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Heavily protected teams in Washington state worked Saturday to destroy the first so-called killer wasp nest discovered in the United States. Found in the town of Blaine, near the Canadian border, the nest is the size of a basketball and contained between 100 and 200 wasps, according to scientists who announced the discovery on Friday.
The giant Asian wasp captured in July (center), compared to others of the same species – Photo: WSDA / BBC
The state Department of Agriculture spent weeks searching, arresting and using tracking devices to locate Asian giant wasps.
The insects were sucked out of the cavity of a tree. The special suits the teams wear prevent 6mm wasp stings from hurting workers, who also wore face shields because trapped wasps can spit painful venom into their eyes.
The tree will be cut down to remove the newly hatched wasps and find out if any queens have left the hive, the scientists said. Authorities suspect there may be more nests in the area and will continue the search.
Despite the moniker and hype that has sparked fears in an already bleak year, the world’s largest wasps kill at most a few dozen people a year in Asian countries, and experts say that’s probably a lot. less.
Meanwhile, hornets, wasps and bees commonly found in the United States kill an average of 62 people a year, according to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention.
The real threat from the Asian giant wasps, which are 5 centimeters long, are the devastating attacks on bees, which are already beset by problems like mites, disease, pesticides and food loss.
The invasive insect is generally found in China, Japan, Thailand, South Korea, Vietnam, and other Asian countries. Washington state and the Canadian province of British Columbia are the only places where wasps were found on the continent.
The Washington Department of Agriculture (WSDA) has been actively searching for Asian giant hornet nests since the first wasps were captured earlier this year.
The first confirmed detection of a giant Asian wasp in Washington was made in December 2019, and the first wasp was arrested in July this year. Several others were later captured, all in Whatcom County.
Asian giant wasps, an invasive pest that is not native to the United States, are the largest wasps in the world and predators of honey bees and other insects. A small group of giant Asian wasps can kill an entire hive in a matter of hours.
