Northern giant hornets, more commonly called murder hornets, are dangerous because they have no natural predators. Now, after nearly half a decade of endeavoring to eradicate the Asian natives, the Washington State Department of Agriculture says they have been officially removed from US soil.
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00:00The first invasive murder hornet nest was discovered back in 2020 when authorities attached
00:08a tracker to a scout.
00:10Northern giant hornets, as they are also called, are dangerous because they have no natural
00:14predators in the US.
00:15They also go after honeybees, a species already on decline in the United States.
00:20Murder hornets can also kill humans with their stings, killing between 50 to 75 people a
00:25year, though it would likely take many dozens of stings to do so.
00:29Now after nearly a decade of endeavoring to eradicate the Asian natives, the Washington
00:33State Department of Agriculture says they have been officially removed from US soil.
00:38After their first successful nest destruction, authorities in the area got to work setting
00:41up around 1,000 hornet traps all over the state in 2022.
00:46By 2023, they had discovered and raised four murder hornet nests, some containing upwards
00:51of around 1,500 stinging insects.
00:54It has now been a year since any have been found, which is why they now feel safe making
00:58the announcement that the invasion is over.
01:00Still, experts say we must remain vigilant, because they got here once, and they could
01:05do it again.