||| FROM THE BELLINGHAM HERALD |||
The Washington State Department of Agriculture announced that it has destroyed another nest built by Asian giant hornets — commonly referred to as “murder hornets” — in Whatcom County. The department announced the latest Asian giant hornet nest eradication, which would be its fourth overall and third so far this year, in social media posts on Facebook and Twitter Thursday morning, Sept. 23. The posts did not say if the nest that was destroyed was the third nest that had been located last week but required special equipment to destroy because it was located approximately 20 feet up in a tree.
Late last week, the department posted that it had a “concerning” report about a possible Asian giant hornet sighting that was approximately 20 miles east of where the three nests had been located this year and the first Asian giant hornet nest in the U.S. was destroyed last year.
What the Department of Agriculture did report about the latest nest was that it had 10 combs inside a tree. That would make it the largest, in terms of combs, destroyed so far this year, surpassing the first nest, which the department said had nine combs and more than 1,500 hornets in various stages of development. “All workers — no males or virgin queens,” the Facebook post reads. “The queen that started the nest had interesting coloring!”
Read more at: www.bellinghamherald.com/news/local/article254469303.html#storylink=cpy
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People have been seeing them here on Orcas this year since JUNE. The time to report seeing one is the first time you see it; not 3 months later. That said, it is really hard to get a photo, as they require before being taken seriously… meanwhile, the time bomb ticks. The hornets are here in SJC. Soon they will be endemic if nothing is done.
The Dept of Agriculture has no plan except to encourage citizens to make a trap out of a water bottle!; They provide no traps. . Unfortunately, once you see the hatches, that is not effective. What IS effective is to trap the queens – also true with yellow jackets. How are we to feel reassured that we are up to the task of trapping, once the hatches come out of the nest, when the queen is still laying eggs by the hundreds and no one knows where the nests are? When the state worker experts do finally come, if they come at all, they come in full hazmat gear to destroy a nest – IF they can even find all the parts of the nest that may be underground, in the case of dead decaying trees which can be hollow far underground..
The County and State should have emergency plans in place including providing traps for citizens, and some help and guidance. I approached Brendan Cowan about this who passed the buck to the Dept of Agriculture who passed the buck back to… citizens..
Since murder hornets also kill dragonflies and other beneficial pollenators besides all of our pollenator bees, I wonder why the county is not more concerned with helping assure that we are not overtaken by these horrid things? When you consider impacts to pollenators which pollenate at least 1/3 of the world’s food supply, it would seem that food sustainability should come first.