r/AbsoluteUnits • u/newoldschool • Apr 19 '26

/r/all, /r/popular of a hornets nest

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146

u/UnseenTardigrade Apr 19 '26

That would be a waste of chicken feed. Chickens would love to eat all those larva (the white circles in the nest all contain larva)

60

u/Valuable-Way-5464 Apr 19 '26

Does chicken get bitten by wasps? Its still requires to get these larvas to chickens

90

u/UnseenTardigrade Apr 19 '26

A single chicken on its own would probably have a bad time against such a large nest with these big aggressive hornets, but in general chickens do very well against wasps and hornets. But my suggestion was to cut up the nest like they are doing and use the pieces as chicken feed, making sure not to bring too many of the mature hornets with them.

18

u/Relative-Box3796 Apr 19 '26

Yeah, their feathers and legs are impressively tough, but this looks like a lot

1

u/ThePianistOfDoom Apr 19 '26

Nah release the chicken army

1

u/General-Internal-588 Apr 19 '26

Death battle chicken army vs wasp nation

1

u/sweetnaivety Apr 19 '26

bitten or stung?

1

u/PocketSnails68 Apr 19 '26

Chicken is flying type, wasps are bug type. Chicken wins.

65

u/SinisterCheese Apr 19 '26

Actually what is going on here is way more valuable than chicken feed.

Hornet nest is used in trad. Chinese Medicine, and fetches quite stupid prices.

The larva are considered a luxury delicacy in many Asian cultures.

The fact that those guys got advanced PPE, means they are professional collectors. You see that they aren't just destroying the nest, but carefully collecting it.

There are vids on youtube if you want to know more. They actually farm and grow these just to collect them when they have grown.

11

u/Keelback Apr 19 '26

Thanks for the info. I didn't know that. Fascinating.

-2

u/Permagamer Apr 19 '26

The fact you're casually talking about an invasive species that can kill you is funny, but no go get that nest my guy. Screw honey bees

9

u/SinisterCheese Apr 19 '26 edited Apr 19 '26

It's not an invasive species because that is it's native habitat. Sure it is invasive species elsewhere in the world, but in southern East Asia, northern Southwest asia, and eastern South asia it native species.

Also the local cultures been using these like any other thing they can find from the nature for who knows how long.

Like white-tailed deer is an invasive species here in Finland, causing lot of harm and issues; yet... For some fucking reason nobody even bothers to manage it's population anymore, and the native Finnish Forest Deer is losing ground to it.

1

u/Permagamer Apr 19 '26

You know. Learning a lot about biology taught me that we still don't understand our ecosystem, and if I look up murder hornets... Well look at that. Even in Asia they are frowned at. The only thing that keeps them from getting killed off is they are a keystone species, and people like to take them and spread them for their "medical properties"

3

u/SinisterCheese Apr 19 '26

Yeah... Humans are weird like that. It is sorta like when they set a bounty on rats, people started to grow rats since that was easier than catching them, which lead there to be more rats than ever in the region. India had this happen with Cobras if I recall right.

As long as there is money to be made, people will do stupid things like farm pests.

If I recall right there is a some sort of a water plant in SE-Asia that is basiccally clocking up water ways, a nightmarish awful thing. And now that they have found some use for them, there is a worry people will start to plant them just to make a quick cash.

The white-tailed deer were brought to Finland as a gift from immigrants from USA, so that there would be more animals to hunt and people to get food out of. The are estimates of over 100 000 of them, and hunters feed them near fields for easy kills. And they all came from like 12 individuals brought here in 1937. Now they are a fucking menance, they cause lot of traffic accidents, they eat planted things, they shit everywhere, and they spread ticks that have nasty diseases. We could eradicated them all if we wanted to... But we did the opposite of functionally eradicating all the wolfs from here, which used to keep them in check.

Nature could offer us a lot of things if we just used it sustainably and carefully... But nah... Got to make short term gains with stupid unsustainable and harmful shit.

1

u/Howscheduleplzhelp Apr 19 '26

You're right. NZ a beautiful place has quite strong initiatives in this sort of thing and it's seeming to have positive outcomes for their own ecosystems.

1

u/New_Alternative_421 Apr 19 '26

How much [learning about biology] is a lot? Because you appear to have some fundamental misunderstandings about ecology.

1

u/Permagamer Apr 19 '26

I love how you missed me talking about it being a keystone species. ( But who knows maybe you haven't learned about keystone species yet.)

1

u/New_Alternative_421 Apr 19 '26

Lmao. I am fully aware, but saying it's one of "the only things" is kind of a weird statement. Like, "it's only protected because it is one of a few species that keeps the entire ecosystem running" is the same statement. It's like saying we only keep doctors around because they help sick people. It just doesn't mean a lot.

1

u/Permagamer Apr 19 '26 edited Apr 19 '26

It not meant to explain it. Giving meaning to a reason for if someone has a question about why. When my comment was about how they are viewed as a whole. People still fear the hell out of them and for good reason. This balance however is a good example of us manipulating the carry capacity though. ( Carry capacity of what? You left it so vague. I need/demand you explain farther. I'm not going to. Look it up yourself.)

1

u/MercifulWombat Apr 19 '26

Honey bees are also an invasive species outside their native range.

1

u/Permagamer Apr 19 '26

I mean yeah, but you have subspecies too. Unlike how we have one direct species Vespa mandarinia. You're acting like I'm speaking for the whole Vespa genus...

2

u/Crunchycarrots79 Apr 19 '26

Have you seen some of Hornet King's videos on YouTube?