Washington state is on the lookout for murder hornets.
The state ag department is asking residents to watch for Asian giant hornets this summer. It is an invasive species that can kill honeybee colonies.
They set up a hotline last year for reporting the hornets, but no one called. The previous year they had several reports.
Current data is limited so the department is trying to predict where they might show up next.
According to the department’s Karla Salp, “If we didn’t get all the queens from the nest that we eradicated last year, we don’t know if they would still stay in that area. We don’t know if they would fly a certain distance over winter and then build a nest there if they would fly a certain distance over winter and then fly even further. They’re capable of flying quite a long way, but how far they will fly, we don’t know.”
The Washington Department of Ag has several ways to report murder hornet sightings on its website.
Related:
How murder hornets ended up in the U.S.
High probability of more murder hornet nests in the U.S.