Two-inch long ‘murder hornets’ eradicated from US, agriculture department says | US news
Two-inch long ‘murder hornets’ eradicated from US, agriculture department says | US news
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Bu içerikte, dünyanın en büyük yaban arısı türü olan ve tehlikeli sokması ve sadece 90 dakikada bir arı kovanını katledebilme yeteneği nedeniyle “cinayet arısı” olarak adlandırılan istilacı bir tür olan kuzey dev yaban arısının ABD’de yok edildiği duyuruldu. İlk kez 5 yıl önce Washington eyaletinde Kanada sınırına yakın bir yerde görüldükten sonra. Kuzey dev yaban arısının Washington’da 2021’den bu yana tespit edilmediği belirtildi. Yerel halkın özellikle tuzaklar kurarak ve görüntüleri raporlayarak katkıda bulunması, araştırmacıların bir canlı yaban arısı yakalaması ve ona minik bir radyo takip etiketi takmasıyla sağlandı. Ardından ağaçta bir yuva bulundu ve yok edildi. Kuzey dev yaban arıları, tozlayıcılara ve yerli böceklere ciddi tehditler oluşturuyor. Bal arılarını sadece 90 dakikada bir kovanı yok edebilirler, arıları kellelerini alarak öldürür ve ardından yavruyu kendi yavrularını beslemek için alırlar. Washington eyaleti, kuzey dev yaban arılarının doğrulanan raporlarını sadece onaylanan eyalettir. 2020 ve 2021’de dört yuva bulunmuştur. Washington, yok edilmesine rağmen dikkatli olmaya devam edeceğini belirtti.
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The world’s largest hornet, an invasive breed nicknamed the “murder hornet” for its dangerous sting and ability to slaughter a hive of honeybees in as little as 90 minutes, has been declared eradicated in the US, five years after being spotted for the first time in Washington state near the Canadian border.
The Washington and US Departments of Agriculture announced the eradication on Wednesday, saying there had been no detections of the northern giant hornet in Washington since 2021.
The news represented an enormous success and was achieved in part by residents agreeing to place traps on their properties and reporting sightings, as well as researchers capturing a live hornet, attaching a tiny radio tracking tag to it with dental floss, and following it through a forest to a nest in an alder tree. Scientists destroyed the nest just as a number of queens were beginning to emerge, officials said.
“I’ve gotta tell you, as an entomologist I’ve been doing this for over 25 years now, and it is a rare day when the humans actually get to win one against the insects,” Sven Spichiger, pest program manager of the Washington state department of agriculture, told a virtual news conference.
The hornets, which can be 2 inches (5 cm) long and were formerly called Asian giant hornets, gained attention in 2013, when they killed 42 people in China and seriously injured 1,675.
A dead northern giant hornet, bottom, a sample brought in for research, next to a native bald-faced hornet collected in a trap on 7 May 2020, in Blaine, Washington. Photograph: Elaine Thompson/AFP/Getty Images
Northern giant hornets pose significant threats to pollinators and native insects. They can wipe out a honeybee hive in just 90 minutes, decapitating the bees and then defending the hive as their own, taking the brood to feed their own young.
The hornets were first detected in North America in British Columbia, Canada, in August 2019 and confirmed in Washington state in December 2019, when a Whatcom County resident reported a specimen. A beekeeper also reported hives being attacked and turned over specimens in the summer of 2020. The hornets could have traveled to North America in plant pots or shipping containers, experts said.
DNA evidence suggested the populations found in British Columbia and Washington were not related and appeared to originate from different countries. There also have been no confirmed reports in British Columbia since 2021, and the nonprofit Invasive Species Centre in Canada has said the hornet is also considered eradicated there.
Sven Spichiger, Washington state department of Agriculture managing entomologist, displays a canister of Northern giant hornets vacuumed from a nest in a tree behind him on 24 October 2020, in Blaine, Washington. Photograph: Elaine Thompson/AFP/Getty Images
The hornet can sting through most beekeeper suits, deliver nearly seven times the amount of venom as a honeybee, and sting multiple times. At one point the Washington agriculture department ordered special reinforced suits from China.
Washington is the only state that has had confirmed reports of northern giant hornets. Trappers found four nests in 2020 and 2021.
Spichiger said Washington will remain on the lookout, despite reporting the eradication. He noted that entomologists will continue to monitor traps in Kitsap County, where a resident reported an unconfirmed sighting in October but where trapping efforts and public outreach have come up empty.
“We will continue to be vigilant,” Spichiger said.
Two-inch long ‘murder hornets’ eradicated from US, agriculture department says | US news
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