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- Murder hornets, also known as Asian giant hornets (Vespa mandarinia), are the world's largest wasps. These hornets naturally occur in Asia, but humans have accidentally introduced them into North America where they pose a threat to native wildlife, as they kill other insects, including smaller wasps and bees.
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Oct 1, 2020 · Updated October 26, 2020 at 6:50 pm. The race is on to keep Asian giant hornets from spreading in the Pacific Northwest. After successfully tying a tiny tracker on a hornet with dental...
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Oct 7, 2021 · Murder hornets, also known as Asian giant hornets ( Vespa mandarinia ), are the world's largest wasps. These hornets naturally occur in Asia, but humans have accidentally introduced them into...
- Patrick Pester
- What is the Asian Giant Hornet? The Asian giant hornet (Vespa mandarinia), which is also known as the “great sparrow bee” in its native range (or recently sensationalized as the “murder hornet”) is a wasp species native to parts of southern and eastern Asia.
- What’s the risk in the Midwest? Based on the current situation, the risk from Asian giant hornets in Wisconsin and the Midwestern US is extremely low.
- What’s the timeline of the Asian giant hornet story? Asian giant hornets have gotten a lot of attention in the news recently, but these stories really missed the main “action”, which occurred roughly half a year ago.
- Have Asian giant hornets become established in North America? The ability of the Asian giant hornet to survive and spread in North America is not understood at this time.
- Overview
- Voracious feeders
- Stopping the spread
- Know your hornets
The world's largest wasp has been spotted in Washington State, but don't panic—efforts are underway to stop it from spreading.
Update on May 29, 2020: Washington State officials have confirmed the discovery of a third Asian giant hornet, almost certainly a queen, found dead on a road near Custer, Washington. This likely means a colony was present in the state in fall 2019, and that it produced many queens. These large females lie dormant over the winter, and a small percentage are likely to create successful nests. The finding adds urgency to ongoing efforts to trap and track the hornets, said Sven Spichiger, an entomologist with the Washington State Department of Agriculture, in a news conference.
Two unusual hornets—striking, with orange and black markings and long stingers—were spotted near Blaine, Washington, in late 2019. Subsequent investigation revealed they were Asian giant hornets, the world’s largest wasps, growing nearly two inches in length.
Scientists are concerned that these hornets could spread throughout Washington State and beyond, presenting a danger to U.S. bees—which are already in decline—and humans.
Nobody knows how the insects arrived in the United States. But the discoveries set off alarms and the insects began trending on social media as "murder hornets.” These predators, native to East Asia and Japan, are infamous for decimating honeybee colonies.
With the toxic venom that their large stingers deliver, the insects already are known for killing people in their native habitats: In Japan, an average of 30 to 50 people each year die from the hornets’ stings. In 2013, when populations of the hornets were unusually high, they killed 42 people in a single Chinese province. Most serious incidents occur when people come near or disturb the insects’ hives.
As of now, researchers can’t confirm how the hornets arrived. Looney says it’s most likely they got accidentally trapped in shipping containers from one of the countries where they’re native.
One complete hive of the insects was found and destroyed in late 2019 in nearby Nanaimo, Canada. But genetic tests suggest those giant hornets were introduced separately.
Asian giant hornets from Japan and East Asia already have established themselves as invasive species in other nations, such as South Korea. These social wasps form colonies, comprising one queen and many workers, which can fly half a dozen miles or more from the hive to find food. They eat many kinds of insects, but they seem to especially enjoy feasting on bees.
When they encounter honeybees, their attack starts with a “slaughter phase” in which they serially bite the heads off bees with their large mandibles, Looney explains. Within 90 minutes, a small group of Asian hornets can destroy an entire colony’s workers this way, he says.
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Asian giant hornet is no match for Japanese honeybees
If the hornets aren’t headed off in the next couple years, it will probably be too late to halt their spread across the United States, Looney says.
As of now, there have been only two sightings of worker bees of the species near Blaine, which suggests that there is likely a colony nearby. In winter, nests go dormant, and if any queens have mated, they would disperse to form new hives. Currently, Looney and other researchers are setting out lures to try to capture emerging queens.
In the summer, the researchers will set out hundreds of traps to continue looking for queens and workers, which would emerge in the summer if any new colonies are established. They could then try to attach radio-transmitting collars so they could track the wasps back to their nests and destroy them, Looney says.
Because the hornets make hives underground that generate heat, Looney and colleagues are also experimenting with heat-sensitive imaging technologies to help them find the hives.
Asian giant hornets have stingers a quarter-inch long, which can pierce protective clothing that beekeepers normally wear. Research shows that even in people who aren’t allergic, 50 or fewer stings can cause death due to kidney damage.
Since the hornets made the U.S. news, Looney has been inundated by emails from concerned Americans who think they’ve seen the insect. In response, he stresses that only two sightings of the Asian giant hornet have been confirmed in the U.S.—and that people who think they’ve seen it in eastern North America are likely confusing it with the European hornet (Vespa crabro), which looks similar but is less aggressive and dangerous.
- 2 min
- Douglas Main
- How common are these hornets in Asia, and how much alarm do they cause? The Asian giant hornet (Vespa mandarinia) is fairly common in many parts of Asia, where it is called the “giant hornet” or “giant sparrow wasp.”
- Are you surprised that the hornets have appeared in North America? To some degree, yes. Most likely, one or two fertile queen hornets entered Canada via shipping packaging and created the colony that was discovered in 2019.
- What kind of conditions do these insects need to survive? Giant hornets are fairly common in mountainous regions of Asia, but they’re not often seen in large cities or highly urbanized areas.
- If more hornets are found, could they threaten honeybees and other pollinators? Possibly. Some media posts have described destruction of honeybee nests by what could have been giant hornets, but honeybees are not these insects’ only prey.
The first confirmed sightings of the Asian giant hornet in North America were confirmed in 2019 and were mainly concentrated in the Vancouver area, with nests also discovered in neighboring Whatcom County, Washington, in the United States.
May 2, 2020 · Sightings of the Asian giant hornet have prompted fears that the vicious insect could establish itself in the United States and devastate bee populations.
