Item — HN Reader

"A genetic examination, concluded over the past few weeks, determined that the nest in Nanaimo and the hornet near Blaine were not connected, said Telissa Wilson, a state pest biologist, meaning there had probably been at least two different introductions in the region."

Is this warfare?

1 comments

Extremely unlikely. Unintentional introductions happen all the time. Someone imports something, and a species comes along. It's even known to have happened because someone imports nothing — empty ships need ballast, and the most conveniently available ballast for a ship is water. So sea species are picked up near port X and transported to port Y.

There's such a lot of trade in the world.

In this case, whoever ordered a doodah from Japan may have ordered eleventy thousand, and a couple of them came with an unintentional extra.

For instance the introduction of Asian hornets (vespa velutina, not the giant one) in Europe was traced back to a single shipment of Chinese pottery to the South-West of France in 2004. Apparently one queen is enough to invade an entire continent. The lack of genetic diversity hasn't stopped them to spread to Spain, Italy and so on.

Dismissing the advice of biologists and doing nothing for years about it, until it was too late was definitely a Sarkozy major fiasco. The first two years it token french by surprise, it was understandable, but the lack of measures and comptempt by the conservationist voices after that, was unjustifiable. Spanish politicians didn't practically anything for almost 10 years about it of course, until a politician relative was killed at 32 Yo.

Now is in most France, half of Spain and some locations in Portugal and Germany, and is causing economical damage by millions and killing several people each year. For a decade I didn't hear none of those holy cow economists just mention the problem

One queen is enough to invade an entire continent is a thrilling use of language. Horrifying too, as is so much of this subject. Our innate fear of dangerous animals and how easy it can be used to provoke is a very exciting idea to explore. Time to watch Aliens again.