Giant nests perplex experts

[GoddessOfGuinness]

MOBILE -- To the bafflement of insect experts, gigantic yellow jacket nests have started turning up in old barns, unoccupied houses, cars and underground cavities across the southern two-thirds of Alabama.

Specialists say it could be the result of a mild winter and drought conditions, or multiple queens forcing worker yellow jackets to enlarge their quarters so the queens will be in separate areas. But experts haven't determined exactly what's behind the surprisingly large nests. <snip>

At one site in Barbour County, the nest was as large as a Volkswagen Beetle, said Andy McLean, an Orkin pesticide service manager in Dothan who helped remove it from an abandoned barn about a month ago.

"It was one of the largest ones we've seen," McLean said.

Attached to two walls and under the slab, the nest had to be removed in sections, McLean said.

Entomologist Dr. Charles Ray at the Alabama Cooperative Extension System in Auburn said he's aware of about 16 of what he described as "super-sized" nests in south Alabama.


Here's the link to the article: http://www.montgomeryadvertiser.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060717/NEWS02/607170317/1009
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[eppur_se_muova]

1. Bizarre, and interesting. nt

[Richard Steele]

If the Queens have really learned to cooperate, we're seeing a HUGE...

...evolutionary leap.
That's like seeing bears discover fire!

Also, since they generally build UNDERGROUND,
there have to be a lot more out there than the few
we've seen so far.

[GoddessOfGuinness]

5. One of the entomologists said there needs to be space

where the queens can't get each other. I wonder how much space they need.

Even more supernests makes sense, but my god what a frightening thought!

[Richard Steele]

7. I'm not complaining- we primates had a pretty good run.

It was fun while it lasted, no?

[GoddessOfGuinness]

8. Without opposable thumbs, they're less likely to screw up the planet ...

They'll probably last much longer than we did.

[mccoyn]

12. I just had a vision of a wasp wasteland.

With continuous nests from shore to shore with.

Similiar to the concrete wastelands we are working on.

[hunter]

13. Argentine ants were wildly successful when they made that leap.

They own this part of the world, and could probably take on these wasps, no problem...

[Richard Steele]

14. I've been thinking- it's not the QUEENS who must have changed here.

It's every one of the OTHER bees, who serve the Queens,
who are exibiting a radically different behavior.

Queens need their space, that's true...but their 'space'
is personal, private...one tiny chamber deep in the hive
which they never move from.

The reason that NEW queens fly far away to establish new
hives is because all the bees they spawn will instinctively
recognize and attack bees from another hive.

From a simple evolutionary point of view, flying far enough away
that YOUR bees never interact with another hive's bees
is just the most effective strategy.
It minimizes losses, which maximizes hive efficiency....
Or at least it USED to, until recently.

This whole thing could be a PERFECT example of evolution in action,
because it could all be explained by a SINGLE random mutation.

These bees seem to have LOST the inherent cellular-level
"chemical trigger" which tells them to mindlessly attack bees
from a different hive. All the new and unususal behaviors
they exibit spring from that one simple, BASIC change.

[hunter]

15. Be Afraid...Be Very Afraid.

But, oh, what would it be like to be a grad student and have this fall into your lap?

I'd be doing a happy-dance. Who the hell cares if they take over the world?

[Richard Steele]

16. Yeah, seriously: it's a new day for entymologists!

We might be seeing a once-in-a-billion-years SUCCESSFUL
random mutation happening right in front of our eyes!

An entire SPECIES giving birth to a radically different group
which is SUCCESSFULLY starting down a new path.

We are still close enough to the origins of this that
enough bee DNA samples could let us trace this back
to the FIRST example; we might could ID the very first
"multi-hive" that ever was.

We should do that, and RECORD our findings- in ten thousand
years, the mutant-bee archaeologists will thank us for it!

[GoddessOfGuinness]

18. With prey insect species burgeoning due to global warming...

perhaps the little buggers sense a need for a larger, more cooperative population, to maintain a balance?

Too bad we're killing off many of the species that prey on them...

[eppur_se_muova]

21. Did you say ... Bears Discover Fire ?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bears_Discover_Fire

http://images.amazon.com/images/P/0312890354.01._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-dp-500-arrow,TopRight,45,-64_AA240_SH20_SCLZZZZZZZ_.jpg

Be sure to check out terrybisson.com; this guy is brilliantly nuts.

[longship]

2. Two other views of the nest.

Here:


And one showing food host for pupal stage:

[GoddessOfGuinness]

3. Hey...Someone should capitalize on this

and come out with a line of toys...

[Sequoia]

20. That reminds me of "Alien"

Get me out of here, the bees are eating me alive!!!!

[yorkiemommie1]

4. what does pat robertson say about this?

is it a 'SIGN'?

[GoddessOfGuinness]

6. In the Babble Belt?

Nevah!!!

[gumby]

9. That's pretty darn scary.

Yellow jackets are belligerent bugs that bite.

My SO is very allergic to their sting.

[GoddessOfGuinness]

10. They're a variety of hornet...

not at all like comparatively docile honeybees, which will only sting when threatened.

[pansypoo53219]

11. iare they also called wasps?

i have had 3 wasp stings, wasn't bad at all, the hornet sting on my toe i attribute to it being a very skinny part of me why it hurt so bad. waiting for a simple bee sting. heh, i recently pulled a drowning wasp out of a bucket with my finger.
yellow jacket? bring it on.

[GoddessOfGuinness]

17. Apparently I was misinformed...

According to numerous sites I visited, yellow jackets are actually wasps.

Whatever you call them, their sting is nasty...and repetetive!

[Dogmudgeon]

19. True hornets are pretty rare

IIRC, they're much bigger and scarier looking than Wasps, nest in smaller numbers, and are quite shy of humans and other large animals. They are more common in Europe and Asia, but they're not terribly common anywhere. Even what we call hornets -- the "Bald-Faced Hornets" -- are actually wasps.

There's a new breed of wasps east of the Mississippi that come from Europe. They look like very large yellow jackets, but they're polistines (YJs are vespids) and are likewise docile. But they'll still sting if disturbed; being bigger and badass-lookin', they're easier to avoid.

I find YJs are the least impressive-looking but the most aggressive. (Yes, I'm allergic to their stings.)

--p!

[eppur_se_muova]

22. On DU, the accepted usage is "misunderinformed".

:)

[GoddessOfGuinness]

23. LOL

:thumbsup: