U.S.'s first discovered Murder Hornet nest destroyed

Posted December 2020

By Tristan Hansen

Staff Editor

The first murder hornet nest discovered in the United States was successfully destroyed by Washington State’s Agricultural Department on Oct. 24.

The Asian giant hornet, commonly known as the “Japanese giant hornet” or “murder hornet”, was first discovered in the United States in early May after a Washington beekeeper checked on a beehive located near the city of Custer, only to find a pile of decapitated bee carcasses where his bees should have been. The culprit was later identified as the murder hornet after a couple specimen were found nearby - sending the media into a frenzy over the ominously-named species’ newfound presence in America.

Endemic primarily to the regions of East, South, and Southeast Asia, the murder hornet is the world’s largest hornet, reaching up to two inches in length. Despite the name, experts suggest that humans have little to fear - murder hornets generally kill, at most, a few dozen people a year in asian countries, comparable to the bees, wasps, and hornets that already inhabit the US. The species with the most to fear will likely be the honeybee. Already suffering from issues such as pesticides, a lack of food, and disease, murder hornet attacks may further endanger honeybees across the United States. It’s for this reason that scientists have diligently sought to eradicate them from the United States before they establish a permanent presence here.

“This is our window to keep it from establishing,” stated Chris Looney, an entomologist at the Washington State Department of Agriculture to the New York Times. “If we can’t do it in the next couple of years, it probably can’t be done.”

The United States’ first recorded nest was discovered after scientists attached radio trackers to several captured hornets using dental floss, who then led them to the nest they belonged to. Shortly thereafter, on Oct. 24, several crews wearing strong protective gear (intended to protect them from the hornets’ 6-millimeter stingers and painful venom) got to work destroying this nest, vacuuming up the invasive insects into large canisters as they went. Ultimately, about 100-200 hornets were captured during this process.

Despite the success of this endeavor, it’s likely efforts such as this could be mere minor battles amidst the much greater war to permanently eradicate murder hornets from North America. Experts suspect more nests likely still remain in the general vicinity of the first.