The ‘murder hornet’ is creating buzz, but expert says people can relax
Just when you think we can’t take any more of nature’s horrors, along comes a creature right out of Jumanji.
The Asian giant hornet is the jumbo jet of such insects, and in sufficient number can kill a person and destroy a whole colony of honeybees.
Native to East Asia, it has a toehold in the Pacific Northwest and, through scary press coverage, a grip on our collective psyche. It kills around 50 people a year in Japan, where it lives and is known as “the murder hornet,” according to the New York Times.
It is indeed a fearsome thing, with an orange-yellow head and a striped body. It is almost two inches long — about twice the size of the frightful if non-aggressive hornet you are likely to see in an East Coast garden, the European hornet.
There have been sightings in B.C. and two dead Asian giant hornets were found across the border late last year in and around Blaine, Wash. Among its weaponry is a set of jaws perfectly designed to snip the head off a honeybee, and when it raids a hive, the heads go flying. Oh, the horror of it all.
Take a deep breath, everyone. If you put the hysteria aside, the two questions to ask are: Can we prevent the Asian giant hornet from establishing itself in North America, and, if not, what are the consequences?
One predictable response is that people, panicked but unable to tell a yellowjacket from a bumblebee, will start showering the world with pesticides, or hire a company to do so, and kill beneficial insects in the process.
Samantha Simon, a senior official with the U.S. Agriculture Department, welcomes the fact that “people are now more aware of invasive pests,” but said news reports “may have misrepresented the threat the hornet poses to people.”
Beekeepers in giant hornet lands such as China, the world’s leading producer of honey, have figured out how to live with the marauder. One way is to place excluders at the hive entrance.
The worry in North America is that if the hornet becomes established, it may do enough damage to honeybee colonies that it will diminish their ability to pollinate fruit orchards and other crops on the West Coast, said Simon, executive director of emergency and domestic programs for the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service.
The service is working with other federal agencies and the Washington State Department of Agriculture to lure and trap giant hornets. Field technicians can then use captured hornets to trace their nests for destruction.
“I am confident, if the pest is here, we’ll be able to find it and eradicate it,” Simon said. Washington Post