Washington Traps First Asian Giant Hornet

SEATTLE, WA — The Washington State Department of Agriculture has captured their first Asian giant hornet, but they've still got more work to do before they can eradicate the hornet colony.

The Washington State Department of Agriculture, or WSDA, began setting traps in early June after several of the giant hornets were found in Whatcom County in spring and early summer. Crews set around 600 traps in and around Blaine, Custer and Bellingham, near where the other hornets had been spotted.

Asian giant hornets are the world's largest hornets and, while they can be deadly to humans in extreme circumstances, pose a much greater risk to honey bees: the hornets are known to decapitate honey bees and destroy their colonies, which in turn can be damaging to plants that rely on the bees for pollination.

Now, after months of work, the first hornet has been captured in a bottle trap near Birch Bay. The WSDA says their crews recovered the trap on July 14, and successfully identified the insect inside as an Asian giant hornet on July 29.

"This is encouraging because it means we know that the traps work," Sven Spichiger, managing entomologist for the WSDA said. "But it also means we have work to do."

Those next steps include scouring the area surrounding the trap with infrared cameras in an attempt to locate the nest, and setting up more traps in the hopes of catching a live hornet. If a live hornet is caught, the WSDA says they'll tag the bug and use it to lead them back to the colony. Once they've found it, the colony will be destroyed.

"That will be, usually, a nighttime activity, and can be a little bit dangerous, so we'll have the area cordoned off," Spichiger said. "Then we'll be able to get to the nest and use our eradication methods and wipe it out."

The goal is to find and destroy the nest by mid-September at the latest— before the colony begins making new queens and drones and expanding. If they can find the colony before then, it will only have one queen and worker hornets. Luckily, the WSDA says they believe they'll have time.

"This is actually, in my mind, a very early detection, normally we would not see them until mid-August or so," said Spichiger.

The WSDA does warn that, until they find the nests they will create more workers and residents are more likely to spot them in the wild in August and September. Anyone who sees a hornet can report it online at agr.wa.gov/hornets. The state is also encouraging anyone who wants to get involved to build and set their own traps for hornets. Between community sourced and WSDA built traps, around 1,300 hornet traps have been deployed in Washington state.