Invasive ‘murder hornets’ are wiped out in the US, officials say
SEATTLE — The world’s largest hornet, an invasive breed dubbed the “murder hornet” for its dangerous sting and ability to slaughter a honey bee hive in hours, has been declared extirpated in the US, five years after it was wiped out. spotted for the first time in Washington state, near the Canadian border.
The Washington and U.S. Departments of Agriculture announced the eradication Wednesday, saying there had been no detection of the northern giant hornet in Washington since 2021.
The news was a huge success, with residents agreeing to place traps on their properties and reporting sightings, as well as researchers catching a live hornet. attaching a small radio tracking tag to it with dental floss and followed it through a forest to a nest in an alder. Scientists destroyed the nest just as some queens were just beginning to hatch, officials said.
“I have to tell you, as an entomologist I’ve been doing this for over 25 years now, and it’s a rare day when man actually wins over the insects,” said Sven Spichiger, pest control program manager at the Washington State Department of Agriculture, told a virtual press conference.
The hornets, which can grow up to 5cm in length and were previously called Asian giant hornets, gained attention in 2013 when they killed 42 people and seriously injured 1,675 in China. According to data from the National Institutes of Health, approximately 72 people die each year in the U.S. from bee and hornet stings.
The hornets were first discovered in North America in British Columbia, Canada, in August 2019 and confirmed in Washington state in December 2019, when a Whatcom County resident reported a specimen. A beekeeper also reported that beehives were attacked and specimens were transferred in the summer of 2020. The hornets could have traveled to North America in plant pots or shipping containers, experts said.
DNA evidence suggested that the populations in British Columbia and Washington were unrelated and appeared to have originated from different countries. There have also been no confirmed reports in British Columbia since 2021, and the non-profit Invasive Species Center of Canada has said the hornet is considered extirpated there as well.
Northern giant hornets pose a significant threat to pollinators and native insects. They can wipe out a honey bee hive in just 90 minutes, decapitating the bees and then defending the hive as their own, taking the brood to feed their own young.
The hornet can sting through most beekeeper suits, deliver almost seven times as much venom as a honey bee, and sting multiple times. At one point, Washington’s Agriculture Department ordered special reinforced suits from China.
Washington is the only state that has had this confirmed messages of northern giant hornets. Trappers found four nests in 2020 and 2021.
Spichiger said Washington will remain wary despite reports of the eradication. He noted that entomologists will continue to monitor traps in Kitsap County, where a resident reported an unconfirmed sighting in October but where trapping and public outreach efforts were unsuccessful.
He noted that other invasive hornets can also pose problems: Officials in Georgia and South Carolina are battling yellow-legged hornets, and southern giant hornets were recently discovered in Spain.
“We will remain vigilant,” Spichiger said.