Nature & Environment

First 'murder hornet' nest found in the US

By T.K. Randall
October 24, 2020 ·  44 comments

The species is enormous. Image Credit: CC BY 2.0 Justin Lindsay / Flickr More commonly known as the Asian giant hornet, these enormous insects have already proven a problematic invasive species in Europe and now they are threatening to invade the US as well.

Measuring 1.8 inches long and with a venomous stinger quarter-of-an-inch in length, the Asian giant hornet can actually prove lethal to humans and is responsible for up to 50 deaths a year in Japan.

In addition, these predatory insects are known to attack honey bees which (unlike their Japanese counterparts) have no innate defense against them.

As a result, even a small number of hornets can totally devastate an entire honey bee colony.

Now a recent report out of Washington state has revealed that a nest of these unsettling insects has been found in Blaine - a city near the Canadian border to the north of Seattle.Wildlife authorities had been searching for the nest for weeks and they finally managed to determine its location by attaching a tracking device to one of the hornets after it was caught in a trap by a worker at the Washington state Agriculture Department.

The nest itself was located inside a tree on a private property.

It still remains unclear exactly how the species - which is typically found in China, Japan, Thailand and other eastern countries - actually managed to make its way to the United States.

The race is now on to eliminate the insects before they manage to gain a strong foothold.

Footage of the nest can be viewed below.


Source: Huffington Post | Comments (44)

Tags: Hornet, Bees