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About East Oregonian : E.O. (Pendleton, OR) 1888-current | View Entire Issue (Oct. 1, 2016)
LIFESTYLES Spice it up with tortilla chicken soup/4C WEEKEND, OCTOBER 1-2, 2016 Hiker inds awe & ecstasy on the PCT/8C “Only the females sting,” said Carl Roush demonstrating by letting a male wasp walk along his tongue. A re- tired biology pro- fessor, Roush, 65, has researched stinging insects, such as bees and ants, since 1978. EO Media Group photo by Natalie St. John Yellow Jacket hunter Carl Roush collects the venomous insects for use in study, antidotes By LUKE WHITTAKER EO Media Group L ONG BEACH, Wash. — It begins with a peculiar sign on the edge of Sandridge Road in Seaview. It ends with a vaccine that saves lives across the U.S. In between is Carl Roush, a retired biologist who has been collecting yellow jackets for pharmaceutical use since 1986. Roush, 65, has been collecting, freezing and shipping live wasps to HollisterStier Laboratory in Spokane for more than 30 years, primarily in the Longview, Washington area. But on a Friday in early August, he made his last trip of the season to the Long Beach peninsula, where one of Roush’s signs along Sandridge Road was noticed by Ilwaco resident Kelly Bone. Bone reported a basketball- size nest of yellow jackets on the corner of his garage, and Roush came ready to collect. Buzzing business Most retreat at the sight of a nest swarming with wasps, but Roush leaned in for a closer look. “This is a really good one,” Roush beamed as he unloaded a shop vacuum and a garden hoe from his Subaru, the two simple tools he has used for nearly three decades. Moments later he was back on the EO Media Group photo by Natalie St. John ladder only a few feet from nest A plume of wasps swarm from the nest as Roush taps a garden hoe next to the nest Friday, August 5 in Ilwaco. After 10 minutes, he’s of 900 buzzing yellow jackets. A collected 80 percent of the hive. few raps on the side of the garage and a gust of wasps lush from the opening. Methodically, Roush moved around the hive, sucking in wasps by the handful. “Zoop! Zoop! Zoop!” Roush admits he sometimes becomes mesmerized by the all movement and unfazed by the potential of a painful sting. It happens, but it’s rare. Within minutes Roush has caught most of them, which he estimates to number near 900, a sizable nest for the species. It’s one of his last collections of the season, and one of the best for this particular species. Most of his calls this season have been in the Ocean Park area for ground nests, which sometimes contain up to 2,000 wasps. A more EO Media Group photo by Natalie St. John calculated approach is needed for LEFT: After a few minutes packed next to dry ice, the wasp drift asleep due to the released CO2. Roush then separates the males which have the bigger underground colonies, no pharmaceutical use. The remaining female wasps are repacked with more dry ice and sent to Spokane where the venom is extracted. where wasps have a tendency to RIGHT: Rousch estimated the nest contained approximately 900 aerial yellow jackets. crawl up pant legs and ind their Value in the venom way into seams of clothing. Roush seldom gets stung, the result of decades The extracted venom has a variety of of experience working around the insects. medical uses, many of which are still being Instead he considers ladders to be the riskiest researched. Where some people have allergic part of the profession. — Carl Roush responses to stings from honey bees, yellow “My worst experience was falling off jackets, hornets or paper wasps, the venom a ladder,” Roush said, describing a fall 10 each stinger and cuts off the poison sack “Well, those six stings were right on that can be used a precursor to prevent such years ago that ended with a serious knee into a beaker. The process is repeated 5,000 tendon and the tendinitis went away for six severe reactions when introduced in smaller injury. But he’s had his bad days with stings, months. For six months it was gone,” Rouch times per pound,” said Roush of a venom- doses. too. extraction process that varies depending on said. It revealed a irst-hand experience of “It’s a vaccine,” said Roush. “It builds up “I was collecting a western yellow jacket the species and colony size. the medical wonders of the venom. their tolerance by giving them minute doses nest that was very sizable, about 2,500 “With a honeybee hive, they can put “The venom is used for arthritis. It’s of the venom, should they encounter the real workers,” Roush recalled. a glass plate on a platform and on that usually from honeybees, but it causes a thing.” Alternative research and anecdotal “I was pounding on the ground around the similar inlammatory response that elicits plate they put a copper grid and run a mild accounts suggest bee venom has potential edge of the tree and all the needles collapsed, our defensive cells to react and repair. And it electrical current through it. The bees sting use in alleviating symptoms of rheumatoid plugging the tunnel.” Carefully, Roush began happened to me by accident,” Roush said. the grid and the venom drips onto the plate. arthritis, as well. to remove the needles blocking the opening. The volatile component evaporates and they There are numerous misconceptions “I did my next little scoop and have pure crystalline venom,” Roush said. about bees and wasps that Roush routinely Extraction follows collection WHOOOSH! I was covered with at least The electric technique isn’t widely used addresses, largely based on common After Roush has collected the wasps, a 500 yellow jackets.” The swarm piled on his with other species because the colony sizes misidentiication. headgear, stinging his neck and any exposed painstaking process of venom extraction are smaller, making it impractical. Paid “Wasps are stinging insects that eat meat. follows. Packaged in a styrofoam box, skin. by weight, Roush sometimes fulills his Bees are stinging insects that visit lowers the wasps are placed in a cooler next “I had 10 stings in one stop. That’s the 10-pound quota before the oficial season, for pollen and nectar. It’s that simple,” to a chunk of dry ice. Within minutes, worst it’s ever been,” Roush said. “I’ve which runs June through September. The Roush said. And it’s typically just a few the carbon dioxide released from the learned a lot since then.” The experience smaller-colony species garner the highest yellow jackets that give the whole hive a ice causes the wasps to slip into a deep wasn’t entirely negative. Six of the stings prices. Bald-faced hornets are most valuable bad name. sleep. After the males are separated, those were on his Achilles tendon that had been a because they’re the most dificult to obtain in “Only a few members from each colony remaining are placed in a Ziploc bag, source of daily soreness. numbers, according to Roush. learn that they can scavenge food off your labeled, packed on dry ice and shipped off “I was a runner at the time and my “Basically, it’s a supply-and-demand picnic plate. Yellow jackets aren’t bad. Their to Jubilant HollisterStier, a pharmaceutical Achilles tendon was always inlamed,” said cycle,” Roush said. “The western yellow role in nature is to collect insects. They are a manufacturing facility in Spokane. Roush, who had to routinely remedy the jackets, each colony has so many that it’s beneit,” Roush said. “And then someone with forceps pulls soreness with ice and aspirin. easier to collect them.” “I had 10 stings in one stop. That’s the worst it’s ever been. I’ve learned a lot since then.”
