Entomologists in Washington state have so far this year destroyed two nests of the Asian giant hornet — nicknamed the "murder hornet” — and are planning to eradicate another nest as they try to wipe out the insects, an invasive species that can massacre honeybees and that first appeared in the Pacific Northwest in 2019.
The Washington State Department of Agriculture on Sept. 11 said on social media that it had found two nests housing the insects, the world’s largest species of hornet, and that it had destroyed one of them. Amber Betts, a department spokesperson, on Sept. 13 said a first nest had been destroyed a few weeks earlier.
"The aim is to eradicate them completely,” she said, adding that the hornets would be considered completely eradicated after "two consecutive years of negative results.”