraging workers, dismembered, and chewed into balls of flesh. These meat balls are taken back to the colony as food for the queen and developing hornet larvae. In a remarkable treatise on the biology of AGH, Matsuura and his colleague Sakagami described a unique and diabolical attack levied on honey bee colonies that begins in late summer and early autumn. Phase 1 of the attack, called the hunting phase, occurs when individual hornets lurk near a hive, capture and kill singular honey bees, macerate them into a ball, and take them back to their colony to feed the brood. Phase 2, graphically named the slaughter phase, happens when several hornets focus their attention on one beehive. As guard honey bees mount a counterattack to the pillaging hornets, the attackers grapple with the defenders, decapitate them with powerful jaws, and discard their victims in front of the hive. The slaughtered bees are not taken back to the hornet’s nest as a source of food. They are simply discarded on the ground. The slaughter phase can last several hours and decimate a hive. One report of an attack by 30 hornets resulted in the death of 25,000 honey bees. Phase 3 of the attack is called the occupation phase. After the slaughter is complete, with most honey bee defenders dead and most other workers and foragers having abandoned the hive, the killing of adult honey bees ceases. Attention turns to bee brood (immatures) developing in their cells. Asian giant hornets post guards at the entrance of the beehive ready to attack humans or other hornets not part of the same clan that approach the hive. Inside the hive, bee larvae and pupae are pulled from their chambers and transported back to the hornets’ nest to feed developing hornet larvae. This nightmare for honey bees leaves little wonder for why these marauders are called murder hornets.
Should the discovery of AGH on the west coast send shockwaves across our nation? Not at this point in time. The infestation on the west coast at the time of this writing consists of one colony in British Columbia that was completely destroyed last year. While the discovery of hornets and suspected colony raids on beehives nearby portend other colonies of hornets, this season awaits the discovery and confirmation of more established colonies. The critical issues now are to survey, detect, and delimit the extent of this introduction and to act swiftly to eradicate colonies of AGH before this invader becomes well established and spreads. This effort is already underway by agencies and scientists in the United States and Canada. Citizen scientists are being enlisted to help find the hornet and report its location to officials. Past history has proven that very few invaders that arrive on our shores actually become established and achieve significant pest status. Even if AGH were to establish in the Pacific Northwest, it would likely take years if not decades to become broadly distributed across our nation. However, as we have seen with other pests, like emerald ash borer and brown marmorated stink bug, spread of an invasive species can be greatly accelerated by inadvertent human assistance, including interstate transport of materials that may harbor hornets, or arrival of new impregnated queens from Asia that can establish colonies near ports of entry into our country.
Many viewers are sending images of European hornet, a fairly common and widely distributed exotic species established in the US for decades. A side-by-side comparison will help you to distinguish between the European hornet and Asian giant hornet.
What should the general public and beekeepers do at this time? Learn to identify AGH and distinguish it from other hornets and wasps. Washington State University and USDA have excellent resources to learn about the biology and management of Asian giant hornet (see the links below). This week’s YouTube video and images should help with identification.
I have received several inquiries over the last week regarding insects thought to be Asian giant hornet. These have all turned out to be European hornets, which are quite common here in the DMV. Check out the image with this story to become an expert at telling these two rascals apart and click on this link to see how European hornets roll.
Please keep your eyes open and if you believe you have discovered AGH, snap a photo with your cell phone and send it to your state department of agriculture or local university extension service. Beekeepers, now is the time to learn about this new threat to your colonies and to learn what steps can be taken should it arrive in your area. So, is it time to panic? Nah, not here in the DMV for sure; for most of us it is time to become informed about this invader. For beekeepers throughout our country, particularly those in the northwestern United Sates, it is time to be vigilant and learn about the biology and management of this pest.
Links to other web sites with great information and video of Asian giant hornets include the following:
We thank Kathryn Fink and Celeste Headlee for providing the inspiration for this episode. We also thank Allan Smith-Pardo of USDA APHIS PPQ and Bugwood.org for the amazing images of Asian giant hornet. “A Bionomic Sketch of the Giant Hornet, Vespa mandarinia, a Serious Pest for Japanese Apiculture” by Makoto Matsuura and Shoichi F. Sakagami, “Purification and properties of a presynaptically acting neurotoxin, mandaratoxin, from hornet (Vespa mandarinia)” by Takashi Abe , N. Kawai, and A. Niwa, “Cardioactive effects of hornet venom, Vespa mandarinia” by T. Abe, and “Giant hornet (Vespa mandarinia) venomous phospholipases” by Takashi Abe, Masato Sugita, Tsuyoshi Fujikura, Jiro Hiyoshi, and Michinori Akasu, provided valuable insights for this week’s episode.
The eastern tent caterpillar is a beautiful beast with blue stripes and patches on the side and a white stripe down the center of the back.
Small and sometimes even large trees may be stripped of leaves by hungry tent caterpillars.
After a relative lull in activity by eastern tent caterpillars in recent years, they seem to be back with a vengeance this season. So, this week we take a peek into the biology of these leaf-munching tent-makers. Just to avoid a bit of confusion, recall that last autumn we met a relative of the eastern tent caterpillar called the fall webworm, as it constructed massive tents on the tips of branches on a wide variety of trees. This week’s rascal is a creature of spring with a fondness for trees in the rose family like cherry, apple, and crabapple. Several weeks ago when forsythia’s bright yellow blossoms announced spring’s arrival, tiny caterpillars hatched from dark brown, Styrofoam-like egg masses in which they had survived winter’s chill. These egg masses were deposited last summer by female eastern tent caterpillar adult moths on small branches of favored hosts. A single egg mass can contain more than 300 hundred eggs. After hatching, larvae build small silken tents over the egg mass and the surrounding branch. From this bivouac they move along branches, spinning silken threads as they go to mark trails to the newly expanding leaves of their host tree, where they feed. Trail marking chemicals called pheromones are deposited by caterpillars on the silken trail to guide nest mates to the location of delectable leaf clusters. As larvae grow during March and April, they need more room and their silken tents are expanded. Tents are typically nestled in the crotch of large branches or where large limbs branch from the trunk.
The saga of the tent caterpillar began six weeks ago when more than 100 tiny caterpillars hatched from their egg mass. So began the daily ritual of following the silk trail from their tent to a meal of tender young leaves, followed by a return trip to the safety of their tent. Fast forward to last week when almost fully grown caterpillars devoured cherry leaves and beat a hasty retreat to their tent as a wicked rainstorm arrived.
Transformation from caterpillar to adult takes place in a white silken cocoon which is often hidden under that loose bark of a dead tree.
Eastern tent caterpillars are rather a chummy lot. Brothers and sisters from the same egg mass often participate in group activities such as communal foraging and enlargement of their remarkable tent. Tents help caterpillars conserve heat and enable the writhing metabolic mass of caterpillars to elevate body temperatures for more rapid growth and development during chilly spring days. Their silken homes may also provide protection from predatory or parasitic insects. These hairy caterpillars have a voracious appetite and can strip even large trees of their leaves when many tents are present. After the caterpillars have completed development, a mass exodus occurs from the tree and the larvae wander the land seeking protected spots beneath logs, leaves, stones, and under man-made structures to spin yellowish or white, silken cocoons. The adult eastern tent caterpillars emerge as moths from their cocoons in June or July, mate and lay eggs back on the small branches of rosaceous trees. These eggs house the next generation of caterpillars that will emerge with the bloom of forsythia next spring.
Managing caterpillars
How do you know if eastern tent caterpillars threaten your trees? The best predictor of a problem next year may be the problem you have this year. The images of this Bug of the Week came from a small stand of wild cherry trees that are perennially infested with eastern tent caterpillars. If you currently have eastern tent caterpillars on your trees and you do not intervene, it’s a pretty safe bet that you will have them again next year. Right now as the caterpillars enlarge their tents and move to the crotches of the tree, tents and their inhabitants can be removed with a gloved hand on a cool day, placed in a bag, and destroyed. The old school remedy of “burning them out”, though dramatic, went out with the storming of Frankenstein’s castle. Flames are very damaging to the bark of a tree and should never be used.
Problems with tent caterpillars in your trees? No worries. Early in the season before eggs hatch, find egg masses on small branches and either crush the egg mass or prune it out and get rid of it. Do the same for small tents later in the season. And if you are really bold, you can simply grab the tent and the caterpillars inside, pull them from the tree, place them in a bag and dispose of them. Boom, problem solved.
Tall trees festooned with tents may be totally stripped of leaves. While trees may recover and produce a second flush of leaves, repeated defoliation probably reduces the vigor of trees. If you have a tall tree from which you cannot safely remove eggs or tents, you may want to seek the help of a professional certified arborist. If you can’t get around to managing eastern tent caterpillars this season, sometime between August of this year and March of next carefully inspect the pencil-sized branches of your infested trees for egg masses and tiny silken webs. The egg masses are easily removed with a pinch of the fingers or, if you are a bit squeamish about touching bugs, simply get out your nippers prune them out, bag them and then dispose of them. Entomologists believe that eastern tent caterpillar populations run in cycles. After a few years of caterpillar plague, natural enemies such as predators, parasitoids, and pathogens reduce tent caterpillars to innocuous levels. Who knows, perhaps next year Mother Nature will send a tent caterpillar relief package and give our trees a break from these noisome creatures.
Acknowledgements
The wonderful book “The Tent Caterpillars” by Terrence Fitzgerald, and “Managing Insects and Mites on Woody Landscape Plants” by John A. Davidson and Michael J. Raupp were used as references for this episode.
Large blister beetles in the genus Meloe, sometimes called oil beetles, find noxious Jimson weed a tasty treat.
A few weeks ago, we visited with pretty ground nesting bees as they built and provisioned subterranean burrows in which to raise their broods. One might think that an underground bunker is a pretty safe place to raise a family. Ah, but a clever beetle lives in the neighborhood of ground nesting bees and targets the bees’ babies as meals for her own young. During the past two weeks, I have seen large iridescent blister beetles patrolling my lawn and lurking near my colony of mason bees. Adult blister beetles are not to be taken lightly by ground nesting bees or by humans. If handled roughly or crushed against your skin, blister beetles release blood laced with potent irritants called cantharidins. They can exude this blood as a potent defense against predators. Upon contacting human skin, these compounds raise nasty looking blisters. Blister beetles consuming plants in meadows have been inadvertently bailed in hay and fed to horses and other farm animals with lethal outcomes.
Yellow droplets at the leg joints of the blister beetle can produce large blisters if they contact your skin.
Blister beetles are also the source of the aphrodisiac and medicinal compound called Spanish fly. The term Spanish fly references a particularly beautiful European species of blister beetle, Lytta vesicatoria, from which cantharidins are extracted. Much lore surrounds the use of cantharidins as potions of love, healing, and death. Love potions concocted with Spanish fly are said to be potent aphrodisiacs. One remarkable tale I stumbled across told the story of a gathering hosted by the infamous Marquis de Sade. To liven things up a bit, the Marquis slipped the guests a little Spanish fly on some sweets. Unfortunately, he miscalculated the effective dose and rather than arousing his guests several were poisoned and died. Spanish fly was also used as a medicinal in America’s revolutionary era. The father of our nation, George Washington, had a most disagreeable encounter with Spanish fly. After taking ill, President Washington was near death on December 14, 1799. As was common medical practice at the time, Spanish fly was applied to his neck in an attempt to “draw out” the inflammation. The Spanish fly therapy and four bloodlettings on the same day proved a bit too much for our ailing founding father. He expired.
Other than packing a nasty wallop of poisons, adult blister beetles live rather placid lives munching leaves or eating pollen. Adult blister beetles consume a wide variety of leafy plants including buttercups, potatoes, mustard greens, beets, and Jimson weed. The larvae of blister beetles are another matter. They are enemies of other insects, including solitary bees such as plasterer bees we met in a previous episode. A sunny backyard hillside sparsely cloaked in grass has become the residence for several species of ground nesting bees at my home. Several years ago, I watched one beetle with a particularly bulbous abdomen spend more than half an hour scooping soil to enlarge a burrow in the earth. When the hole was large enough to accommodate her magnificent rear-end, she turned about and wedged her abdomen into the earth. Although I did not excavate the gallery to confirm what had occurred, according to the literature I am reasonably certain that she deposited her load of eggs into the gallery. When I returned awhile later, she had vanished, having completed her task and carefully sealed the hole with soil.
The spring crop of blister beetles has arrived and they’ve been checking out my mason bee colony and prowling around my yard. Years ago, I watched a female with an abdomen filled with eggs excavating a burrow on a sunny slope in my backyard. Once the hole was large enough she inserted her voluptuous rear-end into the burrow, presumably to deposit eggs. After a leisurely and lengthy period, she unplugged herself from the earth and sealed the egg chamber with soil.
After hatching from eggs deposited in the ground, tiny blister beetle larvae called triungulins get busy finding food. In species of Meloe, finding food begins by scaling a nearby blossom to await a visit by a female bee seeking nectar and pollen. When a bee arrives at the flower, the triungulin rears-up and grasps the hairs of the bee with specialized claws on the tips of its tiny legs. The mother bee unwittingly delivers the blister beetle larva back to her brood gallery, where it drops from her body. The triungulin descends into the gallery and consumes the pollen cakes prepared by the mother bee for her young. After the provisions are consumed, the blister beetle larva eats the baby bees – quite tragic really. Triungulins of other species of blister beetles scurry on the ground and locate nests of grasshopper eggs buried in the soil. Hungry triungulans burrow into the soil and the underground omelet becomes a banquet for the blister beetle larvae.
If you see blister beetles on plants near your home, in the meadow, or feasting on leaves of your potatoes, resist the urge to handle or eat them unless you yearn for a blistering surprise. Stay safe and take a moment to get outside and enjoy bugs.
Acknowledgements
The delightful treatise “The Bionomics of Blister Beetles of the Genus Meloe and a Classification of the New World Species” by John Pinto and Richard Selander was referenced in preparation for this episode.
In my front flower bed a six-spotted green tiger beetle snacks on a hapless field ant.
Six-spotted green tigers sometimes find themselves temporarily entangled by human’s contrivances. Fortunately, this one was released back into the suburban wild. Image: Anne Marie
Last week we returned from several weeks of tropical adventures to the DMV and visited delightful ground-nesting plasterer bees. This week let’s meet the tiger king of the insect world, a beautiful tiny terror, the six-spotted green tiger beetle. Recently, I received an inquiry from a neighbor who discovered a stunning emerald green creature entangled in a sheet of plastic covering a backyard water garden. My hopes for capturing a leprechaun and its attendant pot of gold were dashed when the accompanying image revealed a lovely six-spotted green tiger beetle that had somehow become trapped in the translucent plastic jungle. Tiger beetles are well-adapted to hunt. Exceptionally long legs provide lots of ground clearance and enable bursts of speed as they dash across the forest floor. Large eyes enable them to peruse their surroundings for signs of movement and potential meals. Unlike praying mantids that are “sit and wait” predators, tiger beetles actively stalk, pursue, and capture their victims. As I have observed tiger beetles, I’ve found that tossing a small twig in the vicinity of a hunter often triggered an inquisitive charge as the beetle scrambled to see if a potential meal had entered its ambit.
Six-spotted green tiger beetles prowl in a terrarium while keeping an eye out for a meal. It looks like this tiger beetle has no intention of sharing its dinner with a nosy cricket.
The strange tiger beetle larva lives in an underground lair and captures unsuspecting prey that stray too near.
Like its feline namesake, the tiger beetle has powerful jaws used to subdue its victim. Each jaw is armed with several stout teeth. The jaws grasp, pierce, and crush. Tiger beetles are carnivores as both adults and juveniles. The female tiger beetle lays her eggs singly on the ground. Upon hatching, the immature stage, the larva, constructs an underground burrow. From this lair, the larva stealthily awaits dinner. As a hapless insect or spider strolls by, the larva springs from the hole like a jack-in-the-box and impales its victim with impressive jaws. The prey is then drawn into the burrow and eaten. Strange hook-like structures found on the abdomen of the tiger beetle larva help anchor it in its burrow. As generalist predators and members of Mother Nature’s hit squad, tiger beetles consume pests in our gardens and landscapes and provide the important ecological service of biological control.
Tiger beetles are tough to capture without a net, but if you catch one, be careful; they have powerful jaws and can give you a little nip. On a recent trip to the Western Maryland Rail Trail near Hancock, Maryland legions of six-spotted green tiger beetles capered and dodged bicycles and walkers along the asphalt surface. As I slithered on the ground to photograph tigers, one inquisitive hiker shared his observations of the beetles as he encountered them along the sun-dappled trail. He said “When you get too close, those critters fly up and settle down a little way down the path, then they turn around and look at you. When you get close again, they do the same thing.” Good observations. As I watched the lethal power and speed of tiger beetles, I was glad to be five feet something tall rather than five millimeters in height. This diminutive tiger will be common along sunny bike trails and paths in the forest over the next month or so. A quest for six-spotted green tiger beetles at an appropriate social distance is a tonic on these days of sequestration, and well worth a walk in the forest on a fine spring day.
Sunny bike trails and paths through the forest are great places to watch six-spotted tiger beetles, but alas, fast wheels and speedy feet may spell danger for inattentive tigers.
Acknowledgements
“An Introduction to the Study of Insects” by Borrer, De Long , and Tripplehorn was used as a reference for this Bug of the Week. Thanks to Anne Marie for providing the inspiration for this week’s episode and for releasing her tiger beetle back into the wild.