WASHINGTON (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 27th August, 2021) The US state of Washington in the Pacific Northwest, where non-native Asian giant hornets first invaded the United States, wiped out the first nest of this year's hornet season, the state Agriculture Department (WSDA) said on Thursday.
"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 press release. "We expect there are more nests out there and, like this one, we hope to find them before they can produce new queens."
The eradication began with workers in garb resembling spacesuits vacuuming 113 worker hornets from a nest in a dead tree in rural Whatcom County - the site where the killer insects were first detected in the United States in 2019, the release said.
After clearing dead wood, workers in garb resembling spacesuits captured an additional 67 additional hornets using nets before sending infected portions of the tree with an estimated 1,500 bugs to Washington State University for further analysis, the release added.
Asian giant hornets - often called "murder hornets" - are the world's largest, with queens measuring up to 2 inches in length. They can conduct mass attacks on honey bee hives, destroying the hive in a matter of hours.
While the release made no mention of a threat to humans, the insects not native to North America kill up to 50 people a year in Japan.
