Officials with the Washington State Department of Agriculture announced on Friday that bug hunters have found the first ever Asian giant hornet nest in the United States.
Fox News [1] reported that officials said that while they initially planned to destroy the murder hornet nest immediately, they were forced to put this off until Saturday because of inclement weather in Blaine, where the nest was found in a tree cavity.
“The rumors are true – our entomologists located the first-ever #AsianGiantHornet nest in the U.S. late yesterday. Press conference at 2 p.m.,” the WSDA tweeted.
The rumors are true – our entomologists located the first-ever #AsianGiantHornet [2] nest in the U.S. late yesterday. Press conference at 2 p.m. pic.twitter.com/oXuE6urXff [3]
— Washington State Department of Agriculture (@WSDAgov) October 23, 2020 [4]
The nest was discovered after a WSDA trapper collected two live Asian giant hornets, also known as murder hornets, on Wednesday. Two more live hornets were found in traps on Thursday, letting officials know that they were closing in on the nest.
Officials tagged three of the trapped hornets with radio trackers, and it was one of those that led entomologists back to its nest.
“The nest is inside the cavity of a tree located on private property near an area cleared for a residential home,” the WSDA said. “While Asian giant hornets normally nest in the ground, they are occasionally found nesting in dead trees.”
WSDA officials witnessed dozens of murder hornets entering and exiting the tree when they arrived on the scene. The person who owns the property where the nest was found has given the WSDA permission to eliminate the nest and even remove the tree itself if necessary.
An Asian giant hornet was first spotted in Washington State back in December of 2019, and the first hornet was caught in July. Murder hornets are so aggressive that it only takes a few of them to wipe out an entire honey bee hive in just a few hours.
The stings of murder hornets are incredibly painful to humans, and they can even prove to be deadly. Yahoo News [5] reported that murder hornets are typically found in China, Japan, Thailand, South Korea, Vietnam and other Asian countries. It is not known how they arrived in Washington state, though it has been speculated that they may have come over from Asia on a ship.
This piece originally appeared in UpliftingToday.com [6] and is used by permission.
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