No ‘murder hornet’ hunt this summer

Blaine area residents may notice something missing from the trees this summer: jugs with orange juice and rice cooking wine.

That’s because northern giant hornets, also known as ‘murder hornets,’ were declared eradicated from east Blaine, and effectively, all of the U.S. late last fall. As a result, Washington State Department of Agriculture (WSDA) spokesperson Karla Salp wrote in an email to The Northern Light that the state agency will not be deploying any traps to Whatcom County this summer, a tactic that typically ramps up near the beginning of July.

The state agency is also not asking county residents to make homemade traps made from orange juice and rice cooking wine, Salp said. However, people are still welcome to make the traps if they want, she added.

WSDA is still encouraging people to submit reports of suspected northern giant hornets.

“While they have been declared eradicated and we don’t have any evidence that they are still here, the hornets got here once and could again, so we should remain aware and report suspected sightings,” Salp said.

State entomologists are setting a few traps near Burley, outside of Port Orchard, where a suspected hornet was found dead last October. WSDA received a photo of the hornet, but was never able to confirm that it was a northern giant hornet because the state agency didn’t obtain the specimen.

State and federal agriculture officials declared the invasive species eradicated after three years without any evidence of nests or other signs of life.

The hornet was introduced to Washington state and B.C. in 2019. After the hornet was discovered in Blaine in December 2019, state entomologists eradicated the first northern giant hornet nest found in east Blaine in October 2020. In 2021, three nests related to “nest zero” were eradicated in east Blaine. No hornets have been confirmed in Whatcom County since. The last confirmed hornet found in B.C. was in 2021, when one decayed hornet was discovered just north of east Blaine.

The hunt for the ‘murder hornet’ brought worldwide attention to Blaine, the only location in the U.S. where northern giant hornet nests have been confirmed. The hornets raised concern among scientists worried about the apex predator’s ability to decapitate a honeybee colony in a matter of hours.

The hornets are typically 1.5 to 2 inches long with orange-and-black bodies and almond-shaped eyes. The hornets are most likely to be spotted late summer through fall, when the worker hornets are active.

WSDA encourages anyone who believes they see a northern giant hornet to take a photo, if it is safe to do so, and report it online at bit.ly/3cYpOId, email hornets@agr.wa.gov or call 800/443-6684.

For more information on helping WSDA fight the northern giant hornet, visit agr.wa.gov/hornets.