„Murder Hornet“ wurde aus den USA ausgerottet, sagen Beamte

The hornet was discovered in a corner of Washington State. Five years later, a massive mobilization has eliminated the invasive species, at least for now.

The hunt for the “murder hornet” in the northwest corner of Washington State began like a criminal investigation, with bee carcasses creating a crime scene and the public being asked to send tips about the potential culprit’s whereabouts.

Search grids were created. Traps were set. Soon, state entomologists captured some wayward hornets, affixing tiny tracking devices on the insects to trace them back to lairs. Crews wearing otherworldly protective equipment moved in to eliminate nests with vacuums and carbon dioxide.

Officials believe it all worked. Five years after the invasive hornets were sighted for the first time in Washington State, state and federal agencies announced that they had successfully eradicated the species from that hot spot and the nation.

In total, officials found 4 nests related to the introduction of the hornet in Whatcom County, an area along the Canadian border where farmers cultivate millions of pounds of raspberries and blueberries each year. The state has now gone three years without any new hornet discoveries in that region.

Even as officials celebrated, the state was still investigating another hornet discovery 100 miles away from the original nests. Officials do not believe the new hornet is connected to the previous and had not found any other evidence of the hornet establishing itself, but deployed traps to monitor.

Abridged (shortened) article thread ⬇️ 5 min

[https://bsky.app/profile/johnhatchard.bsky.social/post/3ldsc74rtbs2l](https://bsky.app/profile/johnhatchard.bsky.social/post/3ldsc74rtbs2l)

i bet murder hornets wrote this