Ill behaved aliens menace Main Line!

Last night Coco and I had our domestic tranquility disturbed when a large, strange-looking wasp zoomed into the living room. I’m quite used to bees and yellow jackets, but I’d never seen anything quite like this, as it was too large, and instead of trying to get out of the house, it menaced me aggressively. (I had opened the door and it was clearly attracted in by the light.) Why it was flying around late at night I do not know; normally wasps and bees are quiet during nocturnal hours.
I was left with little choice but to reach for my RAID Flying Insect Killer, aimed and sprayed, and hit it fair and square. But our invader didn’t just lie down and die. It only seemed to fly around in a more aggressive manner. Finally it hit the floor near the wall and the buzzing got louder. I sprayed again and it went into convulsions. Damn, it looked like it must not have been much fun; fortunately insects don’t have nervous systems.
What bothered me the most is that I pride myself on knowing my critters, and I’d never seen a wasp that looked like this before.

(Um, no, that’s not my regular-sized coffee cup. I just stuck some wax in there so that it would provide a proper base for display purposes.)
It wasn’t until this afternoon that I finally got around to an online search. It wasn’t easy, and after looking over and over again at pictures of every native wasp I could find, I was ready to give up. This looked vaguely like a yellow jacket but it was too big and the markings were different. Too much yellow on the abodomen, and in a different pattern. Wider frame, bigger, hairier head.
I was about to give up when I saw the picture of a German wasp, which looked similar, but at the same site there was a picture of the European hornet (Vespa crabro) which was an exact match. This led to a University of Arkansas site, where it is explained that they’re alien wasps which started in damned North, and are now invading the South:

As its common name implies, the European hornet is native to central and western Europe, but it is never found north of the 63rd parallel. In North America, it was first found in New York State in the mid 1800s. During the following century, it spread slowly through southern New England and south through New Jersey and Pennsylvania to Virginia and North Carolina. By 1973, outlying populations were detected in scattered localities in Georgia, Tennessee, Kentucky, Ohio, and Indiana. It was found in Shelby County, Tennessee, just over the border from Crittenden County, Arkansas. In the late 1970?s and early 1980s it spread rapidly across Kentucky. By the early 1980s, isolated reports revealed that it covered the area from Maine and southeastern Canada south to North Carolina and west to Michigan and Tennessee, with only scattered occurrences in states south of Tennessee and North Carolina, and for Wisconsin, Illinois, Minnesota, and adjacent areas north of Missouri and west of the Mississippi River. By the late 1980s it was spreading through the Ozarks of southeastern Missouri.
The European hornet was first detected in Arkansas in September 1999.

I’m glad I didn’t get stung, as the sting is reported to be a lot worse than our native species:

“I have recently had an encounter with the European hornet and I’d like to notify you of the encounter and location. I drive a log truck and one morning while I was getting my truck ready for loading I was stung. It was a little before daylight, I had my work lights on and bugs were flying around and as I entered my truck one got up my pant leg. attempting to shake it out I must have put pressure on it because it stung me on the side of the knee cap. I quickly came out of my pants to release this varmint and discovered my knee was turning red, swelling and burning like no sting I have ever received. The sting burned and irritated me all day but the pain relieved and the redness and swelling went away by late evening. It lasted roughly around 10-12 hours. I was aware of some trees around the loading landing that contained some sort of bee so I quickly decided it was one of them. I medicated the sting with items in my first aid kit and applied cool water to the area, which helped some. When the forest ranger over the area came around later in the day after I had left, the foreman of the logging crew notified him of my sting. He was aware of what the bee was so he collected one out of one of the hives and took it with him. He found it to be what the Forestry Commission called an European wasp. I know of 4 trees that contain these hives and they are located in the Ozark National Forrest in the Mt. View, AR. area. The location is 12 miles north on Hwy. 341 off Hwy. 14 out of Big Flat, AR… We have since observed this hornet attacking red wasp and yellow jackets. . .

Attacking our American wasps? Even the wasps living on Philadelphia’s Main Line? Ye gods!
I say, protect our WASP society from these alien immigrant invaders!
Interestingly, Vespa crabro is protected in Germany, and had died out in England, but the populations are now returning. Instead of being grateful, the Brits are blaming “climate change.”
A University of Kentucky website claims that European hornets are active at night, and are attracted to lights, which they will attack! Nighttime aggression is further confirmed at a Penn State web site which states:

These workers are unique among the yellowjackets for their ability (actually a propensity) to forage at night. It is not unusual for workers to bounce off of external lights or house windowpanes during summer nights.

Well, that certainly explains the gratuitous show of force displayed in my living room last night (and the pre-dawn attack on the innocent Arkansas trucker.)
You learn something every day. In this case, I learned something I didn’t especially want to learn.
And exactly what is Bush doing about this problem, I’d like to know?
UPDATE: I should have said that insects don’t have nervous systems like ours. Or “don’t have much by way of nervous systems.” Thanks to Alan Kellogg for the correction.