Associated Press
BLAINE — Washington agriculture workers have have trapped their first Asian giant hornet.
The hornet was found July 14 in a bottle trap set near the Canadian border, and state entomologists confirmed its identity Wednesday, according to the Washington State Department of Agriculture.
The Asian giant hornet, the world’s largest at 2 inches and sometimes called a “murder hornet,” can decimate entire hives of honeybees and deliver a painful sting to humans. Farmers in the Northwest depend on those honey bees to pollinate many crops such as apples, blueberries and cherries.
The invasive insect was first documented in the state late last year, and officials have said it’s not known how it arrived in North America. It normally lives in the forests and low mountains of eastern and southeast Asia.
The recently-trapped one is the first found in a trap rather than in the environment, as the state’s five previous confirmed sightings were.
“This is encouraging because it means we know that the traps work,” Sven Spichiger, managing entomologist for the department, said in a news release. “But it also means we have work to do.”
The state now plans to search for nests using infrared cameras and to place additional traps that try to capture hornets alive. If they catch live hornets, the agriculture department will try to tag and track them back to their colony so the colony can be eradicated.
Officials hope to destroy any nests by mid-September, before the colony would begin creating new reproducing queens.
Talk to us
- You can tell us about news and ask us about our journalism by emailing newstips@heraldnet.com or by calling 425-339-3428.
- If you have an opinion you wish to share for publication, send a letter to the editor to letters@heraldnet.com or by regular mail to The Daily Herald, Letters, P.O. Box 930, Everett, WA 98206.
- More contact information is here.
