the northern giant hornet, more commonly known as the northern giant hornet “Murder Wasp” It has been eradicated in the United States, agriculture officials announced Wednesday.
I got a creepy nickname alien species The hornet was confirmed to be present in the United States in 2019 after Washington state authorities received and reviewed two reports of the hornet. Efforts immediately began to track them down and eliminate them.
At 2 inches long, the wasp has a longer stinger than the common hornet and can emit more powerful venom, making it extremely dangerous to humans. bee Not humans, but other insects. Eradication efforts began because of the threat the hornet poses to bees and agriculture across the country.
“By tackling this threat head-on, we have protected not only pollinators and crops, but also the industries, communities, and ecosystems that depend on them,” said Mark, deputy director of the USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service. Dr. Davidson said. News statement.
How was the “murder hornet” eradicated?
State, federal and international agencies have teamed up to eradicate the “murder hornet” in the United States, officials said.
To do this, entomologists first needed to find a wasp nest. According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, wasp nests can be difficult to find because they typically nest in wooded areas and underground cavities. In some cases, entomologists captured live hornets, attached radio tags to them, released them, and tracked the hornets to their nests. Finding a way to reliably attach wireless tags to the wasps without harming them was a high hurdle.
After finding the nest in the tree, the team covered it with foam, wrapped the tree in plastic, and vacuumed out the wasps. They also injected carbon dioxide into the trees to kill any remaining wasps.
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In 2022, scientists announced they were setting up about 1,000 hornet traps in Washington. Trapped hornets help scientists find nest locations. Last year, Washington state officials destroyed the nestfound nearly 1,500 wasps “in various stages of development.”
Members of the public also helped authorities track down the hornets’ nests. Washington State Department of Agriculture Pest Program Manager Sven Spichiger said at a press conference Wednesday that if it weren’t for the public’s help, there’s a good chance the hornets would be around for years to come.
“All of our nest detections result directly or indirectly from public reporting,” Spichiger said in a press release. “And half of the confirmed detections were from the public.
Is it possible that the hornets will return to the United States?
As Washington officials celebrate the eradication of the invasive hornet, Spichiger acknowledged that the hornets may return to the United States and said officials will continue to monitor the hornets and urge local residents. encouraged them to do the same.
“They got here once, so they could do it again,” Spichiger said.
CBS News previously reported that it is unclear how the hornets first arrived in the United States, although they may be an invasive species.unconscious hitchhiker” About shipping containers and more.
Even five years after the hornets appeared in the United States, authorities will never know exactly how they got there, Spichiger said.
What are the characteristics of “murder hornet”?
Agriculture officials say the hornet, an invasive species from Asia, can kill an entire hive of honeybees in just 90 minutes.
According to the Washington State Department of Agriculture, “The wasp can enter a ‘slaughter stage’ in which it decapitates the bee and kills the entire hive. The wasp then keeps the hive as its own and uses it for its own chicks.” I take it as bait.” “They also attack other insects, but they are not known to destroy entire colonies of those insects.”
Hornets typically attack people or pets only when threatened, but they may sting repeatedly.
The wasp species has a large orange or yellow head and black and orange stripes across its body.
They were first detected in North America in the Canadian province of British Columbia in August 2019, and were subsequently confirmed in Washington state by the end of 2019, authorities said.
When this species first arrived in the United States, it was known as the Asian giant hornet. However, in July 2022, the Entomological Society of America adopted “Northern giant hornet” as the species’ common name. The organization also adopted the name of the southern giant hornet for a closely related species.
“Common names are an important tool for entomologists to communicate with the public about insects and insect science,” the group’s president, Jessica Ware, said at the time. “The northern giant hornet is scientifically accurate and easy to understand, so it does not evoke fear or discrimination.”
The United States appears to have eradicated the hornet, at least for now, but last month scientists in Spain reported sightings of the species in Europe. They described two sightings of the wasp in the journal Ecology and Evolution.
