By Dori Modney with files from The Canadian Press

‘Murder hornets’ – bullies of the arthropod world are hard to track

Oct 14, 2020 | 3:58 PM

Washington State, U.S. — Washington state officials say they were again unsuccessful at live-tracking a “murder” hornet while trying to find and destroy a nest of the giant insects.

The Washington State Department of Agriculture says an entomologist used dental floss to tie a tracking device on a female hornet, only to lose signs of her when she went into a forest.

The hornet was captured on Oct. 5 and kept alive with strawberry jam, which she seemed to enjoy, says Sven Spichiger, a Washington state department entomologist.

Scientists then tied a tracking device onto her body and released her two days later onto an apple tree. They lost track of her after she went through some blackberry bushes, though officials believe the tracker was still attached at the time of its last signal.

“This one was a lot feistier,” Spichiger says.

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A total of 18 hornets have been found in the state since they were first seen last year near the U.S.- Canadian border, according to Washington’s agriculture department.

The “Murder Bees”, as they have been dubbed, are native to Asia and the largest wasp on Earth, measuring up to 2 inches in length. The insect’s sting can be fatal to humans, but deadly encounters with people are rare.

The biggest concern about the winged thugs, comes from its tendency to wipe out honeybee nests on a seasonal basis – what Spichiger termed its “slaughter phase,” which he noted is drawing near. Their devastating attacks on bee hives makes them a serious pest, prompting the search-and-destroy efforts by local officials.

They want to track the ‘murderous’ villans in an effort to locate their hives and take them out en masse, as opposed to one at a time.

The hornets employ “big mandibles” to catch and kill their prey and are able to sting, using venom, more than once. They will leave a trail of pheromones leading to a bee hive and then recruit some of its sisters – all giant hornets are female – to create a panic in the hive. The murder bees can kill 20,000 to 30,000 pollinator bees within a matter of hours.

The only known Canadian nest was discovered – and destroyed – in Nanaimo, B.C., last September, however the hornets were also sighted in White Rock, B.C., last November.