By this time last year, the Washington State Department of Agriculture already had destroyed one invasive hornet nest in Whatcom County.
This year?
Nothing — not a single confirmed sighting of the species commonly known as "murder hornets," department spokesperson Karla Salp told The Bellingham Herald in an email Monday, Aug. 29. About the only news so far has been a name change to Northern Giant Hornet announced by the Department of Agriculture in late July.
But does that mean the threat is over and the invasive species has been eradicated from Whatcom County along with their potential threat to area bees throughout the region?
Not even close.
"At this point it is too early to tell much from the lack of detections," Salp wrote. "Based on what we have been catching in the traps, everything seems to be late this year — we're also catching native wasps later than normal.
"Also, remember that last year was a particularly warm year. While we started having more action in August last year, in 2020, we really didn't see much until the end of September."
But Salp said the department has received a number of questions recently, especially after the early start last year.
Last year, a late June heat wave pushed temperatures near and above 100 degrees, which could have triggered an earlier season.
The result was that the first, live Northern Giant Hornet of 2021 was reported Aug. 12. The Department of Agriculture tagged and tracked captured live hornets back to their nest in a rural area just east of Blaine near the U.S.-Canada border, and on Aug. 26, it reported the destruction of the nest.
Two more Northern Giant Hornet nests were located and destroyed in September and a total of 14 live specimens were captured in 2021. All three nests were genetically linked to a nest that was found and destroyed in Whatcom County in 2020, the department reported earlier this year, and all nests have been located within that same two-square mile area.
"We are still in a tightly compact and confined area, which leads us into this season with a bit of optimism that it has not spread to multiple counties and does not appear to be throughout the rest of Whatcom County, which is really good news," Department of Agriculture managing entomologist Sven Spichiger said in a May press briefing.
But this year, the summer heat really didn't arrive in the Pacific Northwest until late July and August.
Despite that, the Department of Agriculture announced earlier in spring that it planned to ramp up efforts for another summer of tracking, studying and eradicating the invasive species and asked for volunteers for its Adopt a Wasp program to help further monitor for the invasive hornets.
In July, Gov. Jay Inslee attended a Department of Agriculture staff field training day to help prepare for the capture and eradication of the hornets.
"It's something you can be impressed about, but also understand their danger to the whole state," Inslee said in a July 12 interview at Birch Bay State Park. "If you like pears, peaches or apples, you want to really make sure (Northern Giant Hornets) don't come here permanently to the state of Washington."
Spot a 'Murder Hornet'?
Washington state residents can report possible sightings of an Asian giant hornet to the state Department of Agriculture online at agr.wa.gov/hornets, via email at hornets@agr.wa.gov, or by calling 1-800-443-6684.
Take a photo or keep a specimen if you can. They're needed for confirmation.
Citizen science trapping instructions also are on the website.
More on the department's Asian giant hornet effort can be found at facebook.com/groups/hornets.
