Murder Hornet Nest found and destroyed North of Seattle Washington

Interestingly, the wiki on Asian Giant Hornets says they commonly nest in trees in Japan. And that the nickname “murder hornet” is believed to have originated in the Japanese press.

The threat to honey bees is a big concern. Africanized bee (aka Killer bees) have been wiping out honey bee hives for years. The species doesn’t need more stress from another predator.

Oh yeah, this is where I meant to drop this. Just because.

Well, the news tends to be written in New York: if you have such amazing eyes that you can make out Seattle from New York, from that distance it would look like it was right next to Canada. I mean, what with perspective and all.

I saw this on the news this morning. The story showed the workers in very heavy, protective gear and the tree wrapped in plastic wrap. They also showed the process of attaching the sensors to the hornets - workers used dental floss, and were using their bare hands!! :astonished: I guess the hornets are big enough that there is a “right way” to handle it while not getting stung while tying on the sensor. Holy hell!

The worry I have is more nests. If a female “queen” was able to establish a nest, she must have been fertilized by a male, right? Which would mean there are other nests nearby with male drones? Not sure how these insects replicate, tho.

The nest in the news was found in Blaine. As I recall, the first hornets in the U.S. were found in Custer.

Custer, WA

You can see on the map where Blaine is, about four or five miles northwest of Custer. (We’re in Birch Bay, to the west of Custer.) No entomologist am I, but I think the distance would indicate a strong likelihood of more nests.

Not only that, but it’s not like the hornets are paying any mind to the US-Canada border. I hope there is a similar strategy and similar energy being spent in B.C. to find and eliminate nests (since they are invasive to all North America).

The first nest was found last year in Nanaimo BC which is due west of Vancouver on Vancouver Island. And there’ve been sightings in Vancouver Metro area. So the Canadians are aware of them and I’m sure are looking hard too.

I thought that the hornets were killed when they were vacuumed out, but I heard on the radio this morning that those were captured alive so as to conduct research on them. The radio said the rest were killed with carbon dioxide, I think.

One of the bizarre things about the news story is that the AP article is datelined Spokane. Spokane is much further away from Blaine than Seattle, so I have no idea how that happened.

The Bellingham Herald and The Northern Light both say the nest was found east of Blaine. The Bellingham Herald says southeast as well as ‘east’. The location is southeast of Blaine’s little downtown area, but the city of Blaine extends south from there; so ‘east’ and ‘southeast’ are both correct. Both papers say that the nest was found off of Burk Road. Burk Road goes as far west as Delta Line Road. It looks on the map that the nest was found in Delta, WA. I’ve never heard of it. (I don’t get out much.) I can’t find anything about it in a quick search, other than it has about 2/3 the number of residents as Birch Bay.

Anyway, Spokane is a bit east of there. :wink: :stuck_out_tongue:

The more I read about these hornets makes me thankful we have technology to track them to their nest. Photos: Murder hornets will haunt your nightmares | Live Science

Reminds me of spitting Cobras. Spitting Cobras can permanently blind someone without treatment.

Well, I tried to fix my messed up quote. Timed out. It’s a struggle editing quickly enough on a phone.

Oh, nevermind.

I don’t have a clue how my text duplicated in the quote. I selected the text and bolded.

Normally you have to copy/paste. 2 manual operations. Somehow this software did it when I wasn’t expecting it.

I was planning on volunteering for the UK’s official hornet eradication network, being a beekeeper and all, until I discovered that this meant having my full name, address and phone number publicly available on their website. My reaction was pretty much the same as your post…

Gee, what could possibly go wrong with that???

Another one (found and destroyed) near the last one in Whatcom County: