They’re big. They’re bad. And now they’re gone. Officials declared northern giant hornets eradicated (removed completely) in the United States.
The news comes five years after people first spotted the insects in Washington state. The world’s largest hornet, an invasive species in the United States, is also dubbed the “murder hornet.”
The Washington and U.S. Departments of Agriculture say there have been no detections of the northern giant hornet in Washington since 2021.
Efforts to stamp out the invasive species included residents agreeing to place traps on their properties. Citizens reported sightings. In another success, researchers captured a live hornet and attached a tiny tracking tag to it with dental floss. They followed it through a forest to a nest. Scientists destroyed the nest just as several queens began to emerge.
“It is a rare day when the humans actually get to win one against the insects,” Sven Spichiger says. He is the pest program manager for the Washington State Department of Agriculture.
Why the sinister nickname? The hornets can be two inches long. They can sting through most beekeeper suits, deliver nearly seven times the amount of venom as a honeybee, and sting multiple times. They gained international attention in 2013, when they killed 42 people in China and seriously injured 1,675.
Plus, northern giant hornets threaten pollinators and native insects. They can wipe out a honeybee hive in as little as 90 minutes. The hornets decapitate the bees and then defend the hive as their own. They feed the honeybee brood to their own young.
People first detected the hornets in North America in British Columbia, Canada, in August 2019. Officials confirmed a sighting in Washington state in December 2019. The hornets may have traveled to North America in plant pots or shipping containers.
DNA evidence suggests the populations found in British Columbia and Washington were not related. They appeared to originate from different countries. There have been no confirmed reports in British Columbia since 2021, and the hornet is also considered eradicated there.
Washington is the only state that had confirmed reports of northern giant hornets. Trappers found four nests in 2020 and 2021.
Spichiger notes that entomologists will continue to monitor traps in Kitsap County. A resident reported an unconfirmed sighting in October there, but trapping efforts have come up empty.
“We will continue to be vigilant,” Spichiger says.
So long, murder hornets. Don’t come back now, ya hear?
