Late last year, Asian “murder hornets” were first seen in the upper northwestern part of the United States.
In October of this year, the first nest of the giant Asian hornets was found and removed. However, researchers believe that more swarms could be at large, according to a BBC report. The team does believe that they will be able to get this invasive species under control.
Sven-Erik Spichiger, a researcher with the Washington State Dept. of Ag, stated in a press release that he believes there are more nests. The first nest that was discovered in the U.S. was close to the Canadian border.
The nest had almost 500 insects inside, with almost 200 queens. According to Spichiger, “It’s possible some [queens] emerged before we did the extraction. There is no way of knowing how many more...”
“Frankly, we are encouraged because of the number of queens we were able to count and kill,” he went on to say.
Queens are the ones that begin the process of forming the nests when they mate with partners.
The hornets are native to Japan and South Korea. They target honeybees and can slaughter a colony in hours.
Story via a BBC report.