Last month, a ‘murder hornet’ nest was destroyed after scientists discovered hundreds of live specimens in different stages of development. Officials say the nest was the size of a basketball.
More than 500 Asian giant hornets and almost 200 queens capable of starting their own nests were found, according to Sven-Erik Spichiger, an entomologist with the Washington State Department of Agriculture.
“It really seems like we got there just in the nick of time as our original vacuum extraction seemed to only give us workers,” Spichiger said. “We only got queens four days later after we cracked it open, and so if any queens had already left the nest, it was just a few.”
The nest was found to have 190 total larvae and 108 pupae, the stage after larvae. Most of them were queens.
“We know from literature that a small percentage of these will go on to form colonies next year, should they have been given the chance to escape,” said Spichiger.
Asian giant hornets are the world’s largest hornet. The hornets deliver a deadly sting, killing at most a few dozen people a year in Asia.
The first hornet was found a year ago. Officials plan to trap all hornets before they spread and establish themselves.
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