Northern Giant Hornet

The Washington State Department of Agriculture (WSDA) is beginning its annual search for pests that could threaten the state’s environment and agricultural industry. Staff will set thousands of traps statewide to monitor for the introduction or spread of more than 130 invasive pests and diseases, including spongy moth, Japanese beetle, apple maggot and northern giant hornet.

WSDA is still asking residents to report all suspected hornet sightings. Northern giant hornet queens should be active now and could be spotted while they establish their nests. As the colony grows, worker hornets may become increasingly visible throughout the summer and into the fall. See Public hornet trapping instructions for more information.

Agricultural Research Service research entomologist Matt Buffington is part of a new exhibit "Our Places: Connecting People and Nature" at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History (NMNH) in Washington DC. The exhibit explores how peoples' experiences with nature inspire them as well as offering visitors a chance to learn about how dedicated scientists and community members work to protect the environment.

Among the objects in "Our Places," is part of the actual Asian giant hornet "Nest Zero," the first place these huge hornets set up housekeeping when they arrived in Washington State from Asia in October 2019. Asian giant hornets are a concern because sometimes they can feed on honey bees, buzzsawing through a colony in minutes, and they deliver extremely painful stings to people, but fortunately only if provoked. To quell their spread, Washington State Department of Agriculture, the Agricultural Research Service (ARS) and the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS), both part of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, worked to locate and remove the invasive hornets' nest.

The Entomological Society of America has adopted "northern giant hornet" for the species Vespa mandarinia in its Common Names of Insects and Related Organisms List. Vespa mandarinia is an invasive hornet native to Asia that has been the target of eradication efforts in Washington state, USA, and British Columbia, Canada, after individual hornets were first discovered there in 2019. It has been referred to elsewhere as "Asian giant hornet" or "murder hornet."

This article highlights the role of data in responding to the Asian giant hornet and describes how officials at the Washington State Department of Agriculture employed 'citizen scientists' and ‘cooperators’ to locate and eradicate a nest of deadly Asian giant hornets in their state.
See also: Western Governors' Association Launches Invasive Species Data Mobilization Campaign (Dec 18, 2020)

ITP is pleased to announce the release of North American Hornet Screening Tool. Hornets in the genus Vespa play a critical role as predators in their native habitats, but in North America these species may have a disastrous impact on agriculture by reducing populations of important pollinators such as the honey bee. Hornets also pose a serious health risk to humans because of their powerful sting. North American Hornet Screening Tool is designed for anyone who may encounter these species in the U.S., including the Asian giant hornet (AGH, V. mandarinia). 

North American Hornet Screening Tool includes fact sheets and an interactive image gallery to support screening for Asian giant hornet and other potentially invasive hornet (Vespa) species. The interactive gallery can be used as a rudimentary key: by choosing one or more of the filters at the top, you can easily narrow down the images to only those that may match your specimen. A more in-depth version of this tool providing specialized information for identifiers on all exotic hornet (Vespa) species, will be released in 2022.

The first complete genome of the Asian giant hornet has been released by a team of Agricultural Research Service (ARS) scientists. ARS has made the genome available to the research community in AgDataCommons and the National Center for Biotechnology Information, even before publishing the results in a scientific journal to make the data freely accessible as quickly as possible.

The goal is to produce the genome and make it available quickly after an invasive insect is detected so researchers will have this information immediately to help coordinate an effective response.

The Asian giant hornet, seen for the first time in North America in 2019, is unlikely to murder you or U.S. bees, according to a Smithsonian entomologist.
See also: Additional Invasive Species related articles