Posted on 08/13/2021 2:33:00 PM PDT by nickcarraway
The first live Asian giant "murder hornet" of 2021 has been spotted in Washington state — and it was caught in the act of living up to its name, attacking a wasp nest.
Entomologists on Thursday confirmed the report of Vespa mandarinia — the world's largest hornet and a worrisome invasive species that originates from East Asia and Japan — by a person in a rural area east of the town of Blaine, south of Vancouver, British Columbia, near the Canadian border.
"This hornet is exhibiting the same behavior we saw last year – attacking paper wasp nests," state entomologist Sven Spichiger said in a news release from the Washington State Department of Agriculture.
The location of the sighting confirmed on Thursday is only about 2 miles from where the first Asian giant hornet nest was eradicated in October.
In June, a "slightly dried out, dead specimen" of the hornet was discovered on someone's lawn in the town of Marysville, Wash., north of Seattle and about 60 miles south of Blaine.
While technically the first sighting of 2021, agriculture officials said at the time that because murder hornets don't typically show up until July, the hornet in question was probably left over from the previous season.
While the paper wasps being attacked by the Asian giant hornet in the latest sighting might disagree, honeybees probably have more to worry about, the state agriculture department says.
"These hornets may attack honey bee hives in the late summer or early fall," the department's news release says. "A small group of Asian giant hornets can kill an entire honey bee hive in a matter of hours."
Nobody knows quite how Vespa mandarinia came to America, but since 2019, there have been several sightings in Washington state.
The hornets' toxic venom and large stingers are known for killing dozens of people each year in Japan and China, according to National Geographic. But so far there have been no reported deaths in the United States.
In any case, the department is interested in tracking the insects, and Spichiger advises: "If you have paper wasp nests on your property and live in the area, keep an eye on them and report any Asian giant hornets you see. Note the direction they fly off to as well."
Here in California, we only have manslaughter hornets.
15 days to “flatten the sting” coming?
I’m not sure which worse here in Washington, the murder hornets or the heroin addict hornets.
Another Bioweapon imported from China. What’s next?
This is perhaps the only instance I favor a gene drive being introduced into a population, eventually leading only to the production of males.
I don't care who wants to track these bugs, wasp spray works really well. Keep spraying until there is nothing left alive.
Witnesses said it looked the the Governor.
Rabid pandas.
I hope the governor of Washington gets stung by one of those hornets.
I had to take down two hornet nests today. The one’s with the dangly legs.
Can we convince liberals to eat them - you know for ‘climate change’
Starting fluid (ether), works good to kill, or at least stun hornets. If stunned, a little gasoline will finish them off.
Yeah - back when logging, that was one of my favorites. When felling timber, if encounter a nest in the ground, a bit of a slosh of saw gas would quiet them down. Can’t count how many times I was stung while felling or bucking. I don’t miss the bees.
So, these things are black and carry handguns?
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.