With ag department traps set, the public can now help trap Asian giant hornets

Washington State Department of Agriculture (WSDA) officials began setting nearly 600 Asian giant hornet traps in Whatcom County – 300 of which are in Blaine – and residents are now welcome to set their own bottle traps using orange juice and rice cooking wine.

The traps, made from plastic bottles filled with the mixture and hung from trees, are expected to catch the worker hornets predicted to appear later this summer. Although the agency doesn’t expect the workers to leave their colonies until August, officials say setting the traps now could catch hornets that appear early.

After people started putting false trapping tips online this spring, WSDA public engagement specialist Karla Salp said the agency decided to create instructions for the public.

“This is kind of an experiment in a sense,” she said. “We never use public trapping for our surveys but there was a large interest from the public in helping trap for Asian giant hornets.”

So far, the public has set around 700 traps, according to WSDA. WSDA employs two full-time trappers that check on the hundreds of WSDA traps in Whatcom County weekly.

The agency has also reserved money in case it needs to employ another trapper outside Whatcom County, and it has 1,000 traps ready to go if the hornets are found elsewhere, Salp said.

WSDA follows a standard invasive species protocol for setting the traps that calls for setting the highest density of traps around areas where Asian giant hornets have been detected.

The traps are modeled after those in Japan, according to the WSDA website. Rice cooking wine with alcohol content of 10-25 percent is used to deter honeybees from using the trap and pulp-free orange juice avoids getting extra material on specimens. Trapping bottles should hang 6 to 9 feet high on trees and the bait needs to be replaced every week regardless of whether hornets are caught.

“We would rather have one trap that lasts an entire season than a bunch of traps where it becomes too overwhelming to contain,” Salp said.

People with more than 5 acres can increase the number of traps on their property and beekeepers can put traps within 50 feet from their beehives, on four sides of the hive. All traps should be put at least 50 feet apart.

“Every trap is appreciated,” Salp said. “We know this is a commitment, financially and time-wise for people, so anything they can do to help is helping get a higher density of traps out.”

As of July 7, four Asian giant hornets have been detected in the Blaine area and one in north Bellingham. The hornet is an invasive species from Asia, where it’s thought to have transported through shipping to North America. for the first time last fall. The hornets, measuring 1.5-2 inches, are the largest hornet in the world. Beside its size, the hornet’s distinguishable features include a large, orange head with big eyes and a striped body.

“No matter how many traps we put up, it’s never going to amount to the number of eyes that are out there,” Salp said. “The more people we have educated about what they look like and how to report them when we see them, the better our chance is of finding them.”

Traps with a bee, wasp or hornet can be dropped off in the blue cooler outside Ferndale Portal Way Farm and Garden at 6100 Portal Way in Ferndale or mailed to Chris Looney, WSDA, 1111 Washington Street SE, Olympia, Washington, 98501.

For more information on creating homemade traps, visit agr.wa.gov/departments/insects-pests-and-weeds/insects/hornets/trapping. Questions on creating your trap can also be emailed to hornets@agr.wa.gov.