WSDA finds two Asian giant hornet queens in chopped tree

Four days following the eradication of the first Asian giant hornet nest on October 24, Washington State Department of Agriculture officials cut down the alder tree containing the nest and discovered two live queen hornets.

The queens are thought to be either two virgin queens or one virgin queen and one old queen, said Karla Salp, WSDA public engagement specialist, in a video statement.

The hornets mate and produce offspring at the end of October that will create their own colonies for next year.

Scientists transported the tree cavity to a Washington State University lab in Puyallup on October 29. They kept the log wrapped in cellophane and placed it in a walk-in cooler to keep any potentially live hornets dormant, similar to how nearly freezing temperatures kept the hornets docile during the early morning eradication of the nest.

Entomologists filled the log with carbon dioxide before splitting it in half. Once split, the log revealed live hornets, both workers and new queens, according to a WSDA blog post that detailed the nest removal and opening. They also found larvae and developing adults, along with the seemingly chewed radio tag used to locate the nest.

More information will be available after WSDA finishes analyzing the nest this week, Salp said.

“The entomologists are going to be examining and analyzing all of the contents that were inside the tree,” she said. “They will be weighing and measuring the adults that had emerged, they’ll be measuring the different size cells of the comb to determine, hopefully, how many queens had been produced in the nest, as well as counting how many queens we located in the nest and that may give us some sort of idea about whether some queens had already left the nest or not.”

During eradication, the scientists vacuumed up 85 hornets and WSDA entomologist Chris Looney captured 13 the day before the eradication.

The first Asian giant hornet nest was found in the U.S. October 22 after scientists tracked a hornet back to the east Blaine nest using new, long-range radio tags from USDA.

WSDA suspects there is a Birch Bay nest after sightings near the area earlier this summer, and possibly nests in Custer, where a dead male was found in late July, and within the city of Blaine, where a hornet was trapped early October.

Citizen trappers in Whatcom County can keep their homemade traps up until Thanksgiving but shouldn’t report their findings unless they find an Asian giant hornet, WSDA said.

An Asian giant hornet was found in Abbotsford, B.C., on November 2. Canadian authorities last trapped a hornet October 9 on 0 Avenue in Langley, B.C., following months without trapping any hornets.

To report Asian giant hornet sightings, visit bit.ly/34akL4H. People without internet can also call the hotline, 800/443-6684 but this will take longer for WSDA staff to respond due to a heavy call volume. Beekeepers with hives under attack are urged to call the emergency line, 360/902-1880. For more information, visit agr.wa.gov/hornets.