Deadly Asian Killer Hornets

The endless list of calamities laid at the feet of global warming just got a little longer – witness the invasion of France by the terrifying Asian Hornet:

Global warming has largely been blamed for the survival and spread of the Asian Hornet, Vespa velutina, which is thought to have arrived in France from the Far East in a consignment of Chinese pottery in late 2004.

Thousands of football-shaped hornet nests are now dotted all over the forests of Aquitaine, the south-western region of France hugely popular with British tourists.

The story, by the way, is from The Telegraph, which explains in part why they’re more worried about British tourists than the actual French residents of Aquitaine.

All of this reminds me of the equally terrifying invasion of the U.S. by the Deadly African Killer Bees. Remember them? In the late 80s and early 90s the DAKB were all the rage, threatening to make wide swaths of the American Southwest uninhabitable. News reports were replete with maps of North America showing their inevitable death flight, moving ever farther North with each passing summer. Looking back now, I am led inevitably to wonder Whatever Happened to Those Killer Bees? Fortunately, I’m not the only one.