Check out the video of the Japanese giant hornet.
INSECT WARS! I love that footage. Although it's a bit tragic watching all those bee corpses pile. Those Japanese giant hornets are SCA-REE!
Seems like everyone's got a tale to tell.
Mal ,'Safe'
Gaming 1: You are likely to be eaten by a grue
A thread for the discussion of games: board, LARP, MMORPG, video, tabletop RPG, game theory etc. etc. and all attendant news, developments and ancillary subjects thereof, as well as coordinating/scheduling games either online or IRL. All are welcome to chime in, talk about their favorite games or learn about gaming of any sort.
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Sean K - May 28, 2008 5:51:42 pm PDT #736 of 26133
You can't leave me to my own devices; my devices are Nap and Eat. -Zenkitty
billytea - May 28, 2008 5:55:25 pm PDT #737 of 26133
You were a wrong baby who grew up wrong. The wrong kind of wrong. It's better you hear it from a friend.
INSECT WARS! I love that footage. Although it's a bit tragic watching all those bee corpses pile. Those Japanese giant hornets are SCA-REE!
Yeah, it's less an insect war as it is an insect massacree. Basically if the bees want to survive, they need to kill the scout that found them in the first place and stop it telling the others. And their stings can't penetrate its armour; they attack it by surrounding it and vibrating their wing muscles to generate excess heat. the bees will die at 48 degrees, but the hornet is less efficient at heat dispersal and dies at 45 degrees. The bees thus have a window of opportunity where they can cook it to death and survive.
Laga - May 28, 2008 6:00:14 pm PDT #738 of 26133
You should know I'm a big deal in the Resistance.
The bees thus have a window of opportunity where they can cook it to death and survive
well that is cool. I just can't hack the ants. It wouldn't bother me so much if I hadn't just seen Indy four. I think the whole franchise is getting back at me for thinking snakes are cool and rats are cute.
Sean K - May 28, 2008 6:01:57 pm PDT #739 of 26133
You can't leave me to my own devices; my devices are Nap and Eat. -Zenkitty
Insects in general tend to squick me quite a bit, but I have a soft spot for bees.
NoiseDesign - May 28, 2008 6:02:46 pm PDT #740 of 26133
Our wings are not tired
You should have seen Sean almost leap out of my car due to a Cricket.
Sean K - May 28, 2008 6:02:48 pm PDT #741 of 26133
You can't leave me to my own devices; my devices are Nap and Eat. -Zenkitty
Ants don't bother me compared to most other insects.
And no insects bother me like arachnids bother me.
Sean K - May 28, 2008 6:03:37 pm PDT #742 of 26133
You can't leave me to my own devices; my devices are Nap and Eat. -Zenkitty
Oh gods. The cricket. Drew had a gooood laugh over that one.
billytea - May 28, 2008 6:07:38 pm PDT #743 of 26133
You were a wrong baby who grew up wrong. The wrong kind of wrong. It's better you hear it from a friend.
well that is cool. I just can't hack the ants. It wouldn't bother me so much if I hadn't just seen Indy four. I think the whole franchise is getting back at me for thinking snakes are cool and rats are cute.
Yeah, that's all kinds of Hollywood licence there. Siafa ants are African, they don't live in Peru. And unless you're tied down or utterly paralytic, it's not really that hard for people to get out of their way.
Conversely, people who do wind up being killed by driver ants (again, more dangerous than South America's army ants) are most likely going to die by asphyxiation.
Oh! And there are army ants in the US! But they're smaller and more discreet than the South American varieties, so most people aren't aware of them.
NoiseDesign - May 28, 2008 6:19:40 pm PDT #744 of 26133
Our wings are not tired
Drew had a gooood laugh over that one.
Damn near swerved into oncoming traffic I was laughing so hard.
Laga - May 28, 2008 6:23:56 pm PDT #745 of 26133
You should know I'm a big deal in the Resistance.
crickets are fine, spiders are fine, roaches are gross but I can still trap them with a glass and flush them. If I get a teeny tiny ant on me I have to blow it off because I don't want to touch it. Oh and I hate potato bugs because they look like giant mutant ants.