State vacuums over 100 Asian giant hornets out of nest in Whatcom County
Aug 26, 2021, 8:29 AM | Updated: 11:07 am
An Asian giant hornet nest identified in Whatcom County. (WSDA)
(WSDA)
A week after identifying the first Asian giant hornet nest of 2021, workers with the Washington State Department of Agriculture (WSDA) have now fully eradicated it, along with hundreds of the hornets themselves.
State begins Asian giant hornet tracking effort
The nest was found inside of a dead tree in Whatcom County east of Blaine, roughly two miles away from the spot a nest was destroyed last year, and just south of the Canadian border. It was also a quarter-mile away from where a live sighting of a so-called “murder hornet” was reported in early August.
WSDA workers vacuumed 113 hornets out of the nest, catching another 67 in the surrounding area using nets. An estimated 1,500 additional hornets in the nest were reported to be in “various stages of development.”
Our team eradicated the first #AsianGiantHornet nest of the year yesterday. Read about it in our press release or tune into our press conference at 11 a.m. live streaming on YouTube. https://t.co/hY2MZJVqVd #SoundOn pic.twitter.com/U2CMgN5y2C
— Washington State Department of Agriculture (@WSDAgov) August 26, 2021
Once the hornets were removed from the nest, teams then scraped away bark and decayed wood, discovering that the insects had “excavated the interior of the tree, … which consisted of nine layers of comb.”
The WSDA credited help it received from the public in tracking down the nest, stressing the importance of reporting sightings of the invasive hornet.
“While we are glad to have found and eradicated this nest so early in the season, this detection proves how important public reporting continues to be,” WSDA managing entomologist Sven Spichiger said in a news release. “We expect there are more nests out there and, like this one, we hope to find them before they can produce new queens. Your report may be the one that leads us to a nest.”
It’s Asian giant hornet trapping season and you can help
Asian giant hornets are not native to the United States. They are the world’s largest hornet and prey on honey bees and other insects. These hornets may attack honey bee hives in the late summer or early fall. A small group of Asian giant hornets can kill an entire honey bee hive in a matter of hours.
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