27 June 2013

Like an entity from a dystopian world


It's hard for me to even conceive of encountering something this immensely dangerous in the woods...
Simkins was staring down a yellow jacket colony about the size of a Smart car that posed a lethal danger to hunters and lumberjacks on a thousand-acre timber lot in Central Florida. It took him two days to vanquish the three-to-five-year-old colony, which housed a thousand queen wasps and a million “daughters.”

“The alarm pheromone was so strong it made my eyes water and my nose run. When they land on you, they regurgitate so the others can find you.”
I thought the swarming clue happened when you crushed one of them; didn't know they could regurgitate on you to mark you.  You learn something every day.

Hat tip to Kev at Nothing to do with Arbroath.

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