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Buzz Off! 'Murder Hornets' Far From Northeast — For Now

wikipedia.org
The Asian giant hornet is marked by bright orange and black stripes and can be up to two inches in size as an adult.

Recent sightings of the so-called “murder hornet” on the West Coast have triggered fears that the menacing insect could gain ground in the U.S. But as WAMC’s Jesse King found out, the hornets are a ways away from the Capital Region.

In a year where the world has already seen devastating wildfires, a presidential impeachment, and now a literal pandemic, “murder hornets” were probably not on anyone’s list. The Asian giant hornet, known for the way it decapitates its insect prey, is marked by bright orange and black stripes, expansive wings, and an overall length of up to 2 inches — roughly the size of your thumb. 

Given their size, they’re more venomous than other bees. A murder hornet encounter can be fatal with enough stings, and the New York Times says the hornets kill up to 50 people a year in Japan.

Credit siena.edu
Dr. Rebecca Clark is a physiologist specializing in animal and insect behavior at Siena College.

But their real target — and food source — is honeybees, according to Siena College’s Dr. Rebecca Clark. 

“They’re going to be active during the day, so they might feed on things like grasshoppers for example," she notes. "But they’re pretty specialized on honeybees.” 

Clark is a biologist specializing in insect behavior. She says murder hornets have long been established in the more tropical parts of Asia, where honeybees actually fight back by swarming and “cooking” the killer hornets with their body heat. The European honeybees of North America lack the body temperature tolerance to do that, though, meaning they could be sitting ducks should the murder hornets advance. 

But how did they even get here? Clark says murder hornet nests are typically underground, and like many foreign insects, they likely reached the U.S. in soil used to balance cargo ships. 

“And then once they arrive at their destination, they might offload a lot of that soil," she explains. "Once things reach the country, oftentimes what will happen is things will get spread through things like transporting firewood long distances — shipments on trains, for example, or with cargo trucks.” 

Clark says there’s no telling how well murder hornets can travel over land toward the Northeast. She says they were first sighted in parts of Washington state and western Canada toward the end of last year. Since then beekeepers and scientists have been setting traps in hopes of preventing their spread. 

"The queens for this wasp species tend to look for tree sap in the early spring. Beekeepers are collaborating to set up sap traps to monitor across parts of Washington state. And then later in the year, when these nests switch over to raising workers, they're going to switch over to using a different type of monitoring trap to see if they can figure out what level of population is present." 

Clark says it could take a while for the hornets to take root, so she’s optimistic these efforts will be able to keep them at bay. But is there any chance they could come here? 

Spotted Lanternfly
Credit wikipedia.org
The spotted lanternfly is already threatening forests in the Northeast.

“Overall, possibly? I think a lot will really depend on how well these wasps are able to survive freezing cold temperatures in the winter — and of course, we’re seeing some shifts in our region in terms of how cold it is in the winter overall," she adds. "Since these wasps do tend to specialize on honeybees, anywhere that people are keeping honeybees commercially or as hobbyists there’s a potential food source available for the wasps. So in that respect, there’s a slightly higher chance that they might be able to get established here.” 

Clark says the best way to support honeybees in the wild is to plant native flowers that they can pollinate.

Brown Marmorated Stink Bug
Credit wikipedia.org
Brown marmorated stink bugs are often considered pests for their smell, and the fact that they are usually found in large groups.

In reality, Clark says the Northeast should be focusing on a host of other bugs from Asia that are already here. The spotted lanternfly, for example, is notorious for killing trees. Clark says brown marmorated stink bugs, already a nuisance for their smell, typically feed on fruits and vegetables — as does the spotted wing drosophila, which Clark says is plaguing fruit crops. 

But aside from that, you can hold off stamping “murder hornets” on your apocalypse Bingo card for now. 

“I don’t think it’s going to happen anytime in the next year or two. I think that we have a longer time horizon to prepare for something like that," says Clark. 

Siena College has roughly 3,000 students. Its campus in Loudonville, New York shifted to online classes due to COVID-19. 

Jesse King is the host of WAMC's national program on women's issues, "51%," and the station's bureau chief in the Hudson Valley. She has also produced episodes of the WAMC podcast "A New York Minute In History."
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