Invasion of the Murder Hornets!

these hornets do. And I'll also be talking about two of the world's other most notorious invasive species, a big toad with a bad attitude and an adorable little fuzzy noodle who just loves to kill things. Discover this and more as we answer the age old question how many decapitations a minute can the murder hornet? It do more

than is necessary? Probably, so, murder hornets are they bad? Well, first of all, let's call them by their real name, Vespa Mandarinia, their giant hornets, and when they're in their natural range, I wouldn't say they're bad anymore than any other insect or animal. They've simply carved out their evolutionary niche by being the biggest, baddest, most murdery hornet out there.

But when a non native species invades a new region, either by accidentally hitching a ride on some cargo or because humans are a bunch of power craze primates who like to pluck an animal from one side of the globe and drop it down on the other, this can spell trouble for the local ecology. So should you be afraid of murder hornets, Well, let's go on a learning

journey to turn that fear into education. Joining me today is my friend, host of the Cracked podcast and also host of the new podcast mini series One Way to Make an Emoji, Alec Schmidt. Katie, thank you so much for having me. This is awesome. Yeah, welcome back to the pod, Alex, and you you just described, you just described two podcasts that you're excellent on, so people should

go here those. Yeah. I got to be a guest on Well, I've been a guest on the crac podcast, and I got to be a guest on One Way to Make an Emoji, which was excellently talked about bison. Yeah, if people want to check it out, it's it's a very special mini series to me. There's a lot of personal stuff to it and the last stuff I've never really done before and as a podcast or anything, but it's about creating the Bison emoji. Any any citizen. Any person can propose I don't know why I said citizen.

You don't have to be from anywhere. Anyone can propose a citizen of the planet Earth exactly. Anybody can propose a new emoji. And I proposed to Bison emoji and they said yes. So sometime let's fall your your device. Everybody's device will have a Bison and the emoji keyboard. I think that's wonderful. And I love the podcast. It's emotional and sweet and full advice and what more could you want from a podcast? Spice and soup for the soul. You made it really special, so thanks again for doing it.

Of course, Well today we're gonna do something a little less heartwarming or I don't know, we'll find the heartwarming somewhere because we're talking about murder hornets. I'm sure you've probably heard of murder hornets. Alex. I'm pretty I'm pretty excited because I, like you know, found out a few seconds ago that that's the topic, and I have like seen the phrase in trending topics on Twitter and don't really know anything else, So that was great. I'm gonna

like find out what's going on. Yeah. Yeah, I think a lot of people are a little scared right now because it's it sounds very apocalyptic. We've been hearing things about murder hornets have invaded the US, and the question is should we panic And the answer is maybe a little. Okay, Yeah, So want to get down to the facts about murder hornets? What are they? Why are they called murder hornets? Are they deadly to humans? Are they deadly to native honeybee populations?

How do we find them off? And what are they? What's their story? How did they become so murdering? Yeah, when you say we should panic a little, I'm glad. I have so little else that I'm panicking about right now, you know, like everything else is super chill, so I have the bandwidth to everything. I mean, we've got our plates are clear, it's you know, blue skies, and then it's like we could handle this one bad thing in

the world happening. Murder hornets. That's fine. Yeah, Yeah, tomorrow in the news I'm just gonna wake up and it's like fire rain rain made out of deadly fire. But yeah, okay, cool. So what is a murder hornet? First? So, so this is the Vespa Andarinia, which are Asian giant hornets. They are native to East, South and Southeast Asia as well as parts of Russia, and they are the largest hornet

in the world. Mandarinia sounds like an Italian motorcycle. Are you sure this is the right That's that's my bad Italian accent. I'm sorry. I apologize for that, um, but yeah, it does. It does sound. It kind of looks like one too. They're very sleek, almost a motorcycle personified or bugsonified into a horrible insane So what are hornets? So? Hornets are a type of large youth social wasp, meaning that they work together for a hive and a queen.

Because there are a lot of wasps that are actually solitary they just kind of do their own thing murder on their own time. But these are team murderers. So that's neat. I mean, yeah, they're they're working together. At least they're not having some kind of civil war or something. That's good meant it it's a lot of team building murders happening with with these hornets. And did you did you say they're you social? Is that right? You social?

That's right, just like honey bees are you social? Oh yeah, sorry, yeah, I was gonna say I've heard about that with ants and humans. Yes, ants, humans arguably a little bit maybe ants, termites, honey bees, other other bee species. And yeah, it basically means you work for a colony and for a queen, and it's this social structure where you are basically the work. It's a it's a hierarchy where workers are all working towards the common goal of the hive and the queen,

which is you know that cool? Because I I am not an entomologist or an expert or anything, but I read a book once by E. O. Wilson and and the super short gist of it is basically that ants and humans have spread across the earth because those two species are very use social compared to other ones. Like they work together and they see a greater purpose to their group, whether it's instinctual or conscious or not. Yeah, I mean that is true. I think that humans like

ants are and some bees. It's like our successfu lies in our society and our ability to make a lot of hexagons. So so these hornets, the murder hornets, they apply those same ideas of teamwork, but towards murder, which is neat. So they're about two inches long, about four centimeters. They have a wingspan of three inches about seven and a half centimeters, and they have a fourth inch long stinger that can inject a large amount of venom. So

they're they're you know, they're they're big girls. These are these are some some large ladies coming around to sting you with a lot of vintage. Each one of them is two inches long, Yeah, just a lot. Yeah, yeah, it's a little bigger than can you'd imagine. Right, that's good. It's cool. It's good. It's cool. So they have been recently spotted in North America, which is you know cool and yeah, yeah, I'm in North America too. The first sighting was in Washington State last December, so a fun

Christmas surprise. They are a big threat to the honeybee population that lives in North America, the APIs mellifera, and also you know, a threat to basically a lot of different insects, a lot of different like the wild bee ease and bumble bees, and you know, probably us to a little bit not not. I think the biggest concern right now is the b population. Actually, so let's talk a little bit about the honeybee in North America. The APIs mellifera, so it's actually not native to North America.

It was introduced by European colonizers, and it is not commonly called an invasive species because we don't consider it to be harmful. But they kind of can be like they can harm wild native bee species when they have to compete for food. But on the other hand, they have become incredibly important pollinators and honey producers for our society, so they are responsible for a lot of pollination that

happens in our agriculture. So yeah, it's kind of it's one of the cases where this is actually an introduced species. But we're okay with a although maybe some of our wild bees aren't as cool with it. I mean, if anybody's gonna come to me and say, hey, that honey bee on the honey nut cheerios box is some form of invader, I'm gonna push back on that way into that be he's very friendly he provides a delicious serial like that. What's his name? Is his name? What's his name?

So he probably has a name. I don't know, is it buzz or something. It's probably buzz. It's probably buzz. It's probably buzz. I'm gonna say it's buzz. I'm not even gonna bother googling it because I'm certain it's got to be that. Yeah, I remember I got a I got a buzz doll in a honey nut cheerio box once and it was I thought it was going to look a lot more like the thing on the box. That's all I'm going to say about that. It was like clearly made for b movie or something. But they

just made an error. And Joel Joel just wrote to us Joel as a producer of the show. She just told us Buzzby is the name of the v Thank you. What like Buzzby, like Buzzby, like Buzby Berkeley or something like the US b y. Yeah, but but no, no, be you z z buz Buzzby. Yeah, Buzzby co Coruel trivia fact about about the b on the honeynut cheero box. Thanks for joining me on This Animal's podcast. So let's

go back to talking about murder hornets. Yeah, so murder hornets are called murder hornets on account of all the murders they do. So the worker hornets are all female. So Alex, I want you to imagine a gang of bloodthirsty women on motorcycles raising the countryside, going around with huge machetes and decapitating entire cities, because that's basically what murder hornets do. I feel like, I feel like you would see like a double feature of at a drive in,

and like it's both movies are about the gang of ladies. God, yes, I'd love to see that. They all for some reason, they're all wearing impeccable makeup too, and perfect hair does but they're just going around on their motorcycle gangs and like and it's like, and this is what cannabis does to women. So the murder hornet has gigantic mandibles that can easily decapitate a honeybee. They can kill forty honey

bees a minute, which is bad or honey bees. Because I I am not a super expert on bees and hornets and stuff, but I feel like people associate hornets

with honey just because bees do that. But it seems like these hornets just murder and that's how they get food, Like they're just eating all these bees all this, yes, exactly, so they are carnivorous and they feed these well, essentially, they will take over these hives and then plunder it for meat and then feed that to their young, whereas honey bees will eat nectar and then you know the whole process of making honey and royal jelly, and that's

how they feed their colony. So so these hornets are like a tiny wolf for hyena or other pack animal basically in terms of the exactly yeah, ok, yeah, no, that's a very good way to think of it. Exactly. So they work in groups to raid and destroy entire honey bee hives. So what will happen is one of the hornets will place a pheromone marker on a honey bee hive, which will invite her sisters to participate in

a gold old fashion pillage. In so they efficiently kill all the worker bees and queen, ripping their heads off, and then they use the hive as a buffet, eating the honey bee larva and pup a right out of their little honeycomb cribs. So you know, just killing all the babies and eating them, even the pupe combined, even the pupe. They don't even spare the pupe monsters. So in Japan, where the murder hornet is actually this is its native range, the Japanese honey bees. I didn't I

didn't realize that was gonna rhyme until I said. The Japanese honey bee, which lives in the murder hornets native range, has developed a unique strategy to defend themselves from these invaders. So when a honeybee in Japan senses the hornet pheromones, it goes first oh, and then it forms a b ball, so it sends its own messaging to the rest of the hive to create a giant ball of angry vibrating bees, and they beat their wings and dogpile on the invading hornet.

So what they're doing is they're vibrating their wings and flight muscles and generating body heat in this giant dog pile, and combined, a bee ball can create a core temperature of over a hundred and fifteen degrees fahrenheit, which is forty six degrees celsius, and also creates a chamber of increased carbon dioxide so this will actually cook and suffocate the hornet that is trapped inside this giant bee mosh pit.

I love how like each time I learned about an organized society of animals, it's because they're doing something like that, you know, like doing a mosh pit essentially. I mean, have you ever found a society that doesn't include involved mosh pits? I don't think so. The dawn of time that the enderthal mash is on cave walls, oh yes,

I've seen it. So you might think that this would be a self sacrificial thing that the bees do, but they're actually much more adept at surviving this giant mosh pit because they can withstand higher temperatures and the higher levels of c O two. Although you know, some of them may die in the line of mosh pit duty, but you know there that's it's an honor. It's an honor to die in the bee mosh pit, I think.

And this this thing with Japan's bees knowing how to mash the hornets, like, is this like a centuries and centuries old war between bees and hornets in their country and then just the hornets came here and RBS are like we we don't know any mashing, what do we do? Yes, sadly, Alex, You're exactly right about that. So this is when you have a predator and a prey species, you often have these arms races where the predator evolves the strategy to take advantage of the prey, and then the prey will

evolve the strategy to defend itself. And so you see this like increasing complexity of attacks and defenses. Unfortunately, when you have an invasive species, the native species have not developed any of these strategy GE's, they are caught completely off guard. So the honey bees who live in North America have not developed this defense strategy, so they are vulnerable to the murder hornets, which is why a lot

of conservationists are very very concerned. And if the murder hornets are allowed to spread, they might decimate the already struggling bee populations here in North America, which is not great. I like I like bees. I like our honey bees. Yeah, because I like all plants, and as I understand it, they're important for that. I'm right. And and even if you're like, oh, well, the honey bee itself is not is you know, not native, It's an introduced species and

somehow you don't care about that. I mean, they're also these murder hornets are also going to be really bad for the wild bee populations and for bumble bees. And basically, you know, it's whenever you I've described the ecosystem like a Jenga tower before, it's like whenever you fuss around with one piece, you're not going to know like at what point, like everything's gonna crumble down. So, yeah, it's bad.

It's not great to have have this this murder hornet. Surprisingly, I know it doesn't sound like a big deal to have a murder hornet invade the US or not the US, a murder hornet invade North America, but it is shockingly bad. Yeah, because when I saw that name murder hornet coming up on Twitter, for one thing, I thought, just like everybody

had seen the same Nature documentary. I was just laughing about it because you know, everybody, especially in quarantine, will like I'll see tiger king at the same time, and suddenly there's memes I don't know about. But oh god, I wish there was a Netflix special called like murder Hornet and it's just about beekeepers and all of their drama, like like, I want to see in an apiary that's actually a cult, Please Netflix deliver. Yeah, But and it turns out with this one like, no, it's just a

news event going on. And I feel like everyone like found the name murder Hornets so funny. They didn't talk about, Hey, there's like a new invader that's a two inch long sky wolf you know, sky Wolf. Yeah, Skywolf is cool. I like that. It's just just a pilot about an airplane I'm working on. To worry about it. It's cool, Alex, I told you can't pitch your pilots on this episode. Okay, so it's like air Wolf, but I changed the name forget it forget So yeah, I mean there's actually a

little bit of debate about naming the murder hornets. Some biologists are saying like, ah, but you don't, you know, this stigmatizes animals. You don't want it to be like, you know, to dramatized. But other biologists are like, no, this is a big deal, Like we it's good that

people are scared of this, this terrible hornet. So it's interesting to see that back and forth of now now everybody calmed down and like some biologists are going like, no, they have to panic, Yeah, wow, because isn't that isn't that a story with especially the movie Jaws, but kind of the book to or suddenly people needed sharks, even

though sharks have like a positive role in the overall ecosystem. Like, I guess they're worried about that with hornets, huh, right, exactly, because you know, hornets are not I don't want everyone to hate hornets or even hate murder hornets when they're you know, not invading North America. That sounds weird, But let me be clear, I don't hate the murder hornets.

I'm concerned because they have been introduced to a region that they are not native to, which is really bad for the populations of other insects in that region, so that you know, it's they have their place, Yeah exactly. And like if it takes a sensationalist name to get people interested, like maybe that's good. Maybe it's like I don't know, maybe it's a bad strategy in the long run, Like we need to be able to be interested in stuff without having a super metal name applied to to

the insect. But I don't know, I mean, yeah, I kind of I'm okay with the name murder hornets personally because I think it does make people interested in what what is happening and so that yeah, which is good. Yeah, I never would have heard about it otherwise. Right, And they do murder, it's accurate. I mean they murder a lot of bees. Yeah, I guess. I wonder if we're going there. But have they ever murdered a person in the United States? Not? Not in North America as far

as I know. They have killed people in their native range unfortunately, So they are actually pretty nasty to humans. I want to preface this with the main problem of them being in the US is not that they're going to kill us all, but it is they are actually somewhat dangerous to people. So with these murder hornets, about fifty stings can kill you due to kidney damage, even if you're not allergic. Fatal encounters are more likely to happen if you stumble upon or disturb a hornet hive.

So if one kind of flies on you and stings you once, it's unlikely unless you have an allergy, that it's going to really harm you. It'll it'll give you like I could give you a nasty well, but in Japan about fifty people die a year from murder hornet stings, which I don't want to realize that that's it's horrible, but it's you know, it's not like five zero people

die a year in Japan from murder hornet stings. Yeah, I mean, like that's about the it's a little bit more than people die a year of just wasp and be stings in the US per year. So but that again it's like a it's I think there's about I think about thirty to forty people die per year in the US from wasp and beastings, so it's about on the same scale. But again it's just one species doing all of that damage. So they are they are more

dangerous than bees in and other wasps. So it's like I would say, it's something where it's concerning and it'll it's really sad that it hurts people. I don't want to trivialize that. But it's also not like it's not like, oh, we're all going this is going to kill us all like, it's not. It's this is not the the final male and humanity's coffin. Wow, that sounded grim, But because when because when they're scary things going on. You wanna as a person know which things are less scary like these

these a problem, but not not something to panic about. It, right, a problem, and I understand people's concern about it, and I think it is worrisome, but I think like the main worrisomething about it is the impact to the ecology in North America, which is a it's a big deal. And of course, I mean, I don't think it's silly to be concerned about something that can hurt a person. I think that's always concerning, Like it's concerning, But it's not like these bees aren't going to like raid a

human town and decapitate everyone. That's just what they're going to do to the honey bees. Yeah, just because you saw ladies do that in the nineteen fifties Motorcycle Woman movie franchise does not mean that these Japanese hornets will do that. It's very different, Right, So you might be wondering, like, how should we get rid of these murder hornets, Like maybe we should introduce a species that murders the murder hornets.

But we are in the next section going to talk about why this logic is not great because when we return after a break, we're actually going to talk about the cane toad story. That this is not a bug at all, very exciting. I mentioned earlier that honeybee populations are already struggling. Over the past decade or so, beekeepers have reported higher and higher loss of honey bees, either due to colony collapse disorder where worker bees abandoned a colony,

or due to winter deaths. Currently, colony collapse disorder is not as much of an issue, but increased bee deaths continue. This is estimated to be due to the combined factors of agricultural growth reducing the amount of diversity of flowering plants for bees to eat, pesticides killing the bees, and parasites such as veroa destructor a tiny mite that wedges itself into a bees exoskeleton, spits out digestive juices into

the bee and drinks up the bee smoothie yum. So, as you can see, there are a lot of things that bees are struggling with, not to mention the possible introduction of a giant murder hornet. But as humans were not helpless when it comes to helping the bees, we could reduce agricultural growths much that there are more areas of diverse wildflowers and vegetation to feed the bees. We could reduce pesticide usage and use less dangerous pesticides, which will allow bees to be healthier and more able to

fight off things like parasites and disease. As for the murder hornets, beekeepers can set traps for the hornets to hopefully slow their spread. So we can't just give up every time a new murder hornet comes to town. We gotta fight, fight for the bees. Be a hero like buzz All drin. I'm sorry, Okay, no more bee puns. I'll behaved. Sorry, okay, just that one, No more, no more starting now, will be right back. I'm sorry, I

have to. I'm sorry. Imagine you're minding your own business, eating bugs or whatever you like to do on a Wednesday. I don't judge oft In the distance, you hear a strange sound. You've never heard such a sound before. Often the horizon, you see a large group of strange, huge, bumpy skinned aliens approach. They crawled towards you on stubby legs. They lose poison out of their shoulder blades, and they are opening their huge hungry mounths and shooting out their long,

disgusting tongues to eat you. So, Alex, have you heard of the Kane toad in Australia story? I think it rings a bell and the only thing I thought of beyond when you said Kane toad, that rang a bell and I thought of Australia maybe, And that's that's about

all I know. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, Well this will be a refresher course for you, and I think this is one of my well, I don't want to say favorite stories of invasive species because it sounds like I'm happy about it, but it is a really interesting story about an invasive species. So little background on the cane toad first, So it is a big, old terrestrial toad that uses toxins from a gland on its shoulders. So

it is from South and Central America. These are beefy toads that can grow around five to six inches long, which is about ten to fifteen centimeters. But they've been known to be able to reach a length of nine inches centimeters, which is I don't know, too big. Maybe I don't want to I don't want to judge. But when you gave those inches honestly, I thought of it in hornets. It was like, oh, three to four and

a half hornets of measurement. The murder hornet m H is Yeah, so, like I mentioned earlier, it excretes toxins from the glands near its shoulders, so its skin is highly toxic and will kill animals that try to eat it, which you know, I mean, that's that's a good idea. I guess if you're a cane toade and you don't want to be eaten, to just make yourself deadly. I feel like what I learned about poison dart frogs as a kid, I was like, oh, any colorful amphibian is

probably full of murder. That's probably what's going on. It seems like this is kind of one of those Yeah, it's not even colorful. It's like it barely even warns you. It's just kind of a sandy color, brownish, yellowish, all of sandy color. It seems pretty innocuous. But nope, it is full of ooz eating poison. It's more of more of a low key hit man kind of guy. I get it. Cool. Yeah, yeah, it's it's less of a less of a man. It's less of a mad Max and more of a Liam Neeson. Are those two murder

people in the media. I'm trying to think of different styles of murder people in movies, and I feel like Mad Max versus Liam Neeson makes sense to me in this moment. Yeah, that works. Like, isn't John Wick generally dressed pretty conservatively? You know, like maybe it's a John Wick. Yeah, I guess I think of John Wick as being flamboyant just because the movies are kind of in your face. But yeah, yeah, like I'm thinking of like a really drab murderer, like I'm here to kill you. Don't mind me,

I'm here to kill you. So they have a lifespan of about ten to fifteen years, but one individual was recorded as having lived to thirty five years, which is older than Jesus. Not to brag, not to brag. Listen, we measure lengths in hornets that we measure ages in Jesus. And that's how we do it. Okay, Like like, hop off if it's not for you. Yeah, this is like one point zero zero five Jesus about Yeah, please don't check my math on that, because I can assure you

it's wrong. So they have warty all of brownish skin, and they are great at reproducing, which is fun to know. So females lay thousands of eggs at once which come out in jelly like strings, kind of like remember nerds ropes, nerds, nerds ropes, whereas like those like uh, ropes of candy covered in nerds in this case, unfortunately I do remember, yes, yeah, but imagine that except toad eggs. So it is an absolutely unstoppable monster that can replicate itself almost infinitely. So

of course Australia decided they had to have it. Australia, don't you have enough crazy animals, you scamps over there. So in ninety five Australian farmers were having a problem with cane beetles which were destroying their sugarcane crops in Queensland, and they saw that prayer to Rico introduced the cane toad to their sugarcane crops and had some success in finding back the sugarcane beetles there. And the cane toad was known to have a voracious appetite and eat basically

anything alive or dead. So what could possibly go wrong? I don't, I don't know if anyone knows this, but like the toad is called the cane toad because it likes hanging out in sugarcane and generally being around that crop or something that's fun. Yeah, because the other thing I think that is the frog and toad books where they're both dressed pretty fancy and maybe they would have a cane like a gentleman. You know. That's the only other reason I could pick or that or that Looney

Tunes the Looney Tunes puts on the little top hat. Yeah. Oh it's a frog. Yeah yeah, hello by hello Ma Darland, gonna poison all your native species. So yeah, like let's just introduce this unstoppable like insatiable poi is in this toad. What could go wrong? Well a lot. So the toad was introduced, and first of all, it didn't actually help at all with the cane beetle problem. So the cane beetles in Australia, as opposed to elsewhere, like to live

at the top of the cane plant. So the toad, which is not a good climber or a good jumper, could not reach its prey, so it can't actually eat the beetles it was supposed to eat, and the cane fields in Australia did not provide enough cover for the toads to hunt undetected. But the toads are like, yeah, but I'm voracious. I'll eat basically anything, So yeah, I'm gonna go do that somewhere else. And they turned their attention to the rest of northern Australia. So when they

were introduced, they were about I've seen different numbers. I've also read that they were like contained within two suitcases or something. I think there was like under a thousand possibly, And now there are over two hundred million Kane toads in Australia, two million, two hundred million, over two hundred million. How do they How does that island fit people? Now?

I don't. I don't. I want to know, Like it's more toads than island now, yeah, I mean like there are a lot of them and they will sometimes just like be out on these roads and a bunch of them get flattened by traffic. There there are these like huge groups of them. Yeah, it's it's, you know, kind of horror. I'm imagining that, like if I watched the making of about Crocodiles and just out of frame they're stepping on toads everywhere they go, every scene, you know,

like that's that's obviously what's happening. The gaffer is a toad toad get dangling off the microphone. Yeah, it's full. It's full of toads, apparently in northern Australia. So they are slowly taking over Australia, killing native animals and plant species as they go, threatening their native populations of biodiversity.

So they are advancing towards the west at to thirty seven miles per year, which is forty to sixty kilometers per year, which may not seem very fast, but it means that in like sixty to seventy years they could go from one coast and expand all the way to the other coast. And they've already started so unless that time they could reach the western coast of Australia. So they are voracious omnivores. Basically they'll eat anything they can

work their mouth around. According to the Australian Museum website, they will eat beetles, honey bees, ants, wing termites, crickets, marine snails, smaller toads and native frogs, small snakes, small mammals, carrion and pet food that's been left outside. Hey, leave some of that for me. Toads, So the pet food or the carrion, all of it, you know, oh, Alex.

So they have no predators or diseases specialized to take them out in Australia, given that they are and introduced species and they are highly poisonous and Australian predators have had little success with them. In fact, they are very dangerous to domesticated dogs, which is probably not news to people who live in Northern Australia who have dogs like that is a big concern often because if a dog

eats cane toad, that's a trip to the vet for sure. Yeah. So, not only do they kill off price species, but they actually kill off other predators, either by poisoning them or out competing with them or destroying their nests. So here's an example. There's the Northern qual, which is a cute little marsupial who looks a bit like a giant mouse with brown fur and white spots. Oh hey, hey, buddy, I wish I'd didn't see you in the context of this story. You look so cute. It's a quality qual

quality quals. Yeah, so they are very very cute. It is a carnivore who eats small mammals, reptiles, insects, and birds, and they they are populations have been completely decimated in cane toad controlled regions because when it tries to eat the cane toad, it is poison and killed. And it doesn't it hasn't evolved with the cane toad, so it doesn't really you know, it has no idea. It's like

I'll put this tode in my mouth. Whoops. Oh problem. Yeah, I think I think the main upshot of this is to not be a small mammal, reptile, insect or bird in Australia. There are way too many species coming, don't do it. Yeah, generally, most of the times I talk about animals on this podcast, it's going to be bad news for small mammals, reptiles, insects and birds in Australia. It's always bad news for those guys. I'm sorry if you're if you're a mouse, build a disneys the rescuers

playing and get out of there. Just just don't be there anymore. But yeah, it is. It is actually very very concerning because it is threatening the northern qual populations and that's you know, and it's these these poor quals. You know, they're just trying to do their jobs as a small predator, but they either get out competed or poisoned by this insane toad. So it sounds like this has been building for a while, right, because the toads showed up in the nineteen thirties and now into the

modern day they are bothering species. Yeah, yeah, it's still a big problem. We have not solved the cane toad problem, although there have been attempts. In two thousand and four there was the Great Cane Toad Trap Competition that was run by Australia's Northern Territory local government, so just trying to like award money to people who could come up with the best cane toad trap because it's a big problem.

Researchers are also trying to control the cane toad population because yeah, they're not They're not just threatening the qual, although I think the qual is cute enough for that to be the main reason to be concerned. But yeah, there are They are also threatening crocodiles, freshwater turtles, tortoises, lizards, birds, and anyone who wants to walk barefoot in a field. At night because you will just probably step on one

of these toads. And that's an icky experience. I mean, because these these toads sound like just a bag of poison walking around, right Like, that's basically the situation. Yeah, they're big, hungry bags of poison pretty much. That's yeah. But there may be some hope and it comes in the form of the Australian water rat. Da da da. Yeah, it looks like it looks to me like a woodchuck, but with like some kind of duck boots on, like

if you could get duck feet. It's a boot from a store and then put that on so you can fight toads. That's what this looks like. Yeah, exactly, that's exactly what it is. I and I subtitled this this picture featured hero because these are these are little heroes.

So the Australian water rat is also known as the racali, is a large aquatic rodent who looks a bit like a mix between an otter and a rat with duck feet, and they have learned how to slice open cane toads with surgical precision and eat their hearts out and other internal organs, avoiding the poison skin and glands, which is a little serial killery. But I guess like when it comes to the cane toad, that's what you have to do. Yeah. If the cane toes didn't want that to happen, they

should have been made of less poison. I think I think it's their fall. Ultimately. I feel like this is very silence of the lambs, where you you can't like you're like, oh, we gotta take down this kane tone. It's like, well, hello, Clarice, I know how to vivisector toad if you'll just please letally out of my confinement I'm around. And then because it's captors are Australians, they're just like all right and just like immediately, no worried, no,

nothing wrong. Yeah. So but these are these are actually native species. So it's it's good that they're murdering the toads, is what I'm saying. And so these smart little murderous water rats will even remove the gall bladder which contains toxins, and they just eat the good stuff inside the toad

that isn't covered in poison. So Dr Morrissa Parrot, reproductive biologist and conservationist, said this of the water rats habits quote the rats appeared to hold the toad on its back and then inside the thoracic cavity to consume organs while the toad was still alive. And he does that. If I'm looking at the thumbnail of that article, right, it has like a picture of the toad after that happened. Wow. Yeah, I put that in there just for for you to

look at. This is just a fun little image of a toad that's been dissected, probably while still alive, so it's organs could be eaten by a giant water roadent I mean this, this arms race has to stop at some point, right, like like the road and gets hunted by an eagle with a gun or something like it. Where where does it go? Where does it end? A bunch of murder hornets riding vespas holding machete. Oh and just just um, I know I've been really mean to

these toads. So just a fun fact I want to just toss out like a fun fact about toads in general, just because like it's true that there are an invasive species and that's not great in Australia. But I don't want people to hate toads. I think they're cool and I here's a here's a fun fact about toads. In general, males have something that is called a bitters organ, which regulates sex hormones, and if the male toads testes are

injured or removed, the bitters organ will develop ovaries. So that's pretty cool, right, So so male toads, if their genitals are injured, can generate female sex organs. Yes, yes, guess how we know that, alex Uh, we asked them, Oh, it's only no. We researchers cut off their dusties. See what would happen. I'm I'm very much for research and science. Sometimes once in a while I'm like, how did why did okay? But why did you think? How did you

think of this idea? Though? Like were you just like sitting there and me like, I want to see what happens if we cut off some tote testicles, like you know, I'm just I'm just a little concerned. Yeah, I assume when the scientists had their press conference, at least one of them was in the middle of drinking a Foster's as they shared this information, Like this is crazy. Why are you doing this? Think that to be wild? Listen, we're gonna cut off now listen, cut off its bowls

and see what hapens. That's not that's not an Australian next at all. No, that didn't do it. That wasn't good. Just decided to drinking a fosters and smoking like science science science? Like why science? Science don't seem professional if it's bulls all. I don't know if these were Australian researchers either, so, but I imagine they must be. They must be. Sorry, sorry my Australian listeners, but you gotta admit they have to be right. Yeah, I mean it

could be them, but it's them. Yeah it is. I love you Australia, I truly do. Cane toads aren't the only type of frog wreaking havoc on the world. And by the way, toads are a subset of frogs. Sorry, kermit, your cousins are monsters. The North American bullfrog is fine and dandy when it's hopping and swimming around east of the Rocky Mountains in North America, but it's decided to invade the rest of the world as well. It's been found further south in America, decimating the chericho, who leopard

frog and Mexican garter snake populations in Arizona. They've invaded west in North America, South America, Europe, and Asia. And let's not be too hard on these little guys. Humans imported the frogs to California and other parts of the world for frog leg culinary purposes. And oops, now they've escaped and are unstoppable. And wait, did I say little guys? They can actually grow to be around eight inches long, the size of a dessert plate, and way up to

one and a half pounds. Normally, in their natural habitat, alligators, snapping turtles, and other predators prevent their populations from exploding, but when introduced to a new environment, they can propagate without natural predators, devouring all sorts of little animals in their path, including other frogs and smaller bull frogs. They also may be immune carriers of the katrid fungus that

is deadly to other frog populations. So when you introduce a non native species to a new area, there are all sorts of deadly surprises, the worst kind of surprise. When we return, we'll talk out an adorable animal with a not so adorable ambition of global domination. Remember riky Tiki Tavi, the adorable mongoose sidekick that protected people from snakes. Mongooses are a family of carnivorous, weasel shaped mammals. Mere Cats,

by the way, are a species of mongoose. While mongooses look similar to a weasel, they're actually more closely related to cats and hyenas. Many mongoose species are prose at eating venomous critters like scorpions and snakes. They can tear off the poisonous stinger of a scorpion, and they're thick fur protects them from stings and bites. They even have specialized neurotransmitter receptors that don't bind to snake venom, providing

resistance to neurotoxins. So these are some incredible little fur noodles, but sometimes they have a dastardly side on a global scale. So, Alex, I think that often we judge animals based on their looks. So I've talked about a murder hornet and a poison cain toad, and they're both a little scary looking, and so I think it's easy for us to naturally think like, oh, look at these scary, murderous, decapitating poisoning animals. How awful. But I want people to understand that it's not just

the ugly ones that are people in nature. So sometimes a little animal that is super cute and very gregarious looking is actually a horrible murderer who is destroying the plant. So the small Indian mongoose, also known as the job in mongoose, is a cute little fella who doesn't seem like it would be a big deal if it invaded.

I have a picture of that for you. I mean, look at his little fingkule faith it's like almost I'm thinking of that c g I Stuart Little movie where Stuart Little is very cute in it, like it kind of it kind of has that facial expression. It's like I'm a rodent and sentient and I just want to love you. I just want to love you. It is a brown long mammal with nubby little ears, a pink nose, and a long furry tail. So you know he's all he's kill at noodle boy. It's cute, ki little furry noodle. Well,

I'm sure that's all I need to know about it. Anyway, go on. It's also one of the worst invasive species in the world. Oh what a scamper noodles. So it is native to the Middle East, South Asia, and Southeast Asia, and it's you know, I love I love mongooses. They are champions, they love to kill venomous snakes and scorpions, and love love a ricky tiki tavi. They're they're awesome animals.

So unfortunately though, it has traveled extensively, including to Hawaii, the Bahamas, Cuba, Jamaica, Croatia, Puerto Rica, Honduras, Panama, Colombia, Venezuela and more places. But I ran out of breath, so yeah, a lot. It's it's in a lot of places. Now, So did mongooses just like hop on a boat to explore the rest of the world after college, you know, just of their own volition. Why no Royal Caribbean had

a deal. So there you go. Yeah, I mean, you know, I think one important thing to point out is a lot of invasive species is actually anthropogenic, so meaning like humans, we did it because we introduced them willfully. The murder hornets, I think that was I think they were unwitting hitchhikers, probably did some hitchhiking on some cargo or something, and

that's how it got to North America. But the mongooses are a different story, because apparently we've been trying this whole You know, the little lady who swallowed a fly, swallowed a frog, who swalled a cat, and then then a dog, and then eventually a horse, because a horse

somehow helps I don't know. She ate a mongoose and brought it here, that lady a little exactly little ladies swallow the snake and ate a mongoose and just basically she was dead as soon as she ate the snake, but we kept trying to shove more mongooses in her. That's the situation, is what I'm saying. So the mongooses were introduced to these new regions by humans, and Alex, can you guess why we would do something like that? Probably a really well thought out plan about some some

past we're trying to deal with. Yeah, and is it what? Trying to think? What could it be? What could have? All? Right, it's sugar cane again. So apparently we tried the old introduced a new species to protect our precious sugarcane from pest trek back in the late eighteen hundreds. But with mongooses, that's right, Australia. We already tried it. It was bad then,

and then you tried it again with toads. Why do we keep doing I guess everyone wants to eat sugarcane, like everyone is me looking at a package of cookies. It is true, sugar is the best tasting thing in the world. So it kind of makes sense that we are willing to introduce murder beasts to our various countries

to protect our sugar cane. So in this case, the mongoose, who is a voracious predator who eats small mammals, reptiles, insects, crabs, frog, spiders, scorpions, snakes, birds, and eggs, was introduced to help kill off pests in sugarcane plantations in Hawaii and other regions. So while it did help kill off some of the rats, mice, and insects around the sugarcane plantation, so you know, at least fulfilled some of its purpose more than the cane toad.

It's not like it dusted off. It's a little positives like job well done, Time to go home. I did did what I came here to do. They just kept killing things, you know, because that's what they do. They're like, all right, I murdered. I murdered these things around these sugarcane crops. Now I'm gonna go murder other things because that's what I do. I told you, I told you I'm a murder noodle, and you invited me here, and I'm murdering things now right. The police can't let Dexter

get one guy, He's gonna get more guys. That's the way it is, like Texter anymore. I thought it was apted anyway. Yeah, I think I'd like Dexter if it was a like played by a mongoose though, like Ricky Ticky, Yeah, exactly, And the mongoose is like, I have a code and then it just like devours an endangered bird and it's like that wasn't part of my code. So these mongooses have threatened bird species and sea turtles by eating their eggs in Hawaii. They've harmed the green iguana population. In

the Caribbean. They have wiped out the St. Quaix St. Quax. I always stumble over that because now I think of laqua the drink, but the St. St. Quaix ground lizard from the island of Saint Quix. So like the lizard has its own Ding Island, and the mongoosees took it from him. It's not called Mongoose Island. It's called Saint Quis Island, but still now it's mongoose Island, I guess.

So it was introduced to Okinawa Island in Japan in nineteen ten and two amani Oshima Island in nineteen seventy nine to try to control the venomous snake populations there. Guess what they were trying to protect on those islands, alex sugar cane. Well, I what is it with us

in sugarcane? Guys? You know, fool me four times about sugar cane chain on you, But we have to calm down about this sugar not so yeah, So we introduced the mongooses to these islands to try to protect people who worked around the sugarcane crops and other residents on

the island from these venomous snakes. Unfortunately, the venomous snakes were nocturnal and the mongooses are diurnal, so it didn't actually work to control the snake population, and now they are threatening endangered species on Okinawa Island and the locals have been trying to stop them with traps and fences, which is like when is awake during the day and then the others awake at night, and they just are on like a shift schedule for terrorizing everyone, right, exactly exactly, yes,

exactly exactly. So diurnal means they at night and are awake during the day, so as humans were diurnal, Nocturnal means you sleep during the day and are awake at night. And so the snakes like clock in for their night shift. It's like another day of terrorizing the population. And then the mongooses clocking in the morning, they're like, hey, Jeff, I'm just coming in to terrorize the human population and animals, sorry,

human and animal populations. And then and then they don't like catch each other sleeping because that would be like uncool, Like there's your code, right, like you don't you don't get them sleeping and then you get them awake otherwise forget it, right, well, right, I mean they do. They sleep in burrows, which protects them, so everything. So I want to veer into the part of the show where

I talk about military propaganda on an animals show. So there was an article on Stars and Stripes dot com, which is a military publication that was titled quote Marines helping Oka Nolan's fight the mongoose, And I just like imagined all these like military guys, all heavily armed, like

trying to shoot down mongooses. Now it actually looks like it's just that the military is allowing Okanawans to put traps around their military base, which seems like saying like we're helping them fight the mongooses, like overstating slightly what they're doing. It's not quite like Heart of Darkness but with mongooses. But you know, what do I know? I don't know anything about military tactics. It's not the it's not the like third act of an Avengers movie where

everybody finally teams up and gets down to business. They're just letting up set up traps. Man. That would that movie would have ended differently if it was the Avengers versus a bunch of angry mongooses, like that would be immediate defeat, just like they like done Da Da Da Dune and they stepped through portals like oh they're in my life. Oh God. Sadly, the mongooses are suspected of being responsible for the extinction of four species of Haitians.

Shrews endangering the Cuban souland on which is a long nose true like mammal, the extinction of the dwarf Kutia in Cuba, which is a guinea pig like rodent, or was a guinea pig like rodent. They are also threatening the endangered Ammani rabbit population on amani Oshima Island, and Amani rabbits are these really cool black, stubby eared wild bunnies there. I think they're really neat looking very cute as well. Oh I'm sorry, I just saw it. It

looks so cute. It is very cute. It's got like it looks like you were creating a rabbit and then you ran out of material, so you just kind of like made the ears real short, yeah, and left it black for like, you know, like like the reason the model t was black. Like it's just basic. It's good. Leave it black. It's it's a it's a sleek redesign of the rabbit. So the mongooses can also carry leptospirosis, rabies,

and antibiotic resistance strains of eat Coli neat. So we've really been hoisted by our own mongooses here by trying to bus around with nature and introduce them to regions where they are not from and off of that ecol I think, folks, this is why I do not let mongooses work at my restaurant. I've taken a lot of flak for this, taking a lot of negative comments about it, but that's how we're keeping it. It's people only and

certain other species. No mongooses. No more letters. Please again, I don't want to come off as an anti mongoose podcast. Despite Alex just saying he would discriminate against mongooses is great, but yeah, it's not. I think mongooses are even this spe she's the small Indian mongoose. They're wonderful animals and they are an important part of their habitat where they're indigenous. But the problem is when humans are like, oh, we got a problem with snakes, Well, let's just throw some

mongooses on the snake fire. That'll be fine. You gotta fight snake fire with mongoose fire, and then that's that's where the problem happens. And so I would say, when we are looking at all of these extinctions and endangerments of other species, this is not really the mongoose is fault. The mongoose is just gonna mongoose. You can't like say, hey, mongoose, stop doing mongoose things. It's like, but I'm a mongoose.

I'm gonna keep doing mongoose stuff. So yeah, it's like again it's this is this is our fault as people not understanding the consequences of introducing this animal to an area. It's also why things like the exotic pet trade isn't great because like if you take a species of animal that is not native to a region and then you accidentally release it, the same thing with plants as well, it can cause all of these problems. So yeah, again, like I don't want this to come off as like, ah,

let's hate these animals. It's like, yeah, you know, the the ecosystem is very delicate thing, and then when we just try to like shove a mongoose shaped peg in a snake shaped hole, it's not gonna necessarily be good. Yeah, when you when you said the name mongoose, I thought of going to our local library where my grandma worked in the VHS section and getting that animated movie about Ricky Tiki Tavy and watching it a whole bunch and like that's basically all I know the Chuck Jones animated.

Yeah yeah, and like that's pretty much all I really know about mongoose is. But I think a lot of community leaders maybe know about that much too, and just brought a bunch of mongooses in any way, Like that's bad. Don't do that, Like no more than I did, you know going in? Yeah, yeah, I mean yeah, mongooses are I love them. When I was a kid, I loved Ricky Tiki Tavi. I absolutely love mongooses. It's just like it's like a cute little animal that like is able

to spar with scorpions and snakes. That's super awesome, and they are really awesome animals. Yeah, it's just again, like we can't just like throw a mongoose on every problem and expect that to work out. Yeah yeah, be more judicious in your moose. So I'm saying, right, if if you think that we should bring in a bunch of

mongooses to fight the murder hornets, you are misguided. Although I would I would definitely pay per view to see that like this Sunday Sunday Sunday Murder Hornets versus murder mongoose. Just a very confusing way in trying to trying to get him on the scale. Well what do we do? Yeah, yeah, but but but don't but don't do that, guys, learn learn from the mistakes that we repeatedly made without learning from. Yeah, any any of us, at any time can be the

time humanity finally wises up. You know, it's great. Yeah, yeah, yeah, exactly. Maybe we'll we'll just stop, We'll stop trying the like. Yeah, you know it is. It is funny that we like have not learned from the wisdom of the little lady who swallowed a fly, because like, remember, she dies in the end because she eats a horse and that's bad

and that's basically our planet. It's a metaphor for our planet. Yeah, she ate a horse, So you don't have to exactly exactly learn from learn from the old old ladies are eating horses, so we can learn how to take care of our environment. Is that the lesson? Did you learn that lesson today? Alex? I learned that precise lesson? Yes, great, good, so I've done my job as a science educator. All right, Well, thank you so much for joining me today. Alex. Did

you learn? Did you laugh? Did you you know, hopefully not murder. Hopefully I was about to say yes to everything, no murder, but yes, right, no, that's amazing. Now I now I know what's going on, especially with with these murder hornets that are like an emergence than going on, because there's there's like past invaders kind of all the time,

and a lot of ecosystems. Like when I was growing up around Chicago, there were Asian kerp in the like Great Lakes and in the water system, and we would just hear the name and be told to be worried. But you have to like actually find out stuff to know what's going on. And now I now I know

exactly how to feel about the murder hornets exactly. I mean, like, you know, to feel a little wary, but also to realize that they're not it's not they're not bad because they're scary looking and an insect that we typically aren't fond of. Their they're bad for native populations in the North America because of the way that it messes up with the indigenous ecosystem in the same way that the adorable,

lovable little noodlely mongoose is bad. Like it's cute, it's lovable, but it's still killing off a lot of species of animals, which is really bad. Yeah, so you know, don't judge. Don't judge an invasive species by its covered. Judged invasive species by how many creatures it murders. That's lesson number two. Well, Alex, do you wanna plug anything? And I know you want to,

so you gotta do it. Caught me a good Uh, there's a wonderful and uh, if folks want to hear the Cracks podcast, Katie Golden is on a recent episode and as amazing. Uh And and then I'm also I'm proud of that. And I'm also very very proud of this new mini series it's called One Way to Make an Emoji, which also features Katie Golden an episode three out of four, just four episodes, so you can get them all at once and do the whole story. And

I think it's great. Us we talked about bison. Yeah, we talked about bison, and I learned you are as zoo tour guided. My mind was blown. Yeah. I I am finding more and more that I need to tell people that early on, but especially someone like you should have known immediately, like I should have sent you a letter. Yeah, when we met, you should have should you know, shook my hand and said, Alex former Zoo tour guys, you know that should should just be you should have hand

out a little car basically. Yeah. And where can people find you online? I'm at Alex Smitty on Twitter and then Alex meitty dot com is my website wonderful and you can find us online at Creature Future Pod on Instagram, at Creature Feet Pod on Twitter. That's f e a T. That not feet, that's one point, very different. You can find me on Twitter at Katie Golden if you want to see my Katie thoughts, not necessarily related to the show,

just random Katie thoughts. Uh. And as always, I am also at pro bird Writes, where I am taking none of the lessons that I we should have learned from this podcast in saying that birds should take over the world, just because that is a simple fact. And um yeah, thank you guys so much for listening. If you guys want to leave a rating or review or download, subscribe, those things actually really help. I know you're like, oh, what could pressing buttons from thousands of miles away do

for Katie? Not true? In fact, I I can sense it. I have the sense like you pressed five stars and like I'm like, oh my god, someone just pressed five stars on my podcast. That's amazing, and it teaches the podcast robots that the show is good. So teach those robots about our show is good by pressing those buttons. That really does help out a lot. Thanks to the Space Classics for their super awesome song. X Alumina. Creature features a production of I Heart Radio or more podcast

like the one you just heard. Visit the I heart Radio website, the I heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows. See you next Wednesday, Tete