Washington state officials destroy first 'murder hornet' nest of the season

[Omaha Steve]

Source: The Guardian

Nest located in the base of a dead alder tree about one-quarter mile from where a resident reported a live sighting on 11 August

Guardian staff and agencies

Officials in Washington state said they had destroyed the first "murder hornet" nest of the season, which was located near the town of Blaine along the Canadian border.

The Washington state department of agriculture (WSDA) said it eradicated the Asian giant hornet nest on Wednesday.

The nest was located in the base of a dead alder tree in rural Whatcom county, about 2 miles from a nest the agency eradicated last October and about one-quarter mile from where a resident reported a live sighting of an Asian giant hornet on 11 August.

The site is about one-quarter mile from the Canadian border.




Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/aug/26/murder-hornet-nest-washington-state

[louis-t]

1. Hooray! Keep up the good work.

Man, those things are nasty.

[modrepub]

2. Nice To See A State Be Aggressive

My state's record on the spotted lantern fly is pretty crappy. Basically my county did nothing except ask the state for money. By then it was too late. You have to be aggressive with these things otherwise they multiply to the point it's impossible to erase them.

Unfortunately, if you see one there's probably a lot more.

[MFM008]

3. great.

[BumRushDaShow]

4. I've been to Blaine.

Hell most of Northern Washington state is "rural" or relatively sparse as soon as you step out of Seattle (outside of Microsoft and Boeing).

[rpannier]

5. Those things are big, nasty, aggressive and deadly

Gotta stay on top of them because they can cause a lot of damage

[Moebym]

6. Yikes

I hadn't realized until now how gargantuan these things are.

It's like they'd flown straight from the Permian Period.

[Auggie]

7. Murder Hornet, Killer Bees ...

gotta love the names we assign these things

[Earth-shine]

10. Maybe it is more accurate to call them manslaughter hornets because attacks are not premeditated.

Just kidding, of course.

https://www.pennlive.com/life/2020/06/murder-hornets-maybe-not-the-deadly-threat-we-thought.html


“The term ‘murder hornets’ originally was coined by a few Japanese media outlets several years ago, and a recent New York Times story using that description went viral, causing a bit of panic in the United States,” Skvarla said. “In their native range, they commonly are called ‘great sparrow bee’ in Japan, ‘tiger head bee’ in China and ‘general officer hornet’ in Korea.”

He explained that even the common name “Asian giant hornet” — its most frequently used moniker in English — could be confusing, because another large species, Vespa velutina, the yellow-legged hornet, is sometimes known as Asian hornet, and Vespa crabro, or European hornet, is sometimes called giant hornet.

[CatWoman]

8. how the hell did they fit it with a tracking device?

[catchnrelease]

9. Easy

They gave it some of the covid vaccine--you know, the stuff that's got nano bots in it so the govt can track us!!