As we found out earlier this week, an Asian Giant Hornet nest was found in the Northwest part of Washington state near the Canadian border. Karla Salp, with the Washington Department of Agriculture explained that the nest was found in the base of a tree about a quarter mile from where last week’s sighting of a murder hornet took place.
“It is a little hard to tell whether the opening is in the tree itself or in the soil beneath the tree. And, obviously, we were not suited up so nobody’s getting that close to figure it out,” Salp said.
She said that before anything else happens, the nest needs to be studied carefully. “Part of it is, now that we know the kind of specifics of what we’re looking at, one of the things that we’re going to be doing is bringing out our thermal imaging camera so we can tell whether the nest is really more underground or more, sort of, in the base of the tree so we can make a plan of attack for actual nest removal.”
The good news is that they found a nest at this time of year. “It’s always good news to find a nest and especially at this time of year. This is before we would expect to see reproductive, especially the queens,” Salm said. “So, that means if we get rid of this nest in the relative near future we can be guaranteed that there’s no queens emerging from this nest to start other nests next year.”
Even though this may be one of many nests that could be out there, this is a step in the right direction. “Absolutely a step in the right direction. And, one of the things that it really emphasizes for us is that while we can have some effectiveness with our traps, those sightings that people are reporting to us, with a photograph especially, are really just as if not more so effective than the traps.” She goes on to say that if you happen to see one of these massive hornets, do what you can to report it and take a picture or video if possible.
The Washington State Department of Agriculture entomologists are currently creating a plan to eradicate the nest.
