Essay on Asian Giant Hornet

Amid the Coronavirus buzz in social media came fear of the murder hornet; an Asian hornet that is deadly to humans and bees. The hornet was found in the USA and worries quickly spread across the country with the imminent threat of invasion from Japan. Memes spread across social media suggesting that the government sent the murder hornets to make people abide by the lockdown regulations and referred to them as just another disaster 2020 has to offer (Cutolo, 2020). How big of a threat are these murder hornets actually? And are they the same murder hornets previously seen in Japan? 

A journal article that came out in October of 2020 offers the compiled data on the Asian giant hornet. Its goal was to discern whether or not the Asian hornets found in Washington, USA and British Colombia, Canada are from the same maternal lineages. They deciphered this by analyzing the mitochondrial DNA sequences from specimens collected from the two areas (Wilson et al., 2020).  The results were that the two Asian giant hornet did have different maternal lineages: the USA Asian giant hornet was most closely related to Asian giant hornets located in South Korea while the Canadian Asian giant hornet was most related to specimen from Japan (Wilson et al., 2020). The paper concludes that the arrival of these specimen is most likely from the excess shipping cargo from Asia. They also note that several unconfirmed attacks on apiaries in Blaine, Washington, where the first sign of a USA Asian giant hornet was found, possibly denotes a hive in the nearby area (Wilson et al., 2020). The scientific journal article was not that difficult to read, they were thorough in their sources and methods.

The popular press article chosen was from National Geographic and was written by Douglas Main, who primarily writes about wildlife issues and the unexpected. He has a bachelor’s degree in environmental biology from Washington University and a master’s in environmental journalism from New York University. He has been with National Geographic for over two years. The article itself goes over in great detail what the murder hornets are and what damage they can cause. The facts about the actual location and number of Asian giant hornets is properly reported, including that the Canadian and American giant hornet were, “introduced separately,” however they neglect to identify how this information was discovered (Main, 2020). The article also discusses the tactics Japanese honeybees have in comparison to the lack of defense mechanisms European honeybees have. I think the paper accurately represents the studies key factors by stating that the Canadian and American giant hornets were separately introduced, that European honeybees lack defense in comparison to Japanese honeybees, and that the introduction of Asian giant hornets can have deadly impacts (although this was a little over-emphasized in the article) (Main, 2020). The National Geographic article also fails to identify and state that the American giant hornet is most related to the South Korean Asian giant hornet and goes more into depth as to the impacts Asian giant hornets have on honeybees and their defense mechanisms.   

Of course, as with all viral social media, the Asian giant hornet invasion was forgotten in almost a month by the public. While it lasted, lots of memes and funny posts surfaced. These were a double-edged sword: they spread awareness of the invasive species but also downplayed the severity of the situation by making it a joke. The tone of the National Geographic article treated the Asian giant hornet invasion as a serious threat and was sure to describe the extent to which apiaries could be devastated. The scientific article lacked emotion, but still stressed the need to prevent the spread of Asian giant hornets to North America. In the transition from a journal article to a popular press article, the emphasis shifted from knowledge that the two discovered hornets were from two different lineages to the deadly impact of the hornets. This is probably because the audience of the scientific journal already knew about the deadly impacts and merely needed a brief reminder whereas the general public needed the full brief.  There’s even a documentary that recently came out about how scientists exterminated a hive of these hornets near Blaine, Washington, which I find very cool and hopefully lots of people watch it so it spreads awareness of the impacts invasive species can have.