Murder Hornets or Nothing Burger?
When I saw several articles flood out last week about the discovery in the Pacific Northwest of so-called Murder Hornets (Vespa Mandarinia), it felt like the other shoe had just dropped.
This was by design, perhaps, as Murder Hornets—like Shark Attacks and Killer Bees of the 90’s and early Aughts—is simply a great headline for clickbait. So many articles vie for our attention, especially right now.
We’re all itching to find out what’s next, as the Great Re-opening (maybe) begins. We’re all making necessary adjustments to best adapt to these changing conditions.
It won’t be hornets though.
I’m in my third year of beekeeping in the lower part of Michigan, and there are already multiple accounts of what real impact they’ll have on both humans and our fuzzy agricultural helpers, Apis Mellifera (the European Honeybee). Upon further research, simply adding a “mouse guard”—or a strip of aluminum with honeybee-sized holes in it—will help protect my girls from this seemingly apocalyptic predator. Or mice, for that matter.
But, we were all so primed for fear-stoking that the news outlets couldn’t resist bombarding us with yet another terrifying story. It even took me a few days to realize that Murder Hornets aren’t even their real name.
Look at challenges as an opportunity.
The real story isn’t that murder hornets are coming to kill you and me and all the bees. The real story is that pesticides and mites (Varroa Destructor) and loss of wild forage decimate colonies. The bees, and my fellow beekeepers, are adapting to these threats every season; we’ll adapt to the hornet problem, too.
All problems are opportunities in disguise, a chance to grow and change. They allow us to transform our approach, which businesses and citizens everywhere are doing with new normal activities such as creating space for social distance and wearing masks while shopping.
REGROUP is adapting in this new normal, too. Our team is now on our third month of working remotely, and like everyone else, it was a struggle at first; but now we’re firing on all cylinders.
We’re offering remote consultations for brands that may be struggling to transform in this new landscape. We’ve helped a financial client open a branch location. We’re building an ecommerce site to allow a client that harnesses UV technology to disinfect 3M® & N95 masks to sell products online. We even made a heartfelt thank you to all the heroes on the frontlines.
We aren’t driven by fear, but rather, we’re more inspired than ever. We’re open for business and grateful that we get to do what we’ve always done well: future-proof brands by helping them assess, regroup and transform in order to meet the next challenge head-on.
Murder Hornets? Bring it.
