‘Stand down,’ Chattanooga, educator says. ‘Murder hornets’ still rare in U.S.
Last week, The New York Times published a story announcing the arrival of “murder hornets” to the United States.
The internet went abuzz. “What’s next?” asked the social media hive mind. Another plague? Three days of darkness?
According to Julia Gregory, senior educator at the Tennessee Aquarium, “Everybody in Chattanooga can stand down. We don’t need to worry about ‘murder hornets’ yet.”
The Asian giant hornet, as it is actually called, is not in Tennessee, which the Tennessee Department of Agriculture confirmed in a statement released Thursday. Nor has it been found in any state outside Washington, where two verified sightings occurred in late 2019.
Moreover, the so-called “murder hornet” is actually less murder-y than its nickname implies.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture reported that Asian giant hornets are responsible for an estimated 30 to 50 deaths a year in Japan — less than the average 62 Americans killed each year by local wasps and bees. In both cases, death is most commonly caused by an allergic reaction to the venom.
The Asian giant hornet is not necessarily more venomous than other wasps or bees. However, it is the world’s largest, about the size of a thumb, and therefore capable of administering a larger volume of venom.
As sinister as that sounds, “hornets, like other wasps, are extremely beneficial to us,” Gregory said.
Native to Southeast Asia, the larvae of Asian giant hornets are carnivorous. To feed their young, adult hornets depend on larger insects, including many common pests that plague farmers in parts of Japan, China, India and Sri Lanka.
The same is true for wasps in North America, said Gregory, where in late spring, females hunt caterpillars, often targeting armyworms, loopers and hornworms.
“Those caterpillars are the ones that would eat up the cabbages, lettuce, tomatoes and corn in your garden. … Meanwhile, the adult hornet is pollinating plants in your garden while gathering nectar and pollen to feed herself,” Gregory said.
The real concern with Asian giant hornets, however, is that they are known to attack and destroy honey bee colonies.
Unlike Asian honey bees, which evolved alongside the hornets and therefore developed defenses against them, European honey bees kept in the U.S. have no natural defenses against the non-native insect.
Honey bee colonies in the U.S. have been in decline for more three decades, and the threat of a new invasive predator could have devastating effects on both bees and agriculture, an industry that depends on the pollinator.
According to the Tennessee Department of Agriculture, the risk of attacks on honey bees occurs only in late summer when the hornets are in search of extra protein. While there is no evidence that populations of Asian giant hornets are spreading, the department is taking precautionary measures to protect local bees.
On July 1, it will set out traps at bee nurseries in order to collect and monitor the presence of invasive species, including Asian giant hornets.
In the meantime, the department wrote in its statement, “the [Asian giant hornet] does not attack people unless it feels threatened,” which is the case for most wasps and bees.
As Gregory suggests, “If the location of [a hornet’s nest] doesn’t interfere with human traffic, nothing is harmed by letting it be.”