Asian Giant Hornets Pt 3

Asian Giant Hornets Pt 3

Bob Larson
Bob Larson
I’m Bob Larson. The Asian Giant Hornet may be on its way to establishing itself in Washington, as the state begins setting traps for them in Whatcom County.

Bayer Entomologist Dick Rogers says the 4 hornets found so far could just be the beginning …

ROGERS … “Well, this time of year the only hornets that could potentially be around queens. So, the numbers will be really, really low. Once the queen establishes a nest and she produces a brood and they start to emerge, that will be late July before you get the first worker hornets.”

So, Rogers says if they’re here, we won’t really see them for a while …

ROGERS … “And, then it will be late summer, early fall before the numbers peak. So, that is when we’re expecting to be able to detect the presence of the hornet, it would be late summer or early fall.”

For now, Rogers says there’s reason for overreaction …

ROGERS … “My neighbor was looking at her flower garden saying, I’m going to pull all these out because its attracting honey bees and the hornets going to come to my yard, so I need to get rid of the flowers to keep the honey bees away. So, that’s an overreaction. And so, that’s the kind of thing we don’t want to create so much hype that people are acting irrationally.”

And besides their impressive size, Rogers says …

ROGERS … “It’s a beautiful insect too, actually, to an entomologist it’s beautiful, ha-ha.”

To learn more, go to the Asian Giant Hornet Watch Facebook page and the Washington State Department of Agriculture website.

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