attack of the murder hornets

It’s hard to overstate just how big the problem of the unexpected second villain of our global annus horribilis – the “murder hornet” – could be. Its body is the size of a bloated cheese-puff, its wingspan as wide as your palm. These rusty-orange-colored insects aren’t just the largest hornets in the world, they are apex predator wasps that made their presence known in late 2019 in Washington State after decimating (by decapitating) a defenseless colony of beekeeper Ted McFall’s western honeybees – 60,000 of them. Known formally as the Asian Giant Hornet, these big bugs – which rose to internet fame last May after a report in The New York Times – boast sharp mandibles, quarter-inch stingers and the ability to squirt out their toxic venom while flying by. Get stung by a dozen of these sucke...