MURDER hornets in the US are being fitted with trackable radio tags so their nests can be discovered and destroyed.
Authorities have been struggling to tackle the Asian giant hornet issue ever since the deadly creatures were spotted for the first time in the US late last year.
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The first nest of ‘murder hornets’ ever spotted in North America was successfully eradicated last week.
The world’s largest hornet is only normally spotted in parts of Asia and Russia.
On rare occasions they have killed humans with their stings and pose a major threat to bees.
This is why agricultural authorities in Washington State and British Columbia are keen to eliminate their murder hornet populations before they can do any more damage.
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Researchers at Washington State Department of Agriculture (WSDA) decided to use the radio tracking method on the hornets.
This involved catching murder hornets, fitting a tag and then tracking them to their famously elusive nests.
This led them to a tree were they sucked out 85 hornets and caught 13 more in a net.
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According to Science Alert, the team cut into the tree some days later and found two queens, worker hornets, larvae and developing adult hornets.
WSDA Managing Entomologist Sven-Erik Spichiger said at a press conference: “I’m pretty confident as long as we can get live hornets, we can follow them back, and that really gives us a great tool in an overall eradication program.”
Scientists fear the problem of murder hornets could continue for several years and spread to other areas of the US.
This is why this radio tag tracking experiment could be game changing.
What is a murder hornet?
Here’s some facts you should know…
A murder hornet is a massive wasp that kills around 50 people in Asia every year. And now they’re in the US.
The giant hornets, native to temperate and tropical climates in East Asia, are 4cm long.
They can fly faster than 20 miles per hour.
The hornet has orange and black stripes that extend down its body like a tiger, and wings like a dragonfly.
The insects also have a large stinger filled with venom that contains a neurotoxin, which is capable of causing both cardiac arrest and anaphylactic shock.
The bugs have a sting that one victim described as “having red-hot thumbtacks being driven into my flesh.”
Asian giant hornets nest in the ground for most of the year, but are most active between July and November.
They pose a massive threat to bees and will destroy entire hives in hours as they try to get to the honey.
The murder hornet is over two inches long. They are the world’s largest hornets.
The hornet has a body length of 5cm (2 in), a wingspan around 7.5cm (3 in).
The stinger is 6mm (0.24 in) long and injects a large amount of potent venom.
Experts believe that they are sometimes transported in international cargo, in some cases deliberately.
Scientists nab TWO ‘murder hornet’ queens on return trip to clear out hive
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Are you scared of murder hornets? Let us know in the comments…
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This post first appeared on Thesun.co.uk
