First COVID-19 came back, now, murder hornets.
The Washington State Department of Agriculture (WSDA) has confirmed the first report of a live Asian giant hornet sighting in Washington in 2021, according to a statement.
“The report was submitted by a Whatcom County resident on Aug. 11. WSDA entomologists reviewed and confirmed the report as an Asian giant hornet on Aug. 12. The report included a photograph of an Asian giant hornet attacking a paper wasp nest in a rural area east of Blaine, about 2 miles from where WSDA eradicated the first Asian giant hornet nest in the United States last October,” the WSDA said.
“This hornet is exhibiting the same behavior we saw last year – attacking paper wasp nests,” said Sven Spichiger, WSDA managing entomologist. “If you have paper wasp nests on your property and live in the area, keep an eye on them and report any Asian giant hornets you see. Note the direction they fly off to as well.”
The agency has launched into action. “In response to this detection, WSDA will be setting live traps in the area in an attempt to catch a live hornet, tag it, and track it back to the nest. The British Columbia government will likewise be setting additional traps in Canada as this detection was approximately half a mile from the U.S./Canadian border,” the WSDA said.
Scientists in the U.S. and Canada are joining forces to battle the so-called murder hornets, which arrived in North America from Asia in recent years. The scientists have fought them mostly in Whatcom County, Washington, and across the border in nearby Fraser Valley of British Columbia, where swarms of the giant insects have been spotted.
“This is not a species we want to tolerate here in the United States,” said Sven-Erik Spichiger of the Washington state Department of Agriculture, according to Fox News. “The Asian giant hornet is not supposed to be here. We may not get them all, but we will get as many as we can.”
Paul van Westendorp, who works with the British Columbia Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Fisheries, said the hornets are not only a danger to people, but they also could damage bee populations. “It’s an absolutely serious danger to our health and well-being,” he said. “These are intimidating insects.”
“Asian giant hornet attacks and destroys honeybee hives,” Washington State Department of Agriculture said last year in a blog post. “A few hornets can destroy a hive in a matter of hours. The hornets enter a ‘slaughter phase’ where they kill bees by decapitating them. They then defend the hive as their own, taking the brood to feed their own young.”
“These hornets will actually come into colonies, and they will decapitate the bees at the hive. They can decimate an entire colony,” University of Tennessee entomologist Jennifer Tsurda told WVLT News.
The battle will have two fronts. “One major front will be setting thousands of traps this spring to capture queens that are trying to establish nests, officials said. Both government agencies and private citizens will set traps, they said,” Fox reported. “Another effort is underway to determine exactly where in Asia these hornets came from, to try and learn how they are getting across the Pacific Ocean, scientists said. The theory is they are crossing on cargo ships, Spichiger said.”
The Daily Wire reported in November that one nest that was destroyed last year contained more than 500 insects at various growth stages and nearly 200 queens capable of starting their own colonies.