Bugged

You know the San Francisco Giants (baseball) and the New York Giants (football). Now, get ready to say hello to the Asian giant hornet (stinging). The variety of color that's known as the Japanese Giant Hornet wins the most 2020 award you ever heard of...he/she is the World's Largest Hornet!

It's native to temperate  and tropical areas such as East Asia, South Asia, Mainland Southeast Asia, and parts of the Russian Far East. If you don't live in any of those neighborhoods, you're good to go. Insect experts at the U of MD say it will be "years and years" before they get here on their own, and so urge the public not to worry about them for "years and years."

Earlier this year, the US Dept of Agriculture asked us all to keep an eye out for the flying annoyances. Beside being downright ugly, these hornets "could decimate bee populations in the United States and establish such a deep presence that all hope for eradication could be lost." So far, they have been spotted in Washington State, and cannot travel outside that state due to their stubborn refusal to put on masks. The government is doing all they can to eradicate these dudes.

As part of the research into the best ways to do just that, authorities have sent five Asian giant hornets to a lab here in Maryland to study them. 

 
This is a photograph of his face; please memorize it in case he shows up at your door and says he and his crew have been doing some window replacement in your neighborhood....

Photo by By Gary Alpert at en.wikipedia https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=1546564

The hornets who came here: two pupae, one worker, one male and one queen, were found in the first nest found in the U.S. in Washington state. Then, just like Green Giant frozen corn, they were flash-frozen and zipped off to the Beltsville Agricultural Research Service lab and the Smithsonian. There, people will compare them to other Asian giant hornets (although it's really odious to compare) try to figure out just where in Asia they came from.

To do that, scientists will examine all their credit card purchases and cell phone pings.

 

Unrelated, but these kids from Ohio hit #96 on Billboard in 1996 with this tune.