They’re no longer going to be called “Murder Hornets” – or even “Asian Giant Hornets.”  The world’s largest species of hornet, which has been found in three nest sites in Whatcom County in the Blaine area near the Canadian Border in the last two years has officially been renamed by the Entomological Society of America.

“Northern Giant Hornet” will be name of the species otherwise known as Vespa Mandarinia in the society’s Common Names of Insects and Related Organisms list.  The new official name is intended to comply with ESA’s insect common names guidelines, which include avoiding naming insects using geographic regions.  So for now, they shall be forever be known as “northern giant hornets.”  And the search continues for more nests – primarily in Whatcom County – as officials seek to eradicate them.

See Video below for some real BAD hornets!   

As many as 60 small electric scooters may be plying the streets of downtown Sequim soon.  The Sequim City Council approved a proposal last week to enter into a year-long temporary contract with the Bird Rides, Inc company to bring electric stand-up scooters into the city. Mike Butler, a company representative, says the company is in the process of analyzing the Peninsula as part of a region with neighboring cities as a whole to bring  the scooters into Sequim and Port Angeles  If the scooters do come into Sequim it’ll take four to six weeks to bring the equipment into the city.  Users would be required to use an app to pay and ride. During last week’s city council meeting councilor William Armacost said he supported the project.

ARMACOST: “We have an incredibly active, robust senior population.  If you go by at any given day with the pickleball court you will see exactly that in full display. They are ambitious and vigorous and they’re going at it.”

Citing the experience in Seattle as reported by the Seattle Times, Councilor Lowell Rathbun said he’s willing to give the project a try in Sequim, noting that the scooters are used primarily by people below the age of 44.

RATHBUN:  “I don’t think seniors are going to use scooters. Will this program take off in Sequim? And from my point of view I’m very much in favor of anything that will reduce greenhouse gas emissions here in this city. We have an extremely high density of motorized traffic. All you have to do is look at what happens on Friday afternoon.  So I’m thinking, I’ve done a little bit of research, and something like low speed vehicles or a souped up golf cart might be a little bit better for us seniors. But I’m in favor of looking at a pilot program just to see how this works.”   

The council voted 5-to-2 to enter into a temporary operating agreement with Bird rides to test the scooter project in the city through September 30 of 2023 for people 18 and up to use.  

Peninsula Health Officer Dr. Allison Berry acknowledges while the BA.5 coronavirus sub-variant has become the dominant strain and is causing a spike in new cases, it is not the worst variant ever. During her coronavirus briefing with Jefferson County Commissioners this week she suggested caution be exercised when hearing reports about the severity of the variants.

BERRY:  “There’s unfortunately a tendency to try to kind of raise everybody’s blood pressure because it makes you quick. But right now we don’t have any variants circulating that strike me as the worst variant ever. The worst variant we’ve seen so far for COVID was the Gamma variant, which thankfully did not take hold the way the Delta variant did. But right now what we’re seeing is a highly transmissible that can get around prior immunity, but we’re not seeing severe disease.

And really what we would worry about as a public health community would be the combination of all three of those: transmissible, immunity and severity. That would make me very nervous and we’re not seeing that yet.”   

However she says the BA.5 variant is the most transmissible that’s been seen so far and is truly airborne at this point. That means that distancing doesn’t help that much. But she says the disease is not more severe for those who are fully vaccinated and boosted but can be quite severe for those who are unvaccinated and for those over 65 who don’t have all four vaccinations.  

The phlox that I bought last fall looks sad this summer.  We re-potted it in April but maybe we need a larger pot.

The water runs right through it. Will it recover?

Bev -Edmonds

(You know...we really have been blessed, huh?)

Please see the video presentation below...